RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - McKendree University women's bowling head coach Shannon O'Keefe capped her 18-year career with Team USA here this week by capturing three medals, including two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2022 PANAM Bowling Champion of Champions held at the Bowling Social Club. 

O'Keefe, who led the Bearcat women's bowling team to the school's second-ever NCAA Championship this past April and was recently named the PWBA Player of the Year, continued her domination in international competition as the three medals won at this year's PANAM Champion of Champions pushed her career medal total with Team USA to 49 as she has captured 29 gold medals, 13 silver medals and seven bronze medals. 

"It doesn't matter how many times you've done it, doing something that you love with USA on your back and your teammates around you never gets old," O'Keefe said in a release from BOWL.com website. "Winning medals and then hearing your national anthem play is just amazing. Outside of all my moments with my teammates, that's what I'll miss the most."

O'Keefe took home one of the gold medals by teaming with Bryanna Cote of Tucson, Ariz., to help secure the USA Women's Team to a berth in the Pan American Games by posting an impressive three-day, 48-game total of 10,687 pins to win the gold medal in doubles.

Along with winning the gold medal in doubles, O'Keefe would earn another gold medal after winning the women's all-events with a three-day, 24-game total of 5,476 (a 228.17 average per game). 

The only event that O'Keefe didn't earn a gold medal in was in singles play as she had to settle for a silver medal as she recorded total of 3,547 pins to finish just behind gold medalist Clara Guerrero of Colombia, who recorded a total of 3,559. Guerrero placed second in the women's all-events as she recorded 5,391 pins and averaged 224.63 per game. 

Team USA is coached by McKendree Director of Bowling Bryan O'Keefe and he was proud of the way his Team USA performed at the PANAM Champion of the Champions as they captured a total of 12 medals, which was the maximum number possible at the event, including winning seven gold, one silver and four bronze medals. 

"Our performance this week was wonderful," Bryan O'Keefe said. "You can't control the outcome, but you can control the effort you put into it. That's all we really tried to hone in on all week. We wanted to control the things we could control and hopefully the outcome would follow."

In addition to O'Keefe's three medals (two gold and one silver), Cote won the bronze medal in singles with a 16-game total of 3,508 (a 217.13 average) and also took home the bronze in the women's all-events as she tallied a three-day, 24-game total of 5,211 (an average of 219.25 per game). Cote also got the gold in doubles playing with O'Keefe. 

Meanwhile, on the men's side, the Team USA also earned a spot in the Pan American Games thanks to the performance of Kris Prather and former Bearcat four-time All-American men's bowler A.J. Johnson.

Johnson won three medals at the event as he teamed with Prather to win the gold medal in men's doubles on Tuesday, before he rallied to earn a bronze medal on Thursday in both singles and all-events as he posted a score of 3,614 for singles and a 5,535 for the 24 games of all-events. 

Entering Thursday's final round of play, Johnson was in fifth place (two spots out of medal position), but he moved back into medal position thanks to his play as he got off to a strong start with games of 245 and 248 to open the day and after three more solid games, he recorded a 267 in the sixth game to push himself into medal contention. For his 16 games of singles, Johnson averaged 232.25 per game.

For the event, Johnson and Prather recorded a three-day, 48-game total score of 11,140 pins to finish in first place and give the Americans a spot in the Pan American Games. The Americans won by 750 pins over the Canadian team of Francois Lavoie and Jordan Jung, who recorded a total of 10,377 to also earn a spot in the Pan American Games.

Portions of release appear courtesy of Gene J. Kanak from BOWL.com website