Our event this weekend at Mesa East Bowl was a two-squad standard, and sometimes that means less entries since there aren’t as many squads. Well it was jam packed with almost 50 bowlers per squad! We had a total of 96 entries (63 Qualifying & 33 Economy Parlay), 27 cashers, with a 1 in 3.6 cash ratio and paid out over $4,750.00 in main and side event prize fund. The players bowled on a very tough 38ft Kegel Alcatraz oil pattern that had low cut scores for the day. Most divisions took in the +40 range to advance, which means that they only had to bowl 10-20 pins over average for the entire series, which is bowling a small amount over your average each game. The medium length pattern allowed players to play a variety of angles including down and in and deep inside angles, but if you got it a little too far outside, then your ball wouldn’t come back.
As always we like to welcome our newest SFT bowlers! Edward Lee, Heath Lee, Michael Sylve, Horace Paul, Jason Herr, Rusty Hahn and Jeffery Webb all joined us for their first tournament this weekend! We appreciate you guys coming out to give the event a try and we hope to see you at another one! Congrats to Edward Lee for also making the cut in his first event! It's always a pretty rough first time experience to bowl in a new bowling center, or new tournament, especially on a difficult sport pattern.
The quarterfinals are typically on fresh and the scores are lower because of it. However, since this was a two squad event, the quarterfinals was bowled on the burn and normally players’ bowl typically (but not always) the higher scores. Well, that is what happened at this event. The quarterfinals had scores that were pretty up and down due to transition. The bowlers moving on to the semi-finals in the C Division were #1 seed Mike Hodge at +80 and #2 seed Brian Mires at +64. In the B Division the #1 was Justin Singleton at +46 and he would have to face #2 seed Mike Umstead at +27. Finally in the A Division our #1 seed was Zack Huglin at +36. We did have a tie in the A Division for the #2 seed. So Nick Borland and Ron McDonald had a 9th & 10th frame roll off. Nick started off his 9th frame with a strike. Then Ron was able to go 9 spare in his 9th and strike, nine spare in the 10th. This meant that Nick had to strike in the 1st frame of the 10th to move on to the semi-finals. The ball looked good off his hand, but he ended up leaving a swisher 7-pin allowing Ron McDonald to move onto the semi-finals based on handicap.
In the semi-finals, Ron McDonald was able to string along enough strikes to defeat Zack Huglin, 231 to 204. In the B Division, Justin Singleton was able to cruise pass Mike Umstead, 220 to 197. The C Division was Brian Mires was able to stay clean for most of the game to beat Mike Hodge, 202 to 185 with handicap.
The final match was a pretty good one. It would have been easy to assume that Ron McDonald w was the one to beat, as he was the only person in the final match that had previous experience bowling for a title and he was the number seed after the previous semi-final round. However, it didn't quite work out that way. Brian started off with a few splits and Ron was able to start off clean, but Justin caught fire and was able to start off the match with a few strikes. Ron tried to keep pace, but a nasty split in the 8th frame did him in. Brian tried to rally, but a missed spare in the 8th slowed him down. It looked like it was Justin’s match to lose and he didn’t disappoint. Justin was able to stay clean for a nice 249 game, with handicap, getting him his first ever SFT AHT title and $750.00! Ron McDonald finished 2nd for $400.00 and Brian Mires finished 3rd for $300.00.
Congrats to all the bowlers that came out and we look forward to seeing you at our next event, on Saturday, March 17th at Union Hills!
