MUNICH, Germany – Team USA earned the trios gold medal Wednesday at the 2010 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Men’s Championships, the second gold medal in three events for the United States.

The Team USA squad of Rhino Page, Patrick Allen and Wes Malott defeated Mexico, 650-514, in the gold-medal match at Dream Bowl Palace. They took down teammates Chris Barnes, Bill O’Neill and Tommy Jones in overtime in the semifinals.

In the championship, Allen led Team USA with a 235 game, while Page shot 228 and Malott had 187. Mexico’s Ernesto Franco shot 220, Jorge Rosado had 145 and Alejandro Cruz shot 149.

“This was just a total team effort, and it feels very, very cool,” Page said. “I’m just so happy for us to be here right now with the gold medal. Trios is one event I have never won a gold medal in and to do it with Wes and PA means a lot to me.”

Page, Allen and Malott didn’t face much of a fight from the Mexico team in the championship match. Instead, all of the drama was in the semifinal matchup between the two American teams.

After finishing regulation tied at 590, the teams went to overtime as Malott and O’Neill faced off in a ninth and 10th frame roll-off. O’Neill left a pocket 4-9 split in the 10th and Malott then stepped up to throw a strike to advance his team, 50-27.

“To be selected to bowl in the roll-off was an honor,” said Malott, who earned his first medal as a Team USA player. “To come through for Rhino and PA means a lot. During the whole trios event they really were the ones who carried us as a team.”

To advance to the gold-medal match, Mexico took out Chinese Taipei, 607-576.

The four teams that advanced to the semifinals took part in six games of qualifying over two days. In Wednesday’s final round, Barnes, O’Neill and Jones set the three-game World Championships record with a 2,196 total, a team average of 244. The previous record of 2,121 was set by Finland in 1999.

In all-events, O’Neill increased his lead after 18 games to 4,054, an average of 225.22, with just the team event remaining. Barnes sits in second at 3,941, while Franco is third with 3,932.

The top 16 players in the all-events standings after 24 games advance to Masters match play on Saturday. Allen currently is sixth with 3,844, Jones is 14th at 3,767 and Malott is 16th with 3,762. Page sits in 32nd with 3,683.

Action shifts to the coveted five-player team event, which begins with the first of two qualifying blocks Thursday. The final round will be contested Friday with the top four teams advancing to the semifinals. For Team USA, Page will sit out the opening round, which will be contested on the medium oil pattern.

BowlingDigital.com will provide live streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event and coverage also can be viewed live on BOWL.com. The team semifinals and final are scheduled to begin on Friday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

The 2010 WTBA World Men’s Championships features 356 competitors from 65 countries competing for medals in six events – five-player team, trios, doubles, singles, all-events and Masters match play.

2010 WTBA WORLD MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Dream Bowl Palace, Munich, Germany
Wednesday's Results

CHAMPIONSHIP
(Winner earns gold, loser gets silver)

(4) Patrick Allen/Rhino Page/Wes Malott, United States def. (3) Ernesto Franco/Jorge Rosado/Alejandro Cruz, Mexico, 650-514

SEMIFINALS
(Winners advance, losers tie for bronze)

(4) Patrick Allen/Rhino Page/Wes Malott, United States def. (1) Bill O’Neill/Chris Barnes/Tommy Jones, United States, 590-590 (50-27)

(3) Ernesto Franco/Jorge Rosado/Alejandro Cruz, Mexico def. (2) Cheng Hsing-Chao/Hung Kun-Yi/Wu Hao-Ming, Chinese Taipei, 607-576

QUALIFYING
(Top 10, six games)
1, Bill O’Neill/Chris Barnes/Tommy Jones, United States, 4,081. 2, Cheng Hsing-Chao/Hung Kun-Yi/Wu Hao-Ming, Chinese Taipei, 3,914. 3, Ernesto Franco/Jorge Rosado/Alejandro Cruz, Mexico, 3,839. 4, Patrick Allen/Rhino Page/Wes Malott, United States, 3,828. 5, Massimo Pirozzi/Mauro Rampi/Marco Reviglio, Italy, 3,801. 6, Somjed Kusonphitak/Dechochai Tinjiratip/Yannaphon Larpapharat, Thailand, 3,727. 7, Joonas Jahi/Petteri Salonen/Pasi Uotila, Finland, 3,723. 8, Biboy Rivera/Raoul Miranda/Chester King, Philippines, 3,711. 9, Mats Maggi/Jean-Marc Samain/Gary Verbruggen, Belgium, 3,709. 10, Thomas Larsen/Frederik Ohrgaard/Jesper Agerbo, Denmark, 3,697.

ALL-EVENTS
(Top 10, 18 games)
1, Bill O’Neill, United States, 4,054. 2, Chris Barnes, United States, 3,941. 3, Ernesto Franco, Mexico, 3,932. 4, Jesper Agerbo, Denmark, 3,873. 5, Jang Dong-Chul, Korea, 3,860. 6, Patrick Allen, United States, 3,844. 7, Cheng Hsing-Chao, Chinese Taipei, 3,824. 8, Michael Mak, Hong Kong, 3,808. 9, Frederik Ohrgaard, Denmark, 3,792. 10, Cho Young-Seon, Korea, 3,786.