WICHITA, Kan. – Kristopher Prather of Plainfield, Illinois, put together a huge block in Round 2 on Saturday to expand his qualifying lead at the U.S. Open.

Prather, who is looking for his first career title, tops the leaderboard with a 16-game total of 3,779, a 236.19 average, at Northrock Lanes and holds a 225-pin lead on the field.

After starting the day with a 169 game, Prather averaged more than 255 over the next seven games to finish with an eight-game total of 1,956.

Greg Ostrander of Freehold, New Jersey, remained in second place with 3,554, while Dom Barrett of England, who recently re-signed with Ebonite International, is third with 3,527.

All 144 players in the field will return Sunday for the third round of qualifying before the cut is made to the top 36 for one final round of qualifying. The top 24 players after 32 games will move on to 24 games of round robin match play with the top five advancing to Wednesday’s stepladder finals live on CBS Sports Network.

Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela, who was in the news this week because he had to bowl the PTQ after not being invited to the U.S. Open, continued to bowl well Saturday. Monacelli sits at 3,378, a 211.13 average, and is in 14th place heading into the final day of qualifying.

Meanwhile, reigning PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte currently sits outside the cut number and is in 46^th place with 3,262. Belmonte started the day playing inside and migrated left throughout the day, eventually lofting the gutter.

Also on Saturday, Michael Tang of San Francisco fired the first and only 300 game of this year’s U.S. Open. The 300 in Game 5 and a 267 in Game 7 were the bright spots for Tang has he sits in 54^th place with 3,249.