Three Team USA athletes advance to singles round of 32 at 2026 IBF World Cup
October 17, 2026
Ryan Barnes of Denton, Texas (left), and Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio, advanced in their respective divisions during singles qualifying at the IBF World Cup in Germany on Saturday. Barnes moved on by winning Men's Singles Group D - Pool 4, while Pluhowsky was second in Women's Singles Group D - Pool 1. Team USA's Gianna Brandolino of Channahon, Illinois, also advanced, punching her ticket to the next round on Friday.
FULL RESULTS
ARLINGTON, Texas – Team USA now has three athletes advancing to the singles round of 32 at the 2026 International Bowling Federation World Cup after Ryan Barnes and Shannon Pluhowsky earned their spots Saturday at Max Munich Bowling – Brunnthal in Germany.
Barnes advanced in the men’s division, while Pluhowsky joined teammate Gianna Brandolino in the women’s bracket. Brandolino secured her spot Friday.
Barnes earned his berth by winning Men’s Singles Group D – Pool 4 on Saturday morning. The 24-year-old two-handed right-hander from Denton, Texas, averaged 225.7 and topped 200 in 10 of his 11 matches (223, 201, 205, 205, 215, 263, 257, 256, 224 and 249) en route to a 9-2 record and a pool-best 27 points.
Each victory in the head-to-head match-play format is worth three points, while ties earn each athlete one point.
Pluhowsky, a 44-year-old left-hander from Dayton, Ohio, finished second in Women’s Singles Group D – Pool 1 to secure her spot in the next round. The 26-year Team USA veteran followed her 7-0 start Thursday with a 4-2 performance Saturday to finish qualifying with an 11-2 record, 33 points and a pool-best 199.5 average. She rolled five games of 200 or better Saturday (205, 237, 224, 214 and 209).
With qualifying complete, the men’s and women’s singles brackets are set for Sunday’s single-elimination competition. Each round will feature a best-of-three format, with the final two athletes in each division advancing to the gold-medal match.
Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio, nearly joined Brandolino and Pluhowsky in the women’s round of 32 but fell short in a roll-off against Singapore’s Colleen Pee.
The 22-year-old right-hander won all six of her matches Saturday to finish qualifying with a 9-4 record and 27 points, tying Pee for the final advancing spot in Group C – Pool 2.
Martin topped 200 four times during Saturday’s qualifying block (237, 200, 237 and 224), but Pee prevailed 201-164 in the ensuing roll-off to claim the final berth and eliminate Martin from singles competition.
Despite losing two matches on Saturday after going undefeated on Day 1, Pluhowsky actually felt like she performed better at the end of qualifying than she did at the beginning.
“Physically, I bowled much better today because I was able to get comfortable doing what I feel I’m good at,” Pluhowsky said. “I made some surface changes to a couple bowling balls that allowed them to be more in play than the other day, and that helped too.”
Pluhowsky already owns more than 30 international gold medals. She’d love to make Women’s Singles her first in Germany, but experience has taught her that anything can happen during match play.
“It’s about bowling the pair we are on and hoping the pins cooperate so that I can continue to win matches,” Pluhowsky said.
Barnes certainly displayed a knack for winning matches on Saturday, and he did so while posting the second-highest average (225.7) in the World Cup Men’s Singles field – Sweden’s Robin Ilhammar was first at 226.1
According to Barnes, Saturday’s success was aided significantly by a combination of good coaching and the knowledge he gained while watching other competitors attack the 44-foot World Cup oil pattern during the first three days of qualifying.
“Bryan (Team USA Head Coach Bryan O’Keefe) saw something toward the end of Game 4 today that caused me to go to a bigger, stronger ball, and it read all the urethane carry down and went through the pins really well,” Barnes said. “Also, it was absolutely an advantage to bowl last among the group because I was able to learn from what everyone did and see how the lanes played.”
Since Barnes was Team USA’s last man to hit the lanes and the others failed to qualify – Packy Hanrahan of Wichita, Kansas, finished third in Group B – Pool 2; Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan, placed fourth in Group A – Pool 4; and Chris Via of Blacklick, Ohio, was fifth in Group C – Pool 3 – one might have expected Barnes to feel a bit of added pressure to advance; nevertheless, he claims that wasn’t the case at all.
“I didn’t really feel any pressure. I may have been the one to advance, but the other guys bowled fantastic; things just didn’t go their way in the pods,” Barnes said. “I just wanted to go out there and get some revenge for the team and give us a shot at a medal.”
While there’s no doubt Barnes would be happy taking home some singles hardware, he’s already looking forward to the World Cup’s prized competition, the team event.
“I may have been the only guy to make the singles cut, but we all have a really solid idea of what’s happening on the lanes, which is why we’re looking forward to team match play.”
After the singles medals are awarded in Munich on Sunday, the focus will then switch to team competition Monday, with four groups in the men’s division and two groups on the women’s side.
Similar to the singles portion of the event, each team in the men’s division will bowl 11 matches against the other countries in their group. The women’s division will feature 13 matches in each group. These contests will take place across Monday and Tuesday.
Each match during these blocks will implement the Baker format and be conducted as a best-of-three contest. Countries will be awarded three points for every victory.
The top four teams in each group on the men’s side and top eight from each group in the women’s division will advance to their respective 16-team bracket.
The final day of competition during the 2026 World Cup will be Wednesday, as all advancing teams look to navigate their way through the single-elimination bracket to take home the coveted win.
All bracket matches will feature a best-of-five Baker format to determine the winner.
Malaysia enters this year’s event as the defending team champion in the men’s division, while the United States is looking for back-to-back titles on the women’s side at the World Cup. The group representing Team USA during the 2024 event in Hong Kong included Martin, Pluhowsky, Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona, and Lauren Russo of Ballwin, Missouri.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.
FULL RESULTS
ARLINGTON, Texas – Team USA now has three athletes advancing to the singles round of 32 at the 2026 International Bowling Federation World Cup after Ryan Barnes and Shannon Pluhowsky earned their spots Saturday at Max Munich Bowling – Brunnthal in Germany.
Barnes advanced in the men’s division, while Pluhowsky joined teammate Gianna Brandolino in the women’s bracket. Brandolino secured her spot Friday.
Barnes earned his berth by winning Men’s Singles Group D – Pool 4 on Saturday morning. The 24-year-old two-handed right-hander from Denton, Texas, averaged 225.7 and topped 200 in 10 of his 11 matches (223, 201, 205, 205, 215, 263, 257, 256, 224 and 249) en route to a 9-2 record and a pool-best 27 points.
Each victory in the head-to-head match-play format is worth three points, while ties earn each athlete one point.
Pluhowsky, a 44-year-old left-hander from Dayton, Ohio, finished second in Women’s Singles Group D – Pool 1 to secure her spot in the next round. The 26-year Team USA veteran followed her 7-0 start Thursday with a 4-2 performance Saturday to finish qualifying with an 11-2 record, 33 points and a pool-best 199.5 average. She rolled five games of 200 or better Saturday (205, 237, 224, 214 and 209).
With qualifying complete, the men’s and women’s singles brackets are set for Sunday’s single-elimination competition. Each round will feature a best-of-three format, with the final two athletes in each division advancing to the gold-medal match.
Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio, nearly joined Brandolino and Pluhowsky in the women’s round of 32 but fell short in a roll-off against Singapore’s Colleen Pee.
The 22-year-old right-hander won all six of her matches Saturday to finish qualifying with a 9-4 record and 27 points, tying Pee for the final advancing spot in Group C – Pool 2.
Martin topped 200 four times during Saturday’s qualifying block (237, 200, 237 and 224), but Pee prevailed 201-164 in the ensuing roll-off to claim the final berth and eliminate Martin from singles competition.
Despite losing two matches on Saturday after going undefeated on Day 1, Pluhowsky actually felt like she performed better at the end of qualifying than she did at the beginning.
“Physically, I bowled much better today because I was able to get comfortable doing what I feel I’m good at,” Pluhowsky said. “I made some surface changes to a couple bowling balls that allowed them to be more in play than the other day, and that helped too.”
Pluhowsky already owns more than 30 international gold medals. She’d love to make Women’s Singles her first in Germany, but experience has taught her that anything can happen during match play.
“It’s about bowling the pair we are on and hoping the pins cooperate so that I can continue to win matches,” Pluhowsky said.
Barnes certainly displayed a knack for winning matches on Saturday, and he did so while posting the second-highest average (225.7) in the World Cup Men’s Singles field – Sweden’s Robin Ilhammar was first at 226.1
According to Barnes, Saturday’s success was aided significantly by a combination of good coaching and the knowledge he gained while watching other competitors attack the 44-foot World Cup oil pattern during the first three days of qualifying.
“Bryan (Team USA Head Coach Bryan O’Keefe) saw something toward the end of Game 4 today that caused me to go to a bigger, stronger ball, and it read all the urethane carry down and went through the pins really well,” Barnes said. “Also, it was absolutely an advantage to bowl last among the group because I was able to learn from what everyone did and see how the lanes played.”
Since Barnes was Team USA’s last man to hit the lanes and the others failed to qualify – Packy Hanrahan of Wichita, Kansas, finished third in Group B – Pool 2; Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan, placed fourth in Group A – Pool 4; and Chris Via of Blacklick, Ohio, was fifth in Group C – Pool 3 – one might have expected Barnes to feel a bit of added pressure to advance; nevertheless, he claims that wasn’t the case at all.
“I didn’t really feel any pressure. I may have been the one to advance, but the other guys bowled fantastic; things just didn’t go their way in the pods,” Barnes said. “I just wanted to go out there and get some revenge for the team and give us a shot at a medal.”
While there’s no doubt Barnes would be happy taking home some singles hardware, he’s already looking forward to the World Cup’s prized competition, the team event.
“I may have been the only guy to make the singles cut, but we all have a really solid idea of what’s happening on the lanes, which is why we’re looking forward to team match play.”
After the singles medals are awarded in Munich on Sunday, the focus will then switch to team competition Monday, with four groups in the men’s division and two groups on the women’s side.
Similar to the singles portion of the event, each team in the men’s division will bowl 11 matches against the other countries in their group. The women’s division will feature 13 matches in each group. These contests will take place across Monday and Tuesday.
Each match during these blocks will implement the Baker format and be conducted as a best-of-three contest. Countries will be awarded three points for every victory.
The top four teams in each group on the men’s side and top eight from each group in the women’s division will advance to their respective 16-team bracket.
The final day of competition during the 2026 World Cup will be Wednesday, as all advancing teams look to navigate their way through the single-elimination bracket to take home the coveted win.
All bracket matches will feature a best-of-five Baker format to determine the winner.
Malaysia enters this year’s event as the defending team champion in the men’s division, while the United States is looking for back-to-back titles on the women’s side at the World Cup. The group representing Team USA during the 2024 event in Hong Kong included Martin, Pluhowsky, Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona, and Lauren Russo of Ballwin, Missouri.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.