Chris Barnes and Kim Terrell-Kearney capped off a successful week for Team USA by winning gold medals in Masters match play Saturday night at the 2009 Pan American Bowling Confederation (PABCON) Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Barnes’ title helped the men’s team sweep all six gold medals — singles, doubles, trios, team, all-events and Masters.
He defeated Ernesto Franco of Mexico, 2-1, in front of a full house of spectators at Carolina Bowling Center. Barnes took game 1, 246-203; dropped the second
game, 233-208, and then won the decider, 218-188, in a game in which Franco never put any pressure on him.
“This was a week where I really just rode my teammates to gold medals,”
Barnes said. “I was just kind of in the background all week, but it feels good to help us come through and complete the sweep.”
Terrell-Kearney swept Canada’s Robin Orlikowski, 2-0, to win the women’s gold medal. The finish gave the Team USA women gold medals in four of the six events — trios, team, all-events and Masters.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had as much fun bowling as I had this week,” Terrell-Kearney said. “I bowled great all week and fell short a few times, but I was able to come through when I really needed to.”
Terrell-Kearney won the opening game, 224-223, when Orlikowski failed to strike
on her fill ball after throwing two strikes in the final frame. Terrell-Kearney then swept the match with a 213-186 win.
The Masters match play competition featured the top 16 men and top 16 women from the all-events standings after 24 games of competition. All 12 Team USA members advanced to the Masters, but Barnes and Terrell-Kearney were the
only ones to earn medals.
Franco and Orlikowski earned the silver medals as the championship match losers.
Daniel Falconi of Mexico, Frankie Colon of Puerto Rico, Clara Guerrero of Colombia
and Karen Marcano of Venezuela all received bronze medals after losing in the semifinals.
For more information on the 2009 PABCON Championships, visit bowl.com.
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