By KAYLI CHRIST and AARON SMITH
USBC Communications
LAS VEGAS – Irvin Cole of Edgewood, Maryland, may have been anxious to start his 10th frame with perfection on the line Wednesday at the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, but he felt at ease as he delivered the final shot to secure his 300 game and spot in the tournament’s record book at the South Point Bowling Plaza.
The 48-year-old right-hander started his singles set with 12 strikes to collect the third perfect game of the 2024 event, and second 300 in singles competition.
He admitted it took a couple frames to settle down after the excitement of his perfect performance, and he finished the set with games of 168 and 155 for a 623 series.
Cole, who made his sixth appearance at the Open Championships this week, added sets of 648 in team and 521 in doubles for an all-events total of 1,792.
His top overall performance came during his trip to the Bowling Plaza in 2022, where he recorded a 1,979 score for nine games.
MAKING A MOVE
The Lefty Mafia 1 put together an incredible performance in Game 3 of their team set at the South Point Bowling Plaza to move into fourth place in Regular Team (3,219) and just miss the top five for all-time team games in tournament history (1,277)!
The 1,277 featured 212 from Kirk Aduddell, 265 from Zachary Karr, 265 from Daron Hansen, 278 from Anggie Ramirez Perea and 257 from Richard Wolfe.
The game tied for the sixth highest team game on the championship lanes. The tournament record is 1,318 (Team Turbo Grips in 2014).
Wolfe led the team with a 742 series and was followed by Hansen (679), Karr (644), Ramirez Perea (591) and Aduddell (563).
The 2024 Open Championships got underway Feb. 23 and will run through July 29 at the South Point Bowling Plaza. The tournament is scheduled to feature more than 11,000 teams and 55,000 bowlers making their way to compete in Las Vegas.