Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 26, 2023) – U.S. beach teams look to improve their rankings in the drive toward Paris 2028 this week at the Beach Pro Tour (PBT) Elite 16 event in Montréal, Canada.

Qualification matches will be July 26 with the main draw beginning July 27.

U.S. women’s beach teams have won five medals – two gold, two silver, one bronze – in the last four Elite16 events of the season, standing on the podium in Tepic, Mexico, Uberlândia, Brazil, Ostrava, Czechia, and Gstaad, Switzerland.

Three U.S. women’s beach teams will open in the main draw in Montréal.

Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes, who won gold in Tepic and silver in Gstaad, are seeded second in the Montréal main draw, just behind the reigning world champions, Brazilians Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos.

Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss, who secured the title in Uberlândia and finished third in Gstaad, are seeded third. Terese Cannon/Sarah Sponcil, who took silver in Ostrava, are seeded sixth.

Betsi Flint/Julia Scoles will start in the qualifier against Alice Zeimann/Olivia MacDonald of Australia.

On the men’s side, Gstaad Elite16 winners Andy Benesh/Miles Partain are seeded second in the main draw behind Anders Mol/Christian Sørum of Norway.

Three U.S. men’s teams will start in the qualifier: Chaim Schalk/Tri Bourne, Kyle Friend/Paul Lotman and Miles Evans/Chase Budinger.

EDMONTON, CANADA CHALLENGE

Scoles/Flint were the top U.S. finishers at the PBT Challenge event on July 19-23 in Edmonton, Canada.

In the women’s tournament, Scoles/Flint finished tied for fifth. Cannon/Sponcil and Kelley Kolinske/Hailey Harward tied for ninth.

Megan Kraft/Emily Stockman and Molly Turner/Maddie Anderson tied for 25th.

Brook Bauer/Katie Horton, Zana Muno/Deahna Kraft and Savvy Simo/Toni Rodriguez all tied for 33rd.

For the men, Taylor Crabb/Taylor Sander and Schalk/Bourne tied for ninth.

Trevor Crabb/Theo Brunner tied for 17th. Evans/Budinger tied for 19th.

Tim Brewster/Kyle Friend and Evan Cory/Troy Field tied for 33rd.