Super Senior Masters champ Campbell among 16 still undefeated at Senior Masters
June 07, 2025
James Campbell of Loudon, Tennessee, posts a shot during Friday's opening rounds of match play at the 2025 USBC Senior Masters, which is being contested at Sam's Town Bowling Center in Las Vegas. Campbell, who won the USBC Super Senior Classic last Sunday, went 2-0 on Friday to keep himself on track to make a run at this year's Senior Masters title.
BRACKETS
FINAL QUALIFYING STANDINGS
LAS VEGAS - Less than a week ago, James Campbell of Loudon, Tennessee, captured the biggest win of his Professional Bowlers Association career when he walked away with the title at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Super Senior Classic, which was contested at Sam’s Town Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
On Friday, Campbell kept himself in contention to compete for another major championship by going 2-0 on the opening day of bracket match play at the 2025 USBC Senior Masters, which also is being contested at Sam’s Town.
The 61-year-old right-hander was one of just 16 bowlers who went undefeated and remained in the tournament’s Winners Bracket after the opening day of three game total-pinfall matches.
Campbell got there by picking up wins over Steven Sherman of Enoch, Utah (662-591), and USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela (736-718), who has two Senior Masters titles to his credit (2015 and 2019).
As the final score would indicate, the match against Monacelli came down to the wire with Campbell needing the first strike in the 10th frame of Game 3 to earn the victory.
Campbell hasn’t faced those situations at national events nearly as often as his Hall of Fame opponent; therefore, when the pressure was on, he simply used the same approach that helped him reach the winner’s circle at the Super Senior Classic last Sunday.
“All I said to myself was ‘take your time like you did on the Super Senior Classic show,’” Campbell said. “Jeff Johnson gave me a tip. He told me to remember that these games go by really quick, so you need to slow it down. I tried to do that by going through my process. All I wanted to do was take my time and give it a chance off my hand, and somehow it struck.”
Campbell’s ball has been striking a great deal during the last two weeks at Sam’s Town. Because of that, he now sits just three wins away from securing his second major championship stepladder finals appearance in seven days.
What makes that possibility even sweeter for Campbell is the fact that he hadn’t initially set his sights nearly that high.
“The goal every time I bowl the Masters is just to get to match play. If you do that, anything can happen,” Campbell said. “I’m kind of in awe because I haven’t been on this sort of run before. Right now, I don’t know what it is, but things are just going my way.”
Four of the tournament’s top 10 qualifiers also had things go their way on Friday and remained unbeaten. That list was headlined by No. 1 seed Parker Bohn III of Jackson, New Jersey.
The PBA and USBC Hall of Famer pushed his record to 2-0 by taking down defending champion Jon Rakoski of Estero, Florida (751-600), in the opening round and fellow PBA legend Pete Weber of St. Ann, Missouri (696-600), in Round 2.
No. 2 seed Tom Daugherty of Riverview, Florida, got through his first match with relative ease, dispatching Jodey Rees of Renton, Washington, by a final tally of 729-560.
Daugherty had to work a great deal harder during his 660-632 Round 2 win over Andres Gomez of Davie, Florida; nevertheless, the powerful righty, who is making his Senior Masters debut this year in Las Vegas, got the job done and remained unbeaten.
The final two top 10 seeds to go undefeated on Friday were No. 5 Mika Koivuniemi of Traverse City, Michigan, and No. 6 seed George Aboud of San Jose, California.
Koivuniemi, the 2000 USBC Masters Champ, stayed unbeaten thanks to wins over CK Moore of Paris, Texas (693-607), and Brian Dennis of Demorest, Georgia (709-571), while Aboud kept his record unblemished by defeating Keith Dommer of Tucson, Arizona (671-563), and Chad Nelson of Owatonna, Minnesota (718-667).
Going 2-0 allowed Koivuniemi, Aboud and the rest of the undefeated players got to pack it in early on Friday and watch as the remaining athletes in the match-play field attempted to stay alive in the tournament’s Elimination Bracket.
After the final balls had been thrown, 16 players had done just that, surviving and advancing to keep their Senior Masters title hopes alive for at least one more day.
Several prominent names can be found on that list, including 2023 Senior Masters champ John Janawicz of Winter Haven, Florida; 2011 USBC Masters winner Tom Hess of Granger, Iowa; and Monacelli.
Monacelli gave the spectators at Sam’s Town a thrill on Friday evening when he shot 300 during his 753-583 Elimination Bracket win over Dommer.
Joining Monacelli with perfect games on Friday were Chris Martinez of Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Dan Knowlton of Dade City, Florida.
Senior Masters competition will resume on Saturday at noon Eastern with three-game total-pinfall bracket matches continuing until the field is cut to the top five for the stepladder finals, which will start Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern and be streamed live on BowlTV.
Since the stepladder will be broadcast on BowlTV, the top seed will have to be defeated twice in the tournament’s true double-elimination format. The winner of the 2025 USBC Senior Masters will take home a major championship on the PBA50 schedule and the first-place prize of $20,000.
For scores and information about the 2025 USBC Senior Masters, CLICK HERE.
BRACKETS
FINAL QUALIFYING STANDINGS
LAS VEGAS - Less than a week ago, James Campbell of Loudon, Tennessee, captured the biggest win of his Professional Bowlers Association career when he walked away with the title at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Super Senior Classic, which was contested at Sam’s Town Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
On Friday, Campbell kept himself in contention to compete for another major championship by going 2-0 on the opening day of bracket match play at the 2025 USBC Senior Masters, which also is being contested at Sam’s Town.
The 61-year-old right-hander was one of just 16 bowlers who went undefeated and remained in the tournament’s Winners Bracket after the opening day of three game total-pinfall matches.
Campbell got there by picking up wins over Steven Sherman of Enoch, Utah (662-591), and USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela (736-718), who has two Senior Masters titles to his credit (2015 and 2019).
As the final score would indicate, the match against Monacelli came down to the wire with Campbell needing the first strike in the 10th frame of Game 3 to earn the victory.
Campbell hasn’t faced those situations at national events nearly as often as his Hall of Fame opponent; therefore, when the pressure was on, he simply used the same approach that helped him reach the winner’s circle at the Super Senior Classic last Sunday.
“All I said to myself was ‘take your time like you did on the Super Senior Classic show,’” Campbell said. “Jeff Johnson gave me a tip. He told me to remember that these games go by really quick, so you need to slow it down. I tried to do that by going through my process. All I wanted to do was take my time and give it a chance off my hand, and somehow it struck.”
Campbell’s ball has been striking a great deal during the last two weeks at Sam’s Town. Because of that, he now sits just three wins away from securing his second major championship stepladder finals appearance in seven days.
What makes that possibility even sweeter for Campbell is the fact that he hadn’t initially set his sights nearly that high.
“The goal every time I bowl the Masters is just to get to match play. If you do that, anything can happen,” Campbell said. “I’m kind of in awe because I haven’t been on this sort of run before. Right now, I don’t know what it is, but things are just going my way.”
Four of the tournament’s top 10 qualifiers also had things go their way on Friday and remained unbeaten. That list was headlined by No. 1 seed Parker Bohn III of Jackson, New Jersey.
The PBA and USBC Hall of Famer pushed his record to 2-0 by taking down defending champion Jon Rakoski of Estero, Florida (751-600), in the opening round and fellow PBA legend Pete Weber of St. Ann, Missouri (696-600), in Round 2.
No. 2 seed Tom Daugherty of Riverview, Florida, got through his first match with relative ease, dispatching Jodey Rees of Renton, Washington, by a final tally of 729-560.
Daugherty had to work a great deal harder during his 660-632 Round 2 win over Andres Gomez of Davie, Florida; nevertheless, the powerful righty, who is making his Senior Masters debut this year in Las Vegas, got the job done and remained unbeaten.
The final two top 10 seeds to go undefeated on Friday were No. 5 Mika Koivuniemi of Traverse City, Michigan, and No. 6 seed George Aboud of San Jose, California.
Koivuniemi, the 2000 USBC Masters Champ, stayed unbeaten thanks to wins over CK Moore of Paris, Texas (693-607), and Brian Dennis of Demorest, Georgia (709-571), while Aboud kept his record unblemished by defeating Keith Dommer of Tucson, Arizona (671-563), and Chad Nelson of Owatonna, Minnesota (718-667).
Going 2-0 allowed Koivuniemi, Aboud and the rest of the undefeated players got to pack it in early on Friday and watch as the remaining athletes in the match-play field attempted to stay alive in the tournament’s Elimination Bracket.
After the final balls had been thrown, 16 players had done just that, surviving and advancing to keep their Senior Masters title hopes alive for at least one more day.
Several prominent names can be found on that list, including 2023 Senior Masters champ John Janawicz of Winter Haven, Florida; 2011 USBC Masters winner Tom Hess of Granger, Iowa; and Monacelli.
Monacelli gave the spectators at Sam’s Town a thrill on Friday evening when he shot 300 during his 753-583 Elimination Bracket win over Dommer.
Joining Monacelli with perfect games on Friday were Chris Martinez of Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Dan Knowlton of Dade City, Florida.
Senior Masters competition will resume on Saturday at noon Eastern with three-game total-pinfall bracket matches continuing until the field is cut to the top five for the stepladder finals, which will start Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern and be streamed live on BowlTV.
Since the stepladder will be broadcast on BowlTV, the top seed will have to be defeated twice in the tournament’s true double-elimination format. The winner of the 2025 USBC Senior Masters will take home a major championship on the PBA50 schedule and the first-place prize of $20,000.
For scores and information about the 2025 USBC Senior Masters, CLICK HERE.