By AARON SMITH
USBC Communications
HELSINGBORG, Sweden — Although Junior Team USA will not be appearing in the medal round for doubles at the 2022 International Bowling Federation U21 World Championships, the group of young athletes representing the United States are starting to settle in at Olympia Bowling looking ahead to team competition.
Both pairings on the women’s team advanced as part of the top 16 in Baker doubles Sunday and were placed in separate match-play groups based on their qualifying position. The top two teams advanced to the semifinals from each group.
Mabel Cummins of Hermitage, Tenn., and Paige Peters of Toms River, N.J., posted a 3-4 record in their seven round-robin matches to finish with nine points (three points for each win) to place fifth in Group A.
Both teams from Singapore advanced out of Group A.
Stow’s Jillian Martin and Victoria Varano of Stony Point, N.Y., tied for second place in Group B with a 4-3 record for 12 points to force a one-game roll-off for the final spot.
France led Group B with 15 points, and Junior Team USA was tied with Sweden and Finland with 12 points.
Sweden was able to advance from the roll-off with 218, while Martin and Varano finished with 209. Finland also posted a 200 game.
Cummins and Peters advanced to match play after finishing qualifying in ninth place with a 2,010 total for 10 Baker games. Varano and Martin were 11th with 2,004.
In the men’s division for Baker doubles, the Junior Team USA teams missed out on match play, finishing in 25th and 29th place, respectively.
The team of Julian Salinas of Richmond, Texas, and Tyrell Ingalls of Loganville, Ga., finished with 2,121, while Alec Keplinger of Coldwater, Mich., and Spencer Robarge of Springfield, Mo., posted a 2,116 total. The cut to advance to match play in the men’s division was 2,216.
The countries advancing to the medal round in doubles for the men’s division include Korea, Malaysia, Sweden and the Philippines.
The four-player team competition also kicked off Sunday with men’s qualifying, which consisted of 10 Baker games.
Junior Team USA qualified third out of 33 teams, posting a 2,214 total (221.4 average) to move to match play Monday.
England led the men’s division in qualifying with 2,236, and Iceland grabbed the final spot with a 2,071 total.
Women’s team qualifying will take place Monday, and the medal round in each division also will be determined by the end of the day.
Competition at the 2022 IBF U21 World Championships consists of singles, doubles, team and mixed team events.