By Matt Cannizzaro and Daniel Farish
USBC Communications

LAS VEGAS - After so many years of coming up just short at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, the members of Wisconsin's Red Carpet Lanes finally achieved the highest honor possible at the 2018 event as they captured the coveted Team All-Events title.

For team member Dave Beres of Greenfield, Wisconsin, it was a moment that was a long time coming after a handful of career top-10 finishes on the championship lanes.

A few of those finishes were in the team event, with a runner-up finish in 2014 that included three members of the 2018 Red Carpet Lanes team. The day they took the lead that year at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada, it was with the highest score in history. They ended up second by more than 150 pins.

The pins fell their way again in Syracuse, New York, last year, and their 10,252 Team All-Events total was enough to outdistance more than 7,500 five-player teams.

The group made its return to the lanes on Sunday at the South Point Bowling Plaza, celebrated 2018's success and immediately got busy trying to become the first team in more than two decades to win back-to-back Team All-Events title.

Though they fell short in the end, just missing the top 20 in this year's Team All-Events standings, they enjoyed the experience of returning as the defending champions, which included seeing their names on a championship banner hanging above the lanes and seeing the trophies next to their names on the scoreboard, a tradition for all tournament champions.

Beres admitted the team was a little amped up following the special march out and on-lane award ceremony prior to the start of their team event.

"It was really cool," Beres said. "From the ceremony in the squad room to the trophy presentation out on the lanes, I think it got us all a little amped up. We didn't get off to the best start, but we always battle and keep grinding. I think we were still excited from everything going on before bowling started, but that's part of it."

The group started off slowly, shooting 955 the first game. They teammates got their feet under them though and finished with 1,086 and 1,120 for a 3,161 team event total, which is ninth this year in the Regular Team standings.

Chad Maas led the way in the team event with a 653 series and was followed by Chris Pierson (651), David Labinski (648), Ken Duffield (634) and Beres (575).

In 2018 the group shot 3,277 in the team event then caught fire during doubles and singles, averaging 232.5 per game to secure the title. Had they duplicated that performance on Monday in Las Vegas, they would've surged into the lead once again. Syracuse's Mento Produce leads with 9,983.

Unfortunately for the defending champions, they weren't quite able to get comfortable on the lanes during doubles, with Duffield rolling the highest three-game set of 643.

"We really struggled with ball motion today," said Beres, who rebounded from team event to shoot 1,366 for his six games Monday morning. "The pair wiggled a little bit more than I think we expected, and we just didn't match up completely."

Although they were consistent, shooting 3,091 for doubles and 3,093 for singles, they never found the striking power they had at the Oncenter Convention Center just last year.

Their total this year was 9,345, which currently sits just inside the top 25.

Beres big day helped him to a 1,941 all-events effort, and he was followed by Duffield (1,902), Maas (1,879), Pierson (1,827) and Labinski (1,796).

While not the result they desired, Beres added that the group knows every year won't be like Syracuse, and they already are preparing for next year.

"We didn't perform the way we'd like, but we know every year isn't going to be like last year," said Beres, who made his 20th tournament appearance. "We are looking forward to next year and already signed up for the same weekend. It'll be cool to come back and see the Eagles next to our names and see our place in the history books."

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