Stepladder finalists determined at inaugural USBC U22 Masters and Queens in Detroit
May 27, 2024
(From left to right; Brandon Bohn, Bryce Oliver and Dale Horstmann)
FULL STANDINGS
DETROIT – The inaugural editions of the United States Bowling Congress U22 Masters and U22 Queens got underway on Friday at Super Bowl in Canton and Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park with respective fields of 151 and 76 bowlers.
Now, after three days and dozens of games, each of those tournaments is down to its final three competitors as the stepladder finalists for each event were determined after bracket match play concluded at both bowling centers on Sunday night.
Bryce Oliver of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Dale Horstmann of Yorkville, Illinois, and Brandon Bohn of Jackson, New Jersey, secured seeds No. 1-3, respectively in U22 Masters action, while Morgan LiCausi of Crest Hill, Illinois; Hope Bunk of Billings, Montana; and Dannielle Henderson of Jacksonville, Alabama, punched their tickets to the stepladder finals in U22 Queens action.
The finals for both the U22 Masters and U22 Queens will conclude at Strobl Arena at Thunderbowl Lanes on Monday at noon Eastern as the finalists vie for each tournament’s $3,000 top prize and the honor of becoming the first champions in event history.
Oliver certainly seems to be as good a bet as any to claim those spoils at the U22 Masters.
The talented left-hander ran roughshod through the U22 Masters bracket on Sunday, living up to his billing as the No. 1 seed for match play by posting a 5-0 record and averaging just over 225 during wins over Jarin Kurashinge of Mililani, Hawaii (490-451), Luke Winter of Appleton, Wisconsin (455-416), Connor Pula of Evergreen Park, Illinois (450-431), Bohn (439-384) and Horstmann (420-333).
Horstmann’s path was nearly as smooth as he started his day 4-0 with wins over Kyle Muth of Milwaukee (449-371), Alexander Horton of Douglassville, Pennsylvania (408-365), Zachary Smullen of Frisco, Texas (408-407) and Jeremy Kinealy of St. Louis (386-293) before falling to Oliver in the battle for the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals.
Bohn started Sunday 3-0 thanks to wins over Brandon Handog of Staten Island, New York (481-345), Joshua Maslanich of North Royalton, Ohio (473-357), and Braden Mallasch of Waupaca, Wisconsin (460-422), but the Round 4 setback to Oliver moved the powerful left-hander to the brink of elimination.
Undaunted, Bohn refocused and set his sights on becoming the Elimination Bracket’s lone survivor, and he did just that, scoring a one-pin victory over Robert Vater of Iola, Wisconsin (418-417), in Round 6 and then cruising past Kurashige, 491-392, during Round 7 to complete the rally and earn his place in the U22 Masters stepladder finals.
Monday’s first match will pit Bohn against Horstmann with the winner earning the right to battle Oliver for the title. Because Oliver enters the stepladder as the lone undefeated player, Bohn or Horstmann will have to defeat him twice in order to deny Oliver the U22 Masters title.
The significance of that advantage isn’t lost on Oliver.
“Having to be beaten twice is definitely an advantage because if my gameplan isn’t working and I’m not seeing the lanes correctly, we can change on the fly because I’ll have another whole game to go get the title,” Oliver said.
Oliver didn’t take long to respond when asked how it would feel to walk away with that title.
“It would really be an honor to win this tournament,” Oliver said. “I’m really grateful that USBC gave me, as an older collegiate bowler, the opportunity to bowl an event like this. It’s like Junior Gold and the Masters but in a shorter format, and I love that. If I get a chance to hoist that trophy tomorrow, it will really be an honor.”
Horstmann expressed similar sentiments when pondering how he would feel to be the last man standing.
“Winning the U22 Masters would mean the world to me,” Horstmann said. “I made the dedication to put all of my focus into bowling after my senior year of high school, so to have a big win like this just a couple of years later would be amazing, unreal.”
Horstmann knows it won’t be easy to pull off as he’ll have to get through a very accomplished bowler in Bohn to even earn the right to battle Oliver for the crown.
“To be successful tomorrow, I’m going to have to stay ahead of transition, make the right moves and physically throw the ball well like I have been,” Horstmann said. “That’s pretty much been the theme all week.”
Shortly after securing his spot in Monday’s semifinal match against Horstmann, Bohn also spoke of the importance of sticking with a familiar theme; that’s because he thinks that straying from it is partly what led to his Round 4 loss to Oliver.
“I really wasn’t myself during the match with Bryce (Oliver),” Bohn said. “Considering we’re both left-handed, I tried to get out of my comfort zone a bit more, and I think that’s what ultimately hurt me.”
Despite the setback, Bohn was able to recover and keep his title hopes alive. Now, he sits just one win away from earning a rematch with Oliver with the U22 Masters crown hanging in the balance.
Although Bohn and Oliver are close – the two even went to lunch together before their Winners Bracket match on Sunday – Bohn won’t be pulling any punches should he get another crack at his fellow left-hander.
“I love Bryce (Oliver); he’s like a brother to me, but tomorrow we’re not friends,” Bohn said. “It would be surreal to become the first ever U22 Masters champion, and it would cap off a great weekend.”
But before Oliver, Bohn and Horstmann get their chance, the three U22 Queens finalists will hit the lanes to try to complete a pretty outstanding weekend of their own.
(From left to right; Morgan LiCausi, Hope Bunk and Dannielle Henderson)
LiCausi, a left-hander who recently completed her freshman season bowling collegiately at Stephen F. Austin State University, was remarkably consistent en route to earning the No. 1 seed for the U22 Queens stepladder finals.
LiCausi, who entered match play as the No. 17 seed, started her run with a 449-326 win over Madison Phillips of Springfield, Missouri. Her next match came against No. 1 seed Henderson, and it turned out to be a confidence booster for LiCausi as she took down the powerful two-hander, 452-426.
“It felt amazing to beat her because she’s such an outstanding bowler,” LiCausi said. “I tried to keep my cool the whole time and not freak out and not get myself worked up too much. Beating her was a big confidence boost. She was the No. 1 seed and bowled amazing the previous two days, so it was kind of a ‘Hey, I can do this’ moment.”
From there, LiCausi posted winning scores of 458 and 464, which put her in the final match against the only other remaining undefeated player in the field – Hope Bunk of Billings, Montana. The match came down to the final frame as Bunk needed to double in the 10th frame to win, but after striking on her first shot in the 10th, she only got seven pins on her second, which allowed LiCausi to prevail, 389-383.
As the No. 1 seed and the only remaining undefeated player in the double-elimination format, LiCausi will have to be beaten twice for someone else to claim the U22 Queens title.
LiCausi noted that a win in this event would rank as the “best thing I’ve ever done individually in the sport,” and a spot on Junior Team USA, which goes to the tournament champion provided she is age-eligible, would mean a lot to her as well.
“Making that team would be awesome,” LiCausi said. “I know quite a few people that are on the team or have been on the team, and they’re all super talented. Bowling with those girls would be absolutely amazing, and the experience itself would be tremendous.”
Bunk’s road to the stepladder finals was that of the underdog. She entered match play as the No. 18 seed and would not bowl a single match where she was the higher seed all day. After a comfortable win in her first match, her next three were all decided by 21 pins or less.
First came a 415-394 win over No. 2 seed Morgan Brunner of Gobles, Michigan. That was followed by a 393-382 victory over No. 7 seed Carly Zuklin of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A 378-359 win over No. 3 seed Brooke Salzman of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, set up the clash against LiCausi for the top seed.
Bunk, who just completed her sophomore season at Youngstown State University but has recently entered the transfer portal, credited the proper mindset for her run of close wins.
“I didn’t let any shot affect my attitude,” Bunk said. “If I don’t have a good attitude, I just don’t do well, so today, if I left something that was bad, I picked it up and just went on to the next shot. That’s how I went though the day; I just tried to stay positive, and I think that was key for me.”
Bunk will need to carry that positive attitude forward to Monday as she takes on Henderson in the opening match of the stepladder finals.
Unlike the other two finalists who came through the Winner’s Bracket, Henderson’s loss to LiCausi dropped her into the Elimination Bracket early on. It would be a grind, one that would see her bowl a total of eight matches, but Henderson was able to persevere.
Remarkably, other than her loss to LiCausi, none of her matches were all that close as she posted scores of 444, 426 (in her loss), 485, 442 and 424 over her first five matches. Henderson then flipped a switch and posted scores of 524 and 510 to get to the match for the No. 3 seed against Payton Hartgrove of Columbus, Ohio.
Henderson, who bowls collegiately at Jacksonville State University, defeated Hartgrove rather comfortably, 451-398, to claim the final spot in the stepladder, where she will look to defeat Bunk and gain a rematch with LiCausi.
“That was extremely exhausting, both mentally and physically,” Henderson said. “Losing that match early on, I just had to take that with a grain of salt. I’m learning to take the good with the bad and to be patient in those bad moments. It’s all about believing in myself, in my process, in my execution, all of that.”
Along with the three U22 Masters qualifiers, LiCausi, Bunk and Henderson will move to the Strobl Arena at Thunderbowl Lanes for the stepladder finals live on BowlTV beginning at noon Eastern on Monday.
All rounds of competition at the U22 Masters and U22 Queens were streamed live exclusively on BowlTV as will be the stepladder finals.
For more information on the 2024 U22 Masters and Queens, visit BOWL.com/U22.
FULL STANDINGS
DETROIT – The inaugural editions of the United States Bowling Congress U22 Masters and U22 Queens got underway on Friday at Super Bowl in Canton and Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park with respective fields of 151 and 76 bowlers.
Now, after three days and dozens of games, each of those tournaments is down to its final three competitors as the stepladder finalists for each event were determined after bracket match play concluded at both bowling centers on Sunday night.
Bryce Oliver of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Dale Horstmann of Yorkville, Illinois, and Brandon Bohn of Jackson, New Jersey, secured seeds No. 1-3, respectively in U22 Masters action, while Morgan LiCausi of Crest Hill, Illinois; Hope Bunk of Billings, Montana; and Dannielle Henderson of Jacksonville, Alabama, punched their tickets to the stepladder finals in U22 Queens action.
The finals for both the U22 Masters and U22 Queens will conclude at Strobl Arena at Thunderbowl Lanes on Monday at noon Eastern as the finalists vie for each tournament’s $3,000 top prize and the honor of becoming the first champions in event history.
Oliver certainly seems to be as good a bet as any to claim those spoils at the U22 Masters.
The talented left-hander ran roughshod through the U22 Masters bracket on Sunday, living up to his billing as the No. 1 seed for match play by posting a 5-0 record and averaging just over 225 during wins over Jarin Kurashinge of Mililani, Hawaii (490-451), Luke Winter of Appleton, Wisconsin (455-416), Connor Pula of Evergreen Park, Illinois (450-431), Bohn (439-384) and Horstmann (420-333).
Horstmann’s path was nearly as smooth as he started his day 4-0 with wins over Kyle Muth of Milwaukee (449-371), Alexander Horton of Douglassville, Pennsylvania (408-365), Zachary Smullen of Frisco, Texas (408-407) and Jeremy Kinealy of St. Louis (386-293) before falling to Oliver in the battle for the No. 1 seed for the stepladder finals.
Bohn started Sunday 3-0 thanks to wins over Brandon Handog of Staten Island, New York (481-345), Joshua Maslanich of North Royalton, Ohio (473-357), and Braden Mallasch of Waupaca, Wisconsin (460-422), but the Round 4 setback to Oliver moved the powerful left-hander to the brink of elimination.
Undaunted, Bohn refocused and set his sights on becoming the Elimination Bracket’s lone survivor, and he did just that, scoring a one-pin victory over Robert Vater of Iola, Wisconsin (418-417), in Round 6 and then cruising past Kurashige, 491-392, during Round 7 to complete the rally and earn his place in the U22 Masters stepladder finals.
Monday’s first match will pit Bohn against Horstmann with the winner earning the right to battle Oliver for the title. Because Oliver enters the stepladder as the lone undefeated player, Bohn or Horstmann will have to defeat him twice in order to deny Oliver the U22 Masters title.
The significance of that advantage isn’t lost on Oliver.
“Having to be beaten twice is definitely an advantage because if my gameplan isn’t working and I’m not seeing the lanes correctly, we can change on the fly because I’ll have another whole game to go get the title,” Oliver said.
Oliver didn’t take long to respond when asked how it would feel to walk away with that title.
“It would really be an honor to win this tournament,” Oliver said. “I’m really grateful that USBC gave me, as an older collegiate bowler, the opportunity to bowl an event like this. It’s like Junior Gold and the Masters but in a shorter format, and I love that. If I get a chance to hoist that trophy tomorrow, it will really be an honor.”
Horstmann expressed similar sentiments when pondering how he would feel to be the last man standing.
“Winning the U22 Masters would mean the world to me,” Horstmann said. “I made the dedication to put all of my focus into bowling after my senior year of high school, so to have a big win like this just a couple of years later would be amazing, unreal.”
Horstmann knows it won’t be easy to pull off as he’ll have to get through a very accomplished bowler in Bohn to even earn the right to battle Oliver for the crown.
“To be successful tomorrow, I’m going to have to stay ahead of transition, make the right moves and physically throw the ball well like I have been,” Horstmann said. “That’s pretty much been the theme all week.”
Shortly after securing his spot in Monday’s semifinal match against Horstmann, Bohn also spoke of the importance of sticking with a familiar theme; that’s because he thinks that straying from it is partly what led to his Round 4 loss to Oliver.
“I really wasn’t myself during the match with Bryce (Oliver),” Bohn said. “Considering we’re both left-handed, I tried to get out of my comfort zone a bit more, and I think that’s what ultimately hurt me.”
Despite the setback, Bohn was able to recover and keep his title hopes alive. Now, he sits just one win away from earning a rematch with Oliver with the U22 Masters crown hanging in the balance.
Although Bohn and Oliver are close – the two even went to lunch together before their Winners Bracket match on Sunday – Bohn won’t be pulling any punches should he get another crack at his fellow left-hander.
“I love Bryce (Oliver); he’s like a brother to me, but tomorrow we’re not friends,” Bohn said. “It would be surreal to become the first ever U22 Masters champion, and it would cap off a great weekend.”
But before Oliver, Bohn and Horstmann get their chance, the three U22 Queens finalists will hit the lanes to try to complete a pretty outstanding weekend of their own.
(From left to right; Morgan LiCausi, Hope Bunk and Dannielle Henderson)
LiCausi, a left-hander who recently completed her freshman season bowling collegiately at Stephen F. Austin State University, was remarkably consistent en route to earning the No. 1 seed for the U22 Queens stepladder finals.
LiCausi, who entered match play as the No. 17 seed, started her run with a 449-326 win over Madison Phillips of Springfield, Missouri. Her next match came against No. 1 seed Henderson, and it turned out to be a confidence booster for LiCausi as she took down the powerful two-hander, 452-426.
“It felt amazing to beat her because she’s such an outstanding bowler,” LiCausi said. “I tried to keep my cool the whole time and not freak out and not get myself worked up too much. Beating her was a big confidence boost. She was the No. 1 seed and bowled amazing the previous two days, so it was kind of a ‘Hey, I can do this’ moment.”
From there, LiCausi posted winning scores of 458 and 464, which put her in the final match against the only other remaining undefeated player in the field – Hope Bunk of Billings, Montana. The match came down to the final frame as Bunk needed to double in the 10th frame to win, but after striking on her first shot in the 10th, she only got seven pins on her second, which allowed LiCausi to prevail, 389-383.
As the No. 1 seed and the only remaining undefeated player in the double-elimination format, LiCausi will have to be beaten twice for someone else to claim the U22 Queens title.
LiCausi noted that a win in this event would rank as the “best thing I’ve ever done individually in the sport,” and a spot on Junior Team USA, which goes to the tournament champion provided she is age-eligible, would mean a lot to her as well.
“Making that team would be awesome,” LiCausi said. “I know quite a few people that are on the team or have been on the team, and they’re all super talented. Bowling with those girls would be absolutely amazing, and the experience itself would be tremendous.”
Bunk’s road to the stepladder finals was that of the underdog. She entered match play as the No. 18 seed and would not bowl a single match where she was the higher seed all day. After a comfortable win in her first match, her next three were all decided by 21 pins or less.
First came a 415-394 win over No. 2 seed Morgan Brunner of Gobles, Michigan. That was followed by a 393-382 victory over No. 7 seed Carly Zuklin of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A 378-359 win over No. 3 seed Brooke Salzman of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, set up the clash against LiCausi for the top seed.
Bunk, who just completed her sophomore season at Youngstown State University but has recently entered the transfer portal, credited the proper mindset for her run of close wins.
“I didn’t let any shot affect my attitude,” Bunk said. “If I don’t have a good attitude, I just don’t do well, so today, if I left something that was bad, I picked it up and just went on to the next shot. That’s how I went though the day; I just tried to stay positive, and I think that was key for me.”
Bunk will need to carry that positive attitude forward to Monday as she takes on Henderson in the opening match of the stepladder finals.
Unlike the other two finalists who came through the Winner’s Bracket, Henderson’s loss to LiCausi dropped her into the Elimination Bracket early on. It would be a grind, one that would see her bowl a total of eight matches, but Henderson was able to persevere.
Remarkably, other than her loss to LiCausi, none of her matches were all that close as she posted scores of 444, 426 (in her loss), 485, 442 and 424 over her first five matches. Henderson then flipped a switch and posted scores of 524 and 510 to get to the match for the No. 3 seed against Payton Hartgrove of Columbus, Ohio.
Henderson, who bowls collegiately at Jacksonville State University, defeated Hartgrove rather comfortably, 451-398, to claim the final spot in the stepladder, where she will look to defeat Bunk and gain a rematch with LiCausi.
“That was extremely exhausting, both mentally and physically,” Henderson said. “Losing that match early on, I just had to take that with a grain of salt. I’m learning to take the good with the bad and to be patient in those bad moments. It’s all about believing in myself, in my process, in my execution, all of that.”
Along with the three U22 Masters qualifiers, LiCausi, Bunk and Henderson will move to the Strobl Arena at Thunderbowl Lanes for the stepladder finals live on BowlTV beginning at noon Eastern on Monday.
All rounds of competition at the U22 Masters and U22 Queens were streamed live exclusively on BowlTV as will be the stepladder finals.
For more information on the 2024 U22 Masters and Queens, visit BOWL.com/U22.