Mike Machuga Maintains No. 1 Seed in the 2026 USBC Senior Masters
Las Vegas, Nevada – It was a historic day on Thursday at Sam’s Town Bowling Center. On the final day of qualifying at the 2026 USBC Senior Masters, Florida’s Anthony Crews was bowling on another level.
The left-hander rolled 56 strikes out of a possible 60 shots with games of 279, 278, 300, 279 and 278. His 1,414 five-game block is a new record for this tournament, and he ties the fourth-highest five-game block recorded in the history of the United States Bowling Congress. That is an unthinkable average of 282.8. His incredible block took him from 29th place to second with a 15-game total of 3,729.
“Right spot, right time. It just all lined up and I just kept doing close to the same thing every time,” Crews said. “There is friction on the left. The ball that I chose was just seeing it perfectly.”
Ironically, Crews started qualifying on Tuesday with games of 155 and 191 before rolling his first 300 game of the week in his fourth game followed by 278. He said at the beginning of this event what he had seen in practice disappeared as his ball found the out of bounds area. He went through five balls to find one that would read the 45-foot oil pattern then made another change.
“I moved right just a hair. I got off of outside five,” Crews said. “I just had OB (out of bounds) specifically day one. So, I used first arrow as my gutter.”
Michael Machuga has been consistent throughout qualifying. He shot 226, 266, 248, 269 and 247 for an overall total of 3,742. He is 13 pins ahead of Crews. After averaging 253 on Thursday, Chris Warren climbed into third place with 3,679. He is followed by day one leader Andy Neuer in fourth at 3,672 and Don Smith is fifth with 3,657.
In addition to Crews rolling a perfect game on Thursday, so did Bruce Falcon, Josh Hale, Robert Smith, Ken Gibson and Nicholas Paredes. Defending champion Tom Daugherty is in 20th. The final bowler to make the top 64 is Arizona’s Kevin Jenkins at 3,357 (+357). He will face Machuga, the top overall seed.
Double-elimination match-play begins at noon Eastern on Friday with players on the left side of the bracket followed by the right side of the bracket at 2:30 p.m. All matches are three-game total pinfall. Winners from each side of the bracket will bowl again at 4:30 p.m. followed by the contenders at 7 p.m.
The 16 winners and contenders remaining in the brackets will return to the lanes at noon ET on Saturday. Match-play will continue throughout the day until the top five bowlers are determined for the stepladder finals, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday. The only place you can watch the action is on BowlTV.
Top 10 2026 USBC Senior Masters standings:
- Mike Machuga, 3,742 total pins (+742)
- Anthony Crews, 3,729 (+729)
- Chris Warren, 3,679 (+679)
- Andy Neuer, 3,672 (+672)
- Don Smith, 3,657 (+657)
- Troy Lint, 3,639 (+639)
- Josh Hale, 3,633 (+633)
- Michael Hartter, 3,602 (+602)
- Parker Bohn III, 3,572 (+572)
- Chris Barnes, 3,540 (+540)