Junior Team USA men advance to gold-medal match at IBF World Youth Championships in Korea
July 16, 2024
Junior Team USA bowlers (from left to right) Braden Mallasch, Zach Andresen, Brandon Bohn and Jacob Bockstie
WOMEN'S TEAM SEMIFINALS I MEN'S TEAM SEMIFINALS
WOMEN'S TEAM MATCH PLAY I MEN'S TEAM MATCH PLAY
WOMEN'S TEAM QUALIFYING I MEN'S TEAM QUALIFYING
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Junior Team USA men certainly showed a flare for the dramatic on Tuesday, winning a roll off against Germany to reach the semifinals and then rallying from an 0-1 deficit to top the hosts from Korea, 3-2, and advance to the gold-medal match in men’s team competition at the 2024 International Bowling Federation World Youth Championships in Incheon, Korea.
Now, the American quartet of Zach Andresen of Princeton, Minnesota; Jacob Bockstie of Nottingham, Maryland; Brandon Bohn of Jackson, New Jersey; and Braden Mallasch of Waupaca, Wisconsin, is guaranteed no worse than a silver medal and sits just one win away from realizing its goal of capturing men’s team gold.
Despite the happy ending, Tuesday’s action at Incheon’s Fiesta Bowling Center hardly went according to plan for the Junior Team USA men, who seemingly had to come from behind all day long.
The squad began the day with three consecutive losses to start its seven-game match-play block despite putting up respectable Baker scores of 206, 208 and 224.
Nevertheless, at that point, the Junior Team USA men weren’t just outside of advancing position; they were tied for last place in their eight-team division.
But as elite teams always seem to do, the talented foursome took its performance to the next level when it needed to most, finishing with scores of 233, 205, 278 and 232 to win its final four matches and end match play tied with Germany for the last semifinal berth with a record of 4-3. That meant that a one-game roll off would be needed to determine which team would advance.
Not content to fall behind again, the Americans hit the ground running during the extra game, striking on each of their first four shots to quickly take the lead over the Germans, who were only able to manage three spares and one strike during that same span.
Germany stayed clean and attempted to apply pressure with a pair of doubles after the Americans failed to strike in the fifth frame, but Junior Team USA was just too strong, finishing with six strikes over the final seven shots to win the match, 258-224, and punch its ticket to the semifinals.
There, the Americans were forced to contend with two opponents, the home team from Korea and the enthusiastic crowd that supported it.
Once again, things got off to an inauspicious start for Junior Team USA, which fell to the Koreans by a score of 236-215 during the first game in the best-of-three semifinal match.
But the Americans fought back with a 236 of their own during Game 2. Korea, meanwhile, only managed 187, allowing Junior Team USA to tie the match 1-1 and force a winner-take-all third game for a gold-medal match berth.
That final game was all that the Fiesta Bowling Center crowd could have asked for and more, but, in the end, the Americans came out on the winning end of a 197-188 decision to survive and advance to Thursday’s men’s team finals.
Their opponents in the gold-medal match will be the Czech Republic, which finished atop Group A in match play on Tuesday with a record of 6-1 and then defeated Japan, 3-2, (217-234, 183-181 and 265-223) during the other men’s semifinal.
Prior to the start of the 2024 IBF World Youth Championships, Andresen, Bockstie, Bohn and Mallasch each discussed how special it would be to bring home the men’s team gold medal.
As such, all four were understandably filled with various emotions after taking a giant step in that direction on Tuesday.
“It feels great to clinch a medal with this group of guys, especially with how hard we had to fight today,” Andresen said. “It’s unreal that we were able to put ourselves in this situation after starting the day 0-3 like we did. Guaranteeing ourselves silver or better is obviously great, but we’re still staying focused on the gold. That’s what we came here to do.”
Whatever color the men’s medal ends up being, it will be Mallasch’s first in world competition, and that is something that means a great deal to the talented two-hander from Wisconsin.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to confirm that I’ll get a medal after how hard we’ve all worked to get here and how hard we fought today,” Mallasch said. “It means so much to end the day on such a high note and know that we stand a good chance of going all the way because our guys have shown that they can get it done in the end.”
Bockstie guaranteed himself a medal on Sunday after he and Bohn punched their tickets to the men’s doubles gold-medal match; nevertheless, that didn’t make Tuesday’s team performance and the medal it will inevitably bring any less special for the Nottingham, Maryland, native.
“This medal feels much more earned because we were down 0-3 at the start,” Bockstie said. “We were bowling pretty well early on, but the ball just wasn’t going through the pins right. We dug deep, turned it on and gave ourselves a chance, and now I’m just really excited.”
Bohn was excited as well, not just because of what he’d accomplished but because of who he accomplished it with.
“This feeling is like no other, and I’m just glad I can do it with three guys that I’m lucky to call teammates, friends and now family I guess,” Bohn said. “I’ve always wanted to get on the world champions wall at the ITRC (International Training and Research Center), and I think this team has a great opportunity to do that.
“We got a big reality check after the first three games today, but we got it together, won four games in row, won the roll off, won the semis and now we’re bowling for gold.”
Hours earlier, the Junior Team USA women’s squad of Katelyn Abigania of San Diego; Gianna Brandolino of Channahon, Illinois; Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio; and Annalise OBryant of Ball Ground, Georgia, sought to do the same.
The foursome ended its own seven-game match-play block with a record of 4-3 after putting up scores of 232, 223, 179, 196, 203, 210 and 170.
Unfortunately, that left the Americans tied with Colombia, the Czech Republic and Korea for the final advancing position in women’s Group A.
The Junior Team USA ladies fought valiantly during the four-team roll off, putting up a score of 209; however, Colombia was even better, notching a 231 to grab the final semifinal berth. The Czech Republic and Korea finished the roll off with 179 and 163, respectively.
One round later, Malaysia would top Colombia 3-2 (201-196, 201-231 and 202-178) in one semifinal while Singapore swept Norway 2-0 (182-169 and 201-189) in the other to set up a Malaysia versus Singapore battle for women’s team gold on Thursday.
The finals in singles, doubles and mixed team competition also will take place on Thursday, but before they do, mixed team qualifying, match play and semifinals will be contested on Wednesday.
The 2024 World Youth Championships, which features teams from 39 different countries, began on July 9 and will end on Thursday with final-round action in singles, doubles, mixed team and team and their accompanying medal ceremonies.
For more information on Junior Team USA, visit BOWL.com/JuniorTeamUSA.
WOMEN'S TEAM SEMIFINALS I MEN'S TEAM SEMIFINALS
WOMEN'S TEAM MATCH PLAY I MEN'S TEAM MATCH PLAY
WOMEN'S TEAM QUALIFYING I MEN'S TEAM QUALIFYING
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Junior Team USA men certainly showed a flare for the dramatic on Tuesday, winning a roll off against Germany to reach the semifinals and then rallying from an 0-1 deficit to top the hosts from Korea, 3-2, and advance to the gold-medal match in men’s team competition at the 2024 International Bowling Federation World Youth Championships in Incheon, Korea.
Now, the American quartet of Zach Andresen of Princeton, Minnesota; Jacob Bockstie of Nottingham, Maryland; Brandon Bohn of Jackson, New Jersey; and Braden Mallasch of Waupaca, Wisconsin, is guaranteed no worse than a silver medal and sits just one win away from realizing its goal of capturing men’s team gold.
Despite the happy ending, Tuesday’s action at Incheon’s Fiesta Bowling Center hardly went according to plan for the Junior Team USA men, who seemingly had to come from behind all day long.
The squad began the day with three consecutive losses to start its seven-game match-play block despite putting up respectable Baker scores of 206, 208 and 224.
Nevertheless, at that point, the Junior Team USA men weren’t just outside of advancing position; they were tied for last place in their eight-team division.
But as elite teams always seem to do, the talented foursome took its performance to the next level when it needed to most, finishing with scores of 233, 205, 278 and 232 to win its final four matches and end match play tied with Germany for the last semifinal berth with a record of 4-3. That meant that a one-game roll off would be needed to determine which team would advance.
Not content to fall behind again, the Americans hit the ground running during the extra game, striking on each of their first four shots to quickly take the lead over the Germans, who were only able to manage three spares and one strike during that same span.
Germany stayed clean and attempted to apply pressure with a pair of doubles after the Americans failed to strike in the fifth frame, but Junior Team USA was just too strong, finishing with six strikes over the final seven shots to win the match, 258-224, and punch its ticket to the semifinals.
There, the Americans were forced to contend with two opponents, the home team from Korea and the enthusiastic crowd that supported it.
Once again, things got off to an inauspicious start for Junior Team USA, which fell to the Koreans by a score of 236-215 during the first game in the best-of-three semifinal match.
But the Americans fought back with a 236 of their own during Game 2. Korea, meanwhile, only managed 187, allowing Junior Team USA to tie the match 1-1 and force a winner-take-all third game for a gold-medal match berth.
That final game was all that the Fiesta Bowling Center crowd could have asked for and more, but, in the end, the Americans came out on the winning end of a 197-188 decision to survive and advance to Thursday’s men’s team finals.
Their opponents in the gold-medal match will be the Czech Republic, which finished atop Group A in match play on Tuesday with a record of 6-1 and then defeated Japan, 3-2, (217-234, 183-181 and 265-223) during the other men’s semifinal.
Prior to the start of the 2024 IBF World Youth Championships, Andresen, Bockstie, Bohn and Mallasch each discussed how special it would be to bring home the men’s team gold medal.
As such, all four were understandably filled with various emotions after taking a giant step in that direction on Tuesday.
“It feels great to clinch a medal with this group of guys, especially with how hard we had to fight today,” Andresen said. “It’s unreal that we were able to put ourselves in this situation after starting the day 0-3 like we did. Guaranteeing ourselves silver or better is obviously great, but we’re still staying focused on the gold. That’s what we came here to do.”
Whatever color the men’s medal ends up being, it will be Mallasch’s first in world competition, and that is something that means a great deal to the talented two-hander from Wisconsin.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to confirm that I’ll get a medal after how hard we’ve all worked to get here and how hard we fought today,” Mallasch said. “It means so much to end the day on such a high note and know that we stand a good chance of going all the way because our guys have shown that they can get it done in the end.”
Bockstie guaranteed himself a medal on Sunday after he and Bohn punched their tickets to the men’s doubles gold-medal match; nevertheless, that didn’t make Tuesday’s team performance and the medal it will inevitably bring any less special for the Nottingham, Maryland, native.
“This medal feels much more earned because we were down 0-3 at the start,” Bockstie said. “We were bowling pretty well early on, but the ball just wasn’t going through the pins right. We dug deep, turned it on and gave ourselves a chance, and now I’m just really excited.”
Bohn was excited as well, not just because of what he’d accomplished but because of who he accomplished it with.
“This feeling is like no other, and I’m just glad I can do it with three guys that I’m lucky to call teammates, friends and now family I guess,” Bohn said. “I’ve always wanted to get on the world champions wall at the ITRC (International Training and Research Center), and I think this team has a great opportunity to do that.
“We got a big reality check after the first three games today, but we got it together, won four games in row, won the roll off, won the semis and now we’re bowling for gold.”
Hours earlier, the Junior Team USA women’s squad of Katelyn Abigania of San Diego; Gianna Brandolino of Channahon, Illinois; Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio; and Annalise OBryant of Ball Ground, Georgia, sought to do the same.
The foursome ended its own seven-game match-play block with a record of 4-3 after putting up scores of 232, 223, 179, 196, 203, 210 and 170.
Unfortunately, that left the Americans tied with Colombia, the Czech Republic and Korea for the final advancing position in women’s Group A.
The Junior Team USA ladies fought valiantly during the four-team roll off, putting up a score of 209; however, Colombia was even better, notching a 231 to grab the final semifinal berth. The Czech Republic and Korea finished the roll off with 179 and 163, respectively.
One round later, Malaysia would top Colombia 3-2 (201-196, 201-231 and 202-178) in one semifinal while Singapore swept Norway 2-0 (182-169 and 201-189) in the other to set up a Malaysia versus Singapore battle for women’s team gold on Thursday.
The finals in singles, doubles and mixed team competition also will take place on Thursday, but before they do, mixed team qualifying, match play and semifinals will be contested on Wednesday.
The 2024 World Youth Championships, which features teams from 39 different countries, began on July 9 and will end on Thursday with final-round action in singles, doubles, mixed team and team and their accompanying medal ceremonies.
For more information on Junior Team USA, visit BOWL.com/JuniorTeamUSA.