Marshall Kent (pictured left) of the United States averaged 242.80 for the last five qualifying games Thursday en route to claim the top qualifying position in the 48th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Poland as the men's field was cut to the top 24.

Starting the day in the pole position, the 20-year-old added a 1214 series to his three 1100-plus series from the first three days (1132, 1129 and 1192) to lead the 82-player field with 4667 and an average of 233.35 over 20 games.

Kent, who won the 2012 Team USA Trials to qualify for the World Cup and who became the second-youngest player ever to win an European Bowling Tour title in the Russian Open in September at the age of 19, had games 209, 279, 232, 268 and 226.

Bowling in A squad like Kent were UAE's Hareb Al-Mansoori and Mykhaylo Kalika of Ukraine, who battled it out for second place.

Al-Mansoori, who recently won the Masters title of the 11th Gulf Cooperation Council Bowling Championships, closed out his set with a big 256 game for 1153 to regain second place with 4576 (228.80).

Day One leader Kalika, a six-time Ukrainian national champion at the age of 24, came out of the gates with 237, 269, 237 and 259 to leap from fifth to second place. He finished with 201 and 1203 (240.60 average), but had to settle for third place with 4551 (227.55).

Syafiq Ridhwan (left) of Malaysia was the lone bowler of B squad, who made the top 10. The national team member finished his 1136 series Thursday with three consecutive games in the 230s for 1136 and 4547 overall (227.35).

PBA champion and long-time Colombian national team member, Andres Gomez (right), who was in the top 10 in any round, fell one spot behind an 1121 series and ended qualifying in fifth place with 4502 (225.10).

Places six and seven belonged C squad bowlers, James Gruffman of Sweden and Takashi Taniai of Japan. Gruffman, who led qualifying at the halfway point, used games of 247, 255 and 246 for 1129 to maintain sixth place with 4472 (223.60).

Taniai, who was in 46th place after the first round and in 17th place after the second round, topped Gruffman by two pins with 1131 including four games between 248 and 224 to retain seventh place with 4419 (220.95.).

Competing in his 11th World Cup, Guy Caminsky (left) of South Africa is targeting to improve on a fifth place finish in the year 2000. Caminsky finished four pins behind Taniai in eighth place with 4415 (220.75) behind an 1128 series in the final block.

Just outside the top 8, who will survive the second cut on Friday, were Pascal Winternheimer of Germany (10th; 4389), Magnus Magnusson of Iceland (11th; 4311) and Jarmo Ahokas (above right) of Finland (12th; 4302), who all had series over 1120 Thursday.

Rolando Antonio Sebelén (left) of the Dominican Republic fired the second highest 1208 series to jump from 34th into 15th place in a span of five games. Sebelén started almost with a 233 triplicate (233, 233 and 234) and closed things out with back-to-back 250s (251 & 257) for 4270 total (213.50).

Moving up from 31st place to finish 21st was Arturs Levikins (right) of Latvia, who had an 1111 series including three consecutive games in the 230s (237, 235 and 237) and 4188 overall.

Two-time World Cup champion Michael Schmidt (left) of Canada (2005, 2010) was one pin behind in 22nd place with 4187 (209.35). The champion of 2005 and 2010, who never finished lower than 13th in six World Cups, has to make up a lot of ground (228 pins) to make the second cut.

Sergey Andreev (right) of Russia hit the cutoff number for 24th place with 4177 and an average of 208.85.

The top 24 men return on Friday for eight additional games starting at 1.15 p.m. CET with the qualifying total being carried over. The top eight with the highest 28-game total will advance to Saturday's round robin match play.

For more photos, go to Bowlingdigital's Photo Album (© Bowlingdigital/Beat Grauwiler).