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HENDERSON, Nev.- For the first time since 1993, Canada claimed the trios gold medal at the Pan American Bowling Confederation Women's Championships.

Despite being more than 200 pins out of the top spot after four games, the Canadians closed with sets of 725 and 739, an average of 244, to surge to the top of the standings with a 3,917 six-game total at Sunset Station Hotel and Casino's Strike Zone Bowling Center in suburban Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Mexico led from the start but finished the day 23 pins back with 3,894, while Team USA settled for the bronze with 3,819 thanks to a 710 finale.

"After the 725, we saw that we were in second place, and we were excited because we made such a big move," said Isabelle Rioux, who led Canada's trios effort with a 1,335 total. "We just tried to stay calm and throw good shots. Toward the end, I didn't even realize we were going for the gold, and I think it's probably better that I didn't know."

Caroline Lagrange, the 2009 QubicaAMF World Cup champion, finished the day with games of 278 and 258 for a 1,309 total, while left-hander Felicia Wong contributed 1,273.

"This is very exciting and shows that in Canada, we work really hard to get our games together," Lagrange said. "Since Canada is so big, we don't get to see each other or practice together as much as we'd like to, but this shows that we're all putting in the work and can come together when it counts."

Sandra Gongora, the singles silver-medalist at the 2009 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Women's Championships, paced Team Mexico on Wednesday with a 1,433 effort and was joined by Iliana Lomeli (1,275) and Fernanda Cornejo (1,186).

Liz Johnson led the way for Team USA with 1,302 and was followed by left-hander Shannon Pluhowsky (1,293) and Kelly Kulick (1,224). Johnson's effort also helped her to the top of the all-events standings through 18 games with 3,980. Kulick is second with 3,971, and Gongora jumped to third with 3,879.

In the nine previous PABCON Women's Championships trios events, Team USA won the event five times, Canada won twice, and Mexico and Venezuela took home the title once each. Canada's last victory came in 1993, and the winning team included current head coach Sandy Lowe.

"Every day, we just try to reach the podium, with the gold medal being the ultimate goal," said Rioux, who is sixth in the all-events standings with 3,867. "We said to each other before the last game that the only thing we could control was our own game, so we just needed to go out there and focus on throwing good shots. We are so excited about this, and I hope we made our country proud."

Wednesday's trios competition featured both lane conditions being used this week. On each pair, the left lane had the 40-foot Athens pattern, and the right lane utilized the 34-foot Stockholm pattern.

The bowlers will return to the lanes for six games of team Thursday beginning at noon Eastern. They will bowl three games on each lane condition.

At the conclusion of the team event, the top 16 players in the all-events standings will advance to Masters match play Friday morning.

The 2010 PABCON Women's Championships features 60 competitors from 13 countries competing for medals in six events - five-player team, trios, doubles, singles, all-events and Masters match play.

USBC will provide wire-to-wire live streaming coverage of the event on BOWL.com.