RENO, Nev. - Rusty Thomsen of South Amboy, N.J., admits he's his own biggest critic, and he felt like he underperformed in his first two events at the 2013 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, but everything fell into place for his final set at the National Bowling Stadium on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old right-hander started singles with 15 consecutive strikes, before a 7 pin ended his run. He finished with games of 300, 246 and 180 for a 726 series, and the surge helped keep HornswogglerS of Staten Island, N.Y., in the race for Team All-Events. Thomsen's perfect game was the ninth of the 2013 event.

"I was relaxed during the 300, and I wasn't nervous," Thomsen said. "I was focused on one good shot at a time. I went 15 frames without having to think about moving, and that helped. But, I definitely was thinking about the singles lead until I knew I mathematically couldn't get there."

Although he will not take home a singles title, and the team fell just short in Team All-Events, settling into second place with a 10,204 total, Thomsen recognizes that their preparation and strategy paid dividends as he and his teammates made a run at the leaderboard in every category this week. Kelly Bonta of Wichita, Kan., leads Regular Singles with 776, while Junior Team USA Support 1 of Mansfield, Texas, tops Team All-Events with 10,247.

"How many times do you get to go to an event like this and legitimately make a run at every event you bowl in?" said Thomsen, who had 644 in team and 628 in doubles for a career-best 1,998 all-events total. "This the first year all five of us have bowled together here, and it was a great experience. The team chemistry was really good, and we came in with a game plan and stuck with it."

Thomsen was joined by Ray Smarsh (2,075), Dan Dunleavy (2,070), Shannon Sellens (2,064) and Alex Cavagnaro (1,997).

Thomsen and Smarsh shot 1,348 in doubles, just missing the top 10, and Dunleavy, Sellens and Smarsh all could've made runs at the Regular All-Events lead (2,169) with big singles sets. Their excitement at the NBS this year wasn't limited to doubles and singles, though.

In their final game of team Monday, the group was on the verge of history. They entered the 10th frame with a mathematical chance at a 1,330 game, but no one was able to strike, leaving them with 1,221, just shy of the single-game record of 1,281, shot by Turbo 2-N-1 Grips of Madison, Wis., on the way to the Regular Team title in 2011.

"Before the last game of team, we briefly talked about shooting 1,200, but started with two opens, so it wasn't looking too good," said Thomsen, who made his 14th USBC Open Championships appearance and helped HornswogglerS into sixth place in Regular Team with 3,371. "Then we threw 18 strikes in a row. Striking was contagious. Even though we didn't get there, everyone felt good. We know we left a lot of pins out there, but we had good momentum coming into today."

Presenting sponsors for the 2013 USBC Open Championships include Circus Circus Reno, Eldorado Hotel Casino Reno and Silver Legacy Resort Casino Reno.