By BILL SNIER
COLUMBUS — In a word, Bryce Oliver’s 2025 season to this point has been “incredible.”
Consider:
- The 24-year-old Cuyahoga Falls two-handed lefty finished fifth at the United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials to earn his first spot on Team USA, which begins practices in another week.
- He was a first-team National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association All-American for the third straight season at the University of Pikeville (Ky.) and was named the NAIA Player of the Year for the second time.
- He shot not one, but two, 300 games in Baton Rouge, La., with the first coming during the Bowlers Journal Championships and then following it up with another during the USBC Open Championships en route to a 25th-place finish overall in all-events.
“I signed on with Brunswick at the end of May and hit the ground running,” said Oliver, who has four classes remaining to earn his master’s degree in communications. “I bowled in multiple team and trio events and then came the Open Championships plus I made cuts in regional events.
“It’s been a very, very good summer of bowling. I was riding the momentum after the collegiate season ended and now I want to ride the momentum from this weekend into Team USA camp.”
Which brings him to Saturday’s Ohio Masters eight-game qualifying round. It did not start well for Oliver at HP Lanes.
“I had a very slow start. I was trying to force ball reaction even though I had ball reaction right in front of me,” said Oliver, who started with 197 and in 62nd place. “But I kind of just picked up the pace and then kind of rode Games 2 and 3 all the way through Game 8.”
Oliver finished with 1,909 total pinfall to sit fifth overall in the 98-player field to earn a bye during Sunday’s first round of two-game match play. Byes went to the top eight qualifiers among the top 24 making the cut. Match play begins at 10 a.m.
“I’m very happy with the way I played the lanes today. I played them very simple and kept everything in front of me,” said Oliver, who used a Black Hammer during the entire round. “My low count was a nine and I made a considerable amount of my spares. YOu’re going to miss a couple … it’s part of the game.
“Overall, it was a very consistent and even-keeled day.”
After a busy last few months — he took just one weekend off after bowling eight straight — Oliver will bowl few events the next few months while also working as a graduate assistant in the Pikeville athletic department. But upon his May 2026 graduation, he has big plans.
“I going to hit the ground running and I’m going to go out on (Professional Bowlers Association) Tour. That’s the plan right now,” Oliver said.
VANDEGRIFT, CARSON ADVANCE
A pair of area players also made the final 24 for Sunday’s match-play rounds.
Scott Vandegrift, a 37-year-old Massillon right-hander, got up to as high as third before finishing 19th with 1,799 (224.8 average), despite closing with 182 and 202 in Games 7 and 8, respectively.
In Vandegrift’s last Masters appearance at HP Lanes, he finished second to Brandon Novak in 2021. His performance comes despite not throwing a ball since the Stark County USBC Open Championships in May.
“I was just gassed. I was throwing the right ball, but I was trying to muscle it down there,” said Vandegrift, who went through three balls, but used the Motiv Venom Blue Coral for four of them.
“When I was throwing it good, it read the lanes right. But I was able to fight through it and made it. I expected some scores, but I didn’t expect to be as consistent. I just have to keep making my spares.”
Wooster’s Tony Carson as battling the effects of a sinus infection to finish 18th overall with 1,812 (226.5 average). He shot 276 his final game to jump from 27th into the cut..
“I’ve been throwing it pretty well lately. I was a bit under the weather and that didn’t help,” said Carson,, who shot 176 in Game 1 to stand 81st.
“I’m tired right now. But the lanes were definitely strikeable. I had to get left with a little loft for me so the ball would see it right. I thought the shot was pretty fair.”
Willowick’s Dean Vargo, the two-time defending Furbay Electric Supply Open champion in Canton who won the 2022 Ohio Masters title at Lex Lanes in Lancaster, also made the cut. He finished 21st with 1,791.
Among other Northeast Ohio players, Fairport Harbor’s Casey Cohagan also advanced, finishing 11th with 1,836, missing the top eight by just 18 pins. Another UPike graduate student, North Ridgeville’s Dylan Mishak, finished 13th with 1,831.