The bowlers of Squad 6 took control of the leaderboard in the 12th Brunswick Euro Challenge Wednesday afternoon at Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany as seven players cracked the 1400-bar to move into the top 8 in the overall standings.

Eight-time PBA champion and former PBA Player of the Year (2011-12) Sean Rash (pictured left), United States, fired games of 254, 216, 267, 233, 248 and 258 to lead the 132-player field from 17 countries with 1476 and an average of 246.

Syafiq Ridhwan (above right), a member of the Malaysian national squad which brought 16 players to Munich, was just 14 pins behind Rash to take second place with 1462. Ridhwan posted six games between 266 and 224.

Kelly Kulick (left), United States, who became the first woman to win a PBA Tour event by winning the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, was the best of 24 women in the field in third place with 1455 including 48 pins handicap, an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events.

The spokesperson of the new Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, toppled 1407 pins, an average of 234.50, including a high game of 277. Jason Sterner (right), United States, who won his lone PBA title in the Don Carter Classic two years ago, rolled five games between 268 and 238 and a low game of 195 to take fourth place with 1435.

Malaysian Adrian Ang (left) rolled the first 300 game of the tournament in the opening game and added 268, 189, 228, 199 and 244 for 1428, good for fifth place.

Previous leader Tobias Börding of Germany, who led since the first squad with 1425 slipped to sixth place and was followed by Yoan Alix of France in seventh place with 1411 and Siti Safiyah Amirah of Malaysia in eighth place with 1404.

Stuart Williams (right) of England, who owns six European Bowling Tour titles and one PBA title, was the lone player in Squad 7 who surpassed the 1400-mark to sit in ninth place with 1404. The former World Ranking Masters winner stayed consistently close to his 234 average over his six games, scoring 236, 236, 225, 224, 237 and 246.

Danielle McEwan (left), United States, fell from second to 10th place with 1400 including handicap. Rounding out the top 12, who will receive a first-round bye at the end of the qualifying were Germans Stephan Unger (right) and Dirk Dreyer with 1387 and 1378, respectively.

The score to make the cut in 52nd place raised by 149 pins on Wednesday to 1247 (207.83 average) set by Alexander Tarsoly of Hungary.

Qualifying continues on Thursday, March 19, with Squads 8, 9 and 10 scheduled to start at noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Central European Time (CET).

The 12th Brunswick Euro Challenge is the 10th tournament on the 2015 World Bowling Tour and also the sixth stop on the 2015 European Bowling Tour and the second of three EBT "Platinum" events this season, the highest of the four EBT tournament categories.

The BEC will be held from March 14-22 at Europe's biggest bowling center, 52-lane Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring in suburban Munich, Germany.

Players will compete for total prize money of 112.000 Euro with 12.000 Euro going to the winner, 9.000 Euro to the runner-up and 6.000 Euro to the third place finisher.

According to an agreement between World Bowling and the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), the Brunswick Euro Challenge will award a PBA title, if won by a PBA member.