If you are looking for a short results summary, this won’t be the one you’re looking for. WOW! What a weekend of bowling, fun, and exciting competition. The Memorial Day Championship had 203 entries, 48 cashers, a 1 in 4.2 cash ratio, and the side events and main tournament together paid out over $11,000.00!!! This was our largest SFT AHT event ever in every category. It was less than 14 months ago that the SFT AHT had its first tournament. Every member out there should know that you all played a very intricate and significant role in the SFT AHT’s rapid growth. We always talk about the SFT AHT family, and I believe that having an event with over 200 entries within 14 months of starting shows just how powerful a family or group of people can be when working together.
This event had it all, and I mean everything! It was our first major of the 2013 season and it did not disappoint. We had big side pot winners, a momma’s mystery score winner, first time finalists, multiple people showing the power of the parlay, clutch performances, and MULTIPLE 9th and 10th frame roll offs. I promise I will get to all of them in this results summary.
Let’s start with the pattern used for the event. It was the most anticipated pattern ever, as it was a customized pattern chosen by the center staff and tournament director. It was called the 40ft SFT Patriot pattern and was incredibly difficult. There was plenty of friction which allowed all styles to be able to compete. Even the lower rev players had plenty of hook, but the pattern still played fairly flat, which kept the event very low scoring all weekend. The key was to stay focused, if you got a good pair, strike as much as you could, and if you got a bad pair, stay out of trouble and make your spares. Sounds simple enough, right? Check out the results below to see all of the scores for the event.
As always, I want to take a moment to welcome the newest members to the SFT AHT community. Its very impressive when members make their first appearance at a major event. Those bowlers were Natasha Jaszay, Andria Jaszay, Sean Currie, Rane Lacona, Martika Cabezas, Tim Walker, Mark Benjamin, Patrick Rowe, Gayna Rowe, Jamie Young, Michael Ybnez, Doug Robertson, Antonio Aguirre, and Virgil Link! I want to welcome all 14 of you to the family and hope you all had a great time! A special congrats to Natasha Jaszay and Virgil Link for making to the quarter finals of this event in their first SFT AHT event ever! That is pretty impressive!
I am sure many of you got the email explaining how this weekend’s event had opportunities for those that may be strapped for funds. I am pleased to announce that we had 4 bowlers show the power of the parlay this weekend! Robert Lewis, Dylan Taylor, Robert Bautista, and Joe Mascio turned $25 into big money. The 4 of them combined put in $100 and took home $820! Robert Lewis was the biggest parlay power player, taking home $300 off of his $25 economy parlay investment. The other affordable method was the mid-week qualifying which another bowler was able to turn into big money. Bo Copeland only had to invest $55 to advance to the quarter finals from mid-week qualifying, but he ended up finishing in the top 6 bowlers for the tournament and taking home $300! To go even further, Dylan Taylor won $400 by spending $5 on Momma’s Mystery Score on Monday. His 225 score won him 80 times his entry fee back! We can’t emphasize this enough, being low on funds, does not mean you can’t come make some big money at an SFT AHT event!
Our $1,500.00 in side pots this weekend were a big hit! The big winner of all of this money was Danielle Daugherty who ended up winning $520 in side pots! She did it with her brand new Track 912T. This was Danielle’s first Track bowling ball, and it is becoming very clear to a lot of members that are trying out their first Track balls, that the products are phenomenal. Great bowling Danielle!
Let’s get into the nitty gritty of the tournament, the very exciting quarter’s, semi’s, and final’s. There were a total of 41 quarter finalists, which meant that the semi’s would be the top 7 bowlers in each division. Those 7 bowlers were split up on two pairs of lanes based on seeding. There were two pairs of bowlers, a pair with 4, and a pair with 3. They would all bowl one game with 2 players coming off the pair with 4 and one player coming off the pair with 3. There was a tie for the final spot between Anthony Dang and Mike Holland that was decided by a 9th and 10th frame roll off. Anthony ended up splitting in the 10th which game Mike the win.
In the A division, the pair with 4 players was Joe Mascio, Danielle Daugherty, Cortez Schenk and Hokey Begay. Cortez was the high on this pair by quite a bit, and Joe and Danielle actually tied which forced a 9th and 10th frame roll off that Danielle would inevitably win. The other pair had David Kurlan, Tina Niles, and Robert Lewis. Robert only needed a mark in the 10th to move forward, which he was able to do. The A division semi-finals in round 2 was still not a very close one. Cortez defeated Robert and Danielle by a pretty good margin, which meant that the young youth member bowling for scholarship money locked himself into the tournament finals.
In the B division, the 1st round of the semi’s had Jeff Brackett, Mike Holland, Bo Copeland, and Robin Unfricht on the pair with 4 bowlers. Gary Demeny, Virgil Link, and Chuck Kremer would be on the pair with 3. Chuck Kremer bowled a tremendous 302 with handicap to advance off of the pair with 3 bowlers on it. Mike and Bo would also advance to meet Chuck in the 2nd round of the semi-finals. Chuck had some unfortunate breaks that took him out of the match by the end of the game. Bo had a chance to beat Mike but was unable to do so.
It was clear going into this match that Cortez was the favorite, he was really cruising through everyone in match play, while Mike was doing just enough to survive each round. This time was one of the few times that the final match ended up being as you expected it. Cortez defeated Mike 230 to 200 to take home this season’s first Major title, $1,500.00 in scholarship, and big bragging rights! Congrats to Cortez and Mike for their great bowling this weekend!
Our next event is coming up this weekend at Brunswick Zone Glendale lanes. It will be our first time at this location, and we are excited to see what it is like. I look forward to seeing you all there!
