Senior Team USA men and women win team gold medals at 2025 IBF World Seniors Championships
October 21, 2025
Members of Senior Team USA don their gold medals after winning their respective team events at the 2025 IBF World Seniors Championships in Reno, Nevada, on Monday night. Team members are as follows (from left to right): Dana Ausec, Chris Barnes, Lynda Barnes, Parker Bohn III, Rina Sabo, Tom Hess, Jodi Woessner and John Janawicz.
FULL RESULTS
RENO, Nev. – Senior Team USA bowlers won gold medals in the Senior Men’s Team and Senior Women’s Team events at the 2025 International Bowling Federation World Seniors Championships in Reno, Nevada, on Monday night.
That meant that at night’s end, both American squads got to stand on the top step of the podium, both got to listen to the Star-Spangled Banner play inside the National Bowling Stadium and both walked away with the same color medals hanging around their necks.
But despite ending up in the same place, the paths the two groups took to get there were considerably different.
The Senior Team USA men’s foursome of Chris Barnes of Denton, Texas; Parker Bohn III of Jackson, New Jersey; Tom Hess of Granger, Iowa; and John Janawicz of Winter Haven, Florida, enjoyed a relatively smooth journey, leading the 35-team Senior Men’s Team field by more than 225 pins after six games of qualifying and then promptly sweeping both Belgium and the Netherlands 2-0 during best-of-three Baker matches in the semifinals and finals to secure gold.
On the other hand, the American women’s quartet of Dana Ausec of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Lynda Barnes of Denton, Texas; Rina Sabo of Bennett, Colorado; and Jodi Woessner of Oregon, Ohio, took a slightly more exciting route.
Like their male counterparts, the Senior Team USA women qualified first, but they didn’t reach the top spot in the 27-team Senior Women’s Team standings until Game 5 of qualifying, and their final leading margin was only 10 pins.
Nevertheless, when the semifinals got underway, it looked as if the Senior Team USA women would dominate.
Woessner, Barnes, Ausec and Sabo all struck on their first shots during Game 1 of their best-of-three Baker match against No. 4 seed Germany.
A 4-pin from Woessner stopped the string in the fifth frame, but strikes from Barnes and Ausec in the sixth and seventh kept the Americans in the driver’s seat.
The Germans, meanwhile, struggled mightily, opening six times in the first nine frames en route to a 136 finish.
The Senior Team USA ladies, on the other hand, stayed clean and posted a score of 236 to collect a 100-pin victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.
At that point, it looked as if the Americans would breeze past the Germans and punch their ticket to the gold-medal match.
But the Germans had other ideas.
Both teams started the second game with doubles, but an open from the Americans in the third frame and a closing German four-bagger allowed Germany to collect a 220-206 Game 2 victory and square the match 1-1.
Team USA held a three-pin lead at the midway point of the deciding game, but after the Americans chopped a spare in the seventh frame, they suddenly found themselves trailing Germany by six pins with just three frames remaining.
Sabo and Woessner produced strikes in the eighth and ninth to put their team back in the lead, but after Barnes left a 10-pin on her first ball in the 10th frame, Germany suddenly controlled its own destiny.
If their anchor bowler could strike on her first ball in the 10th frame, the Germans would finish no worse than the high 180s, which would be enough to eliminate the Americans, who had already finished with 181.
All Ausec, Barnes, Sabo and Woessner could do was watch as the left-handed German anchor bowler’s first delivery in the final frame made its way toward the 1-2 pocket.
The shot was a good one, hitting the pocket light and generating good pin action; nevertheless, when all was said and done, the 10-pin refused to go down, and that allowed the Americans to escape with a 181-167 victory and a berth in the gold-medal match.
There, Senior Team USA would face Australia, which punched its ticket to the Senior Women’s Team finals thanks to a 2-0 (182-159; 174-172) sweep of Canada in the other semifinal.
The Yankees and Aussies traded the first two games of the final match with the Americans taking advantage of a pocket 7-10 split and a missed single-pin spare to win Game 1, 186-179, before suffering two open frames of their own during a 225-175 Australian win in Game 2.
After Woessner started Game 3 with a spare, Barnes, Ausec and Sabo promptly produced strikes in frames two, three and four to propel Team USA to a 35-pin lead after five frames.
Barnes and her Australian counterpart both struck in the sixth frame, but the Australians added another strike in the seventh, which is when the Americans suffered an open frame due to a failed 3-10 split conversion.
Suddenly, the Team USA lead was down to just three pins with three frames remaining.
Sabo and Woessner threw strikes in the eighth and ninth frames, respectively, but so did their Aussie opponents.
The Australian anchor bowler was first to step up for the 10th frame, and after she delivered a solid strike on her first shot, the Americans suddenly found themselves on the brink of elimination for the second time in less than an hour.
If Barnes failed to match with a strike of her own during her first shot in the final frame, Australia would win.
But Barnes didn’t fail; instead, she delivered a no-doubt pocket strike, keeping the American lead intact.
Still, the Americans weren’t out of the woods yet. If the Australian anchor threw another strike, it would set up the same scenario, forcing Barnes to match in order to stave off defeat.
The Aussie anchor stepped up and delivered another solid pocket shot, but this one couldn’t shake the 10-pin.
With the pressure off, Barnes pelted the 1-3 pocket yet again. Her shot left the 10-pin standing as well, but it was of no consequence as she had helped Team USA secure a thrilling 226-222 victory and the Senior Women’s Team gold medal.
After the match, Barnes was quick to point out that even though she was the one with the ball in her hand during the final frame, the moment wasn’t hers alone.
“When you have four teammates and your coaches looking you in the eye and saying ‘you’ve got this; go do it,’ it means the world,” Barnes said. “I didn’t throw that shot; we threw that shot.
“There was actually a key moment there where I was talking about changing balls and trying something else, but I talked to my teammates, and we all made the executive decision that I would just dig in, stay with the ball and make a little move. The belief and inspiration we give each other means that you throw every shot together, good and bad.”
Woessner, too, acknowledged the role of belief and support in her squad’s victory.
“We just really had each other’s back no matter what,” Woessner said. “When it counted, we all got together and did what we needed to do and got it done. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done as a team, and it’s an incredible feeling.”
The feeling was especially sweet for Sabo, who is making her Senior Team USA debut this week in Reno.
“This feels amazing,” Sabo said. “You feel all these emotions all at once. You do your best to keep them behind when you’re on the approach so that you can make the best shots you can, but once it’s over, they all come out. We had to work hard to come away with gold; this was well earned today.”
Ausec has had to work hard from the very beginning of this year’s tournament as she has had difficulty finding consistent ball reaction on the challenging 42-foot IBF World Seniors Championships oil pattern.
Nevertheless, despite her individual struggles, Ausec was dialed in and ready to do whatever she could to help her team make it past the finish line with team gold around their necks on Monday.
“Obviously, it’s no secret that it’s been a pretty rough week for me individually, but I am always about the team,” Ausec said. “I’m so thankful for my teammates because they made me feel like I was amazing even when I wasn’t. I was here for it today and ready to give everything I could, and thankfully I was able to give some good shots today.”
The Senior Team USA men delivered plenty of good shots of their own during their four-game charge to the Senior Men’s Team title, striking 33 times in 46 opportunities.
Bohn, Hess, Janawicz and Chris Barnes began the evening with a nine-strike performance during a 234-202 Game 1 win over Belgium.
The Americans followed that up with an eight-strike effort that includied an opening six-bagger during a 235-182 win in Game 2.
The pace didn’t slow during the gold medal match either as the foursome struck eight times per game during that affair as well, which propelled the group to another pair of victories – 229-190 and 217-191 – and the top of the mountain in Senior Men’s Team competition.
According to Bohn, it’s a feeling that’s second to none.
“It’s truly an honor to sit here right now with three of my good friends on tour, fellow bowlers and, most importantly, fellow Team USA members,” Bohn said. “We’re walking away with gold, and there’s nothing better than that.”
Hess fought to choke back emotion as he emphatically agreed.
“For me, this was the one I wanted,” Hess said, referring to the Senior Men’s Team gold medal. “The National Bowling Stadium has meant so much to my career, so to stand on that podium with these three guys, that’s what I came here for. We got it done.”
Janawicz and Barnes also discussed how special it was to win as part of a team as opposed to competing individually like they typically do week in and week out in the professional ranks.
“Over the course of the last couple of years, I’ve gotten used to competing against these guys,” Janawicz said. “I have to admit it’s way more fun bowling and working with them. This is one of the only avenues we have to do this, so it’s a real joy to be able to spend time, communicate, bowl and have fun with three of my long-time friends like this. I’m honored and grateful to be part of the program.”
Barnes continued along those same lines.
“Short of collegiate bowling, this is one of the few times we have guys to share victories and occasionally defeats with,” Barnes said. “Some of my best memories in bowling, period, are way more team involved than individually involved. This program has meant a ton to my family, and a day like today adds to the pile of memories that Team USA has created. I’m just happy to be a small part of that and what it stands for.”
The possibility of making more memories at this year’s World Senior Championships still exists as there are still two days of competition remaining at this year’s tournament.
Tuesday will start with the first two steps of Masters competition, which will feature best-of-three head-to-head singles matches involving the top 24 bowlers from each division’s final All-Events standings, and will end with the All-Events medal ceremonies.
Chris Barnes, Bohn, Hess and Janawicz will be part of the Senior Men’s Masters competition while Lynda Barnes, Sabo and Woessner will participate in the Senior Women’s Masters event.
Step 1 of Senior Men’s Masters play will start the day’s action off at 10 a.m. Pacific with Senior Women’s Masters Step 1 following at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Two rounds of Masters play will take place on Tuesday with the remainder of the event scheduled for Wednesday, which will be the final day of competition at this year’s tournament.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.
FULL RESULTS
RENO, Nev. – Senior Team USA bowlers won gold medals in the Senior Men’s Team and Senior Women’s Team events at the 2025 International Bowling Federation World Seniors Championships in Reno, Nevada, on Monday night.
That meant that at night’s end, both American squads got to stand on the top step of the podium, both got to listen to the Star-Spangled Banner play inside the National Bowling Stadium and both walked away with the same color medals hanging around their necks.
But despite ending up in the same place, the paths the two groups took to get there were considerably different.
The Senior Team USA men’s foursome of Chris Barnes of Denton, Texas; Parker Bohn III of Jackson, New Jersey; Tom Hess of Granger, Iowa; and John Janawicz of Winter Haven, Florida, enjoyed a relatively smooth journey, leading the 35-team Senior Men’s Team field by more than 225 pins after six games of qualifying and then promptly sweeping both Belgium and the Netherlands 2-0 during best-of-three Baker matches in the semifinals and finals to secure gold.
On the other hand, the American women’s quartet of Dana Ausec of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Lynda Barnes of Denton, Texas; Rina Sabo of Bennett, Colorado; and Jodi Woessner of Oregon, Ohio, took a slightly more exciting route.
Like their male counterparts, the Senior Team USA women qualified first, but they didn’t reach the top spot in the 27-team Senior Women’s Team standings until Game 5 of qualifying, and their final leading margin was only 10 pins.
Nevertheless, when the semifinals got underway, it looked as if the Senior Team USA women would dominate.
Woessner, Barnes, Ausec and Sabo all struck on their first shots during Game 1 of their best-of-three Baker match against No. 4 seed Germany.
A 4-pin from Woessner stopped the string in the fifth frame, but strikes from Barnes and Ausec in the sixth and seventh kept the Americans in the driver’s seat.
The Germans, meanwhile, struggled mightily, opening six times in the first nine frames en route to a 136 finish.
The Senior Team USA ladies, on the other hand, stayed clean and posted a score of 236 to collect a 100-pin victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.
At that point, it looked as if the Americans would breeze past the Germans and punch their ticket to the gold-medal match.
But the Germans had other ideas.
Both teams started the second game with doubles, but an open from the Americans in the third frame and a closing German four-bagger allowed Germany to collect a 220-206 Game 2 victory and square the match 1-1.
Team USA held a three-pin lead at the midway point of the deciding game, but after the Americans chopped a spare in the seventh frame, they suddenly found themselves trailing Germany by six pins with just three frames remaining.
Sabo and Woessner produced strikes in the eighth and ninth to put their team back in the lead, but after Barnes left a 10-pin on her first ball in the 10th frame, Germany suddenly controlled its own destiny.
If their anchor bowler could strike on her first ball in the 10th frame, the Germans would finish no worse than the high 180s, which would be enough to eliminate the Americans, who had already finished with 181.
All Ausec, Barnes, Sabo and Woessner could do was watch as the left-handed German anchor bowler’s first delivery in the final frame made its way toward the 1-2 pocket.
The shot was a good one, hitting the pocket light and generating good pin action; nevertheless, when all was said and done, the 10-pin refused to go down, and that allowed the Americans to escape with a 181-167 victory and a berth in the gold-medal match.
There, Senior Team USA would face Australia, which punched its ticket to the Senior Women’s Team finals thanks to a 2-0 (182-159; 174-172) sweep of Canada in the other semifinal.
The Yankees and Aussies traded the first two games of the final match with the Americans taking advantage of a pocket 7-10 split and a missed single-pin spare to win Game 1, 186-179, before suffering two open frames of their own during a 225-175 Australian win in Game 2.
After Woessner started Game 3 with a spare, Barnes, Ausec and Sabo promptly produced strikes in frames two, three and four to propel Team USA to a 35-pin lead after five frames.
Barnes and her Australian counterpart both struck in the sixth frame, but the Australians added another strike in the seventh, which is when the Americans suffered an open frame due to a failed 3-10 split conversion.
Suddenly, the Team USA lead was down to just three pins with three frames remaining.
Sabo and Woessner threw strikes in the eighth and ninth frames, respectively, but so did their Aussie opponents.
The Australian anchor bowler was first to step up for the 10th frame, and after she delivered a solid strike on her first shot, the Americans suddenly found themselves on the brink of elimination for the second time in less than an hour.
If Barnes failed to match with a strike of her own during her first shot in the final frame, Australia would win.
But Barnes didn’t fail; instead, she delivered a no-doubt pocket strike, keeping the American lead intact.
Still, the Americans weren’t out of the woods yet. If the Australian anchor threw another strike, it would set up the same scenario, forcing Barnes to match in order to stave off defeat.
The Aussie anchor stepped up and delivered another solid pocket shot, but this one couldn’t shake the 10-pin.
With the pressure off, Barnes pelted the 1-3 pocket yet again. Her shot left the 10-pin standing as well, but it was of no consequence as she had helped Team USA secure a thrilling 226-222 victory and the Senior Women’s Team gold medal.
After the match, Barnes was quick to point out that even though she was the one with the ball in her hand during the final frame, the moment wasn’t hers alone.
“When you have four teammates and your coaches looking you in the eye and saying ‘you’ve got this; go do it,’ it means the world,” Barnes said. “I didn’t throw that shot; we threw that shot.
“There was actually a key moment there where I was talking about changing balls and trying something else, but I talked to my teammates, and we all made the executive decision that I would just dig in, stay with the ball and make a little move. The belief and inspiration we give each other means that you throw every shot together, good and bad.”
Woessner, too, acknowledged the role of belief and support in her squad’s victory.
“We just really had each other’s back no matter what,” Woessner said. “When it counted, we all got together and did what we needed to do and got it done. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done as a team, and it’s an incredible feeling.”
The feeling was especially sweet for Sabo, who is making her Senior Team USA debut this week in Reno.
“This feels amazing,” Sabo said. “You feel all these emotions all at once. You do your best to keep them behind when you’re on the approach so that you can make the best shots you can, but once it’s over, they all come out. We had to work hard to come away with gold; this was well earned today.”
Ausec has had to work hard from the very beginning of this year’s tournament as she has had difficulty finding consistent ball reaction on the challenging 42-foot IBF World Seniors Championships oil pattern.
Nevertheless, despite her individual struggles, Ausec was dialed in and ready to do whatever she could to help her team make it past the finish line with team gold around their necks on Monday.
“Obviously, it’s no secret that it’s been a pretty rough week for me individually, but I am always about the team,” Ausec said. “I’m so thankful for my teammates because they made me feel like I was amazing even when I wasn’t. I was here for it today and ready to give everything I could, and thankfully I was able to give some good shots today.”
The Senior Team USA men delivered plenty of good shots of their own during their four-game charge to the Senior Men’s Team title, striking 33 times in 46 opportunities.
Bohn, Hess, Janawicz and Chris Barnes began the evening with a nine-strike performance during a 234-202 Game 1 win over Belgium.
The Americans followed that up with an eight-strike effort that includied an opening six-bagger during a 235-182 win in Game 2.
The pace didn’t slow during the gold medal match either as the foursome struck eight times per game during that affair as well, which propelled the group to another pair of victories – 229-190 and 217-191 – and the top of the mountain in Senior Men’s Team competition.
According to Bohn, it’s a feeling that’s second to none.
“It’s truly an honor to sit here right now with three of my good friends on tour, fellow bowlers and, most importantly, fellow Team USA members,” Bohn said. “We’re walking away with gold, and there’s nothing better than that.”
Hess fought to choke back emotion as he emphatically agreed.
“For me, this was the one I wanted,” Hess said, referring to the Senior Men’s Team gold medal. “The National Bowling Stadium has meant so much to my career, so to stand on that podium with these three guys, that’s what I came here for. We got it done.”
Janawicz and Barnes also discussed how special it was to win as part of a team as opposed to competing individually like they typically do week in and week out in the professional ranks.
“Over the course of the last couple of years, I’ve gotten used to competing against these guys,” Janawicz said. “I have to admit it’s way more fun bowling and working with them. This is one of the only avenues we have to do this, so it’s a real joy to be able to spend time, communicate, bowl and have fun with three of my long-time friends like this. I’m honored and grateful to be part of the program.”
Barnes continued along those same lines.
“Short of collegiate bowling, this is one of the few times we have guys to share victories and occasionally defeats with,” Barnes said. “Some of my best memories in bowling, period, are way more team involved than individually involved. This program has meant a ton to my family, and a day like today adds to the pile of memories that Team USA has created. I’m just happy to be a small part of that and what it stands for.”
The possibility of making more memories at this year’s World Senior Championships still exists as there are still two days of competition remaining at this year’s tournament.
Tuesday will start with the first two steps of Masters competition, which will feature best-of-three head-to-head singles matches involving the top 24 bowlers from each division’s final All-Events standings, and will end with the All-Events medal ceremonies.
Chris Barnes, Bohn, Hess and Janawicz will be part of the Senior Men’s Masters competition while Lynda Barnes, Sabo and Woessner will participate in the Senior Women’s Masters event.
Step 1 of Senior Men’s Masters play will start the day’s action off at 10 a.m. Pacific with Senior Women’s Masters Step 1 following at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Two rounds of Masters play will take place on Tuesday with the remainder of the event scheduled for Wednesday, which will be the final day of competition at this year’s tournament.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.