Our event this weekend was at Mesa East bowl which always has a great turn out! Their league bowlers always come out to bowl and take a stab at the prize fund. The last time we were there, a league bowler there won his first ever title. That bowler was Mike Metzler and he was looking to go back to back in his home center. He was matched againt 78 other entries aiming to take the title! Of the 79 total entries there were 23 cashers, a 1 in 3.3 cash ratio and a payout of over $3,500.00 in main and side event prizefund. The players bowled on a 43ft PBA Chameleon oil pattern that started off playable and opened up more and more as the day went on. While the bowling center has the characteristic of creating some hook and some high scores, the pins however, really fly and it's very easy to have too much entry angle. The cut scores for the event were all in the +60's & 70's which means players had to bowl about 15 pins over average per game to advance. The players all played around 12-14 at the break point, with some being further left at the arrows and others closer to the gutter and pointing it.
We had another new additions to the SFT AHT family. That bowler was Russ Laurin who ended up placing 2nd in the Economy Parlay in his division but wasn't able to use his free entry to advance to the quarter finals. Even though he didn't we had some other parlay power players who did. Ernie Mendoza, Brooke Carroll and Brian Martinez all pulled it off. Also congrats to Mark Brower, Brian Martinez, Josh McQuillen, and Estell Gushwa on making either their first ever quarter finals, or their first one in quite some time.
The quarter finals format for these two squad events is the same, but the lanes aren't re-oiled before hand. This normally means the lanes are a bit higher scoring and they definitely were. We had a huge +161 out of Matt Zweig and the average cut to the next round was about 10 pins higher then qualifying. The semi-finalists ended up being #1 seed Matt Zweig vs #2 seed Dylan Taylor in "A", #1 seed Lynn Arthuer vs #2 seed Brooke Martinez in "B" and #1 seed Brian Martinez and #2 seed Jerry Knight in "C" division. The B division match was decided quickly with Lynn bowling a very nice 230+ game with handicap. The C division went down to the 10th frame, but an open in the 10th by Brian allowed Jerry to only have to mark in the 10th to win, which he was able to do. The A division final match, was the best of the three. Matt Zweig threw all three in the 10th to put the pressure on Dylan, who then needed to throw a strike in the 10th to win. Dylan threw a great shot to pull out the win.
The final match started off rocky with none of the players striking much, but most of them staying clean. Pretty much, everyone continued to not strike, however, while Dylan and Jerry were also choosing to not spare at times. Lynn, in his textbook Lynn, way held tough and grinded through a tough pair and some physical pain. He ended up doubling in the 8th and 9th to clinch the win, his 7th title and the all time lead in SFT AHT titles! This was a huge win for Lynn because it was the very first time he was wearing a jersey that had his sister's name on it, who has been battling cancer for over 2 years now. It was his first time wearing the jersey, and it was clear it motivated him to win his 7th title! Congrats Lynn!
We look forward to seeing you all at our next event next Sunday at AMF Mesa lanes for our very fun 40 frame tournament!
