This weekend we had a 3-squad tournament at Bowlero Mesa. We had a great turnout with 115 total entries (88 qualifying entries and 27 economy parlays entries). We had 30 cashers, a 1 in 3.83 cash ratio and paid out over $7,200.00 in main event and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 48ft PBA Shark oil pattern that plays a bit differently as it is a long pattern in length but does not have a lot of volume in the middle. This creates a bit of an odd transition as the lanes start to “dry out” in the front and middle parts of the lane which forces bowlers to move left (for righties) quickly. However, with most patterns you can still get the ball out towards to outside part of the lane and hook it back but with this pattern if you get it too far outside too early it would hit the out of bounds and not come back. This would result in some lower scores with bowlers only needing to get a few pins over their average each game to get to around +60 to +50 to advance to the quarterfinals.
We had a few new bowlers join us this weekend and we want to give a warm welcome to Ryan Feber, Mike Burbey, Justin Boom, Shawn Bienfang, and Gregory Milam, who all bowled in their first event this weekend. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. Congrats to Justin Boom for making to the quarterfinals in his very first event! Also, congrats to Rachel Weyrauch, Jonah Tafoya, Chase Rohlik, Kaitlyn Davis, and Mike Rhoads for making their first quarterfinals or their first in quite a while. Congrats to Chase Rohlik for being this weekend’s only Parlay Power Player. Chase was able to qualify for the quarterfinals off his $30.00 economy parlay investment and even shot his very first 300 game! We would see not one, not two but four Momma’s Mystery numbers put in the first two squads that would’ve paid out $500.00! Unfortunately, three bowlers that would’ve won were not in the Momma’s Mystery Pot and a fourth bowler didn’t stick around to hear his score/name called for $500.00. It looked like the third squad would be the same but fortunately for Ron Gonzales and Steve Convirs, they did get into the Momma’s Mystery Pot and would see their Game 2 score (181) pulled to win the $500.00 prize ($250.00 each). Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $95.00, was Shaun Newman.
We would have a see 25 bowlers advancing to the quarterfinals from the qualifying squads. With our 1 in 3 cut ratio, from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals, we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in the A & B Division and the Top 3 bowlers C Divisions after 3 games. The quarterfinals would be bowled on the fresh oil pattern and the scores showed as we would see scores more in line with the 1st squad of the tournament. Picking up spares was the key as it would come down to the final few frames to see who would advance to semi-final round.
The A Division would see Eddie Wilcox (+137) emerge as the #1 seed and he would have to face off against #2 seed Kyle Ponzo (+96). The B Division would have your current SFT season points leader Ryan Griggs (+81) as the #1 seed, and he would take on Michael LePage (+56). The C Division would be Parlay Power Player Chase Rohlik (+177) as the #1 seed, and he would be up against SFT Rookie Mike Rhoads (+93) and Arthur Lara (+70).
The A Division Semi-Finals would feature two talented bowlers in Eddie Wilcox and Kyle Ponzo. They would both go back and forth for most of the match with it all coming down to the tenth frame. Kyle would get a strike and fill out the tenth frame to finish with a score of 210. This would force Eddie to mark to win. Eddie would fill out the tenth with a mark and count for a score of 223 to advance to the Finals.
The B Division Semi-Final match would see Ryan and Michael looking to figure out the pair in the first few frames. Michael would jump out to an early lead with a double in the third and fourth frame. Ryan would a bit with the pair but would get lined up and put together a 5-bagger to take a late lead in the match. Going into the tenth frame we would see Michael nine-spare and get an eight count for a score of 235. Ryan, coming off the 5-bagger, would need a mark and good count to win the match. Ryan’s first ball would go high through the pocket leaving the 3-6-10, which he would spare. Ryan’s fill shot would get just a bit too far left and he would get a 3-count and finish with a score of 229, to give Michael the win.
The C Division Semis would see a couple of huge scores. Arthur Lara would lead us off with a nice score of 221, but it wouldn’t be enough as red-hot Chase Rohlik would come out firing with a huge score of 254. Normally this score would be good enough to advance but Mike Rhoads would put up his best score of the day with a huge game of 289 (245 scratch) to win the match and advance to the Finals.
Going into the Finals we would see two of the three bowlers looking to take home their first AHT SFT title. Eddie Wilcox was looking to win his fourth AHT SFT title and the points that come along with it for the season player’s race. Michael LePage made a Finals appearance here at Bowlero Kyrene back in July of 2022, where he came in second place, and was looking to improve on those results. Mike Rhoads has been bowling our tournaments, the past few months, and was finally seeing his hard work pay off with his very first Finals appearance. Unfortunately, both Michael and Mike were not in the progressive pot so they were looking to take home about half of the projected $1,250.00 first place prize money ($625.00). So, the way that the Progressive Pot works is that all the prize money that the bowlers win, who are not in the Progressive Pot, is then redistributed to all the other bowlers that were in the progressive pot who advanced to the quarterfinals. So, you can imagine that everyone was rooting for them to win so they could get more of the Top 3 Progressive Pot prize money in their checks.
The Finals would see Mike Rhoads set his personal best with a score of 300 (256 scratch) to win his first AHT SFT title and take home $625.00 (non-progressive)! Eddie would come in second place, with a score of 217, and take home $1,000.00 for his efforts. Michael LePage would come in third, with a score of 199, and take home $200.00 (non-progressive). So, with Mike and Michael taking first and third, their progressive pot portions were redistributed to all the other Quarterfinalists that were in the Progressive Pot!
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to bowl our event! We thank you all enough for supporting our tournaments. Big thank you to Jay Jay Newell and the Bowlero Kyrene staff for hosting us and providing great service this weekend. Also, thanks to Michael Dragon and Tyler Andersen for helping run our event this weekend.
We will see you all a few weeks for our 2-Squad Standard tournament on Sunday, March 24th at AMF McRay!
Bowlero Kyrene Finals - Eddie Wilcox vs. Michael LePage vs. Mike Rhoads
