Our event this weekend was at AMF Union Hills, and we had another great turnout in back-to-back weekends. We had 139 total entries (100 qualifying & 39 economy parlays) for 2 squads, with 35 prize winners and a 1 in 3.97 cash ratio, paying out over $9,200 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 43ft Kegel Deadman’s Curve oil pattern that played very soft at this center. The pattern has an out of bounds if you get it too far towards the gutter early, but it looked like there was enough of a built-in track that the bowlers were able to overcome it. We would see a lot of higher scores than usual but going from pair to pair there were some big differences, but once the oil pattern started to break down in the later squads, then scores started to pick up. It would take about +80 to qualify for the quarterfinals with bowlers needing to bowl 20-30 pins over their average per game to advance.
We want to welcome Brandon Bosworth, Brandon Crandall, Jacob Goodnight, Ronnie Goodnight, Keith Ingram, Kyle Lawrence, Eric Young and Virginia Young to the SFT AHT family! We hope you all had a good time in your first SFT AHT event. Congrats to Jacob Goodnight and Eric Young for making the quarterfinals in their very first event! Also, congrats to Brian Schamber, Jerome Robinson, Daniel Capps, Joshua Hu, James Hughes, Kyle Zimmer, Lordan Ferguson, and Melloni Zimmer for making their first quarterfinals or their first in quite a while! We did not have any Economy Parlay Power players this weekend as it looked like those who won the parlay were not able to repeat their performance on the following squad. Your winner of the drawing for the free plastic ball, with the option to upgrade to any high-performance Track ball for $85.00, was Ron Gonzales!
Since this event was only 2 squads there would be no re-oil before the quarterfinals. This resulted in higher scores as the volume used on the oil pattern held up enough give bowlers a variety of options of attacking the pair. We would see some tight scores and it would all come down to the third and final game of the quarterfinals to determine who would move on to the Semi-Final round. We would have 27 quarterfinalists and with our 1 in 3 cut ratio, from the quarterfinals to the semi-final round, we would cut to the Top 3 in all three Divisions.
The A Division #1 seed would be Michael Dragon (+160) and he would have to take on Brian Schamber (+156) and Carlos Vejar (+147). The B Division would see Brian Jackson (+171) as the #1 overall seed, and he would face off with Daniel Capps (+149) and Joshua Hu (+135). The C Division would have newcomer Jacob Goodnight (+116) as the top seed, and he would be match against Lordan Ferguson (+100) and Kyle Zimmer (+93).
The A Division semi-final match would start off with Michael Dragon throwing a six bagger to get out to an early lead. Carlos would string some strikes together and Brian would have an untimely open in the fifth. Dragon would have a couple of splits in the seventh and eight frames that he could not covert to give Brian and Carlos a chance to get back into the match. Carlos could not take advantage as he would finish in with a score of 225. Brian would have a chance as he would double in the eighth and ninth frames but would get six-spare and a strike on the fill to finish at 220. Dragon would mark and fill out the tenth frame to win the match with a score of 240 to get himself into the Finals.
The B Division semi-finals would not be that close as Daniel Capps and Joshua Hu would struggle on the pair. Daniel would finish with a score of 167 and Joshua would finish at 226. Brian Jackson also would struggle for a bit for the first few frames, but he would get lined up and throw seven strikes in a row to close out the match with a huge 268 game!
The C Division semi-finals would also not be as close as Lordan Ferguson and Jacob Goodnight would struggle to string any strikes. Kyle Zimmer would figure out the pair as he would stay clean for most of the match. Lordan would finish in third place with a score of 174 while Jacob Goodnight would finish in second place with a score of 195. Kyle would punch out in the tenth to cap off the win with a score of 238!
The Finals would see Kyle Zimmer making his first AHT SFT finals and he would be looking to win his first title. Brian Jackson would be looking to add another title to his resume along with a couple of ACBA wins. Michael Dragon would be looking to add his fourth title and the $1,450 first place prize!
The Finals would start off with Michael Dragon and Brian Jackson striking while Kyle would seven-spare. It looked like it was going to be a shoot out with the higher semi-final scores. Dragon would leave a mixer seven-pin in the second frame that he would convert. Kyle would strike and Brian would double in the second. The third frame would see Brian complete a three-bagger to take control of the match while Dragon and Kyle would spare. In the fourth frame Brian would leave the Greek Church (4-6-7-9-10) which he almost converted but could not trip out the 4-pin. Dragon would also open as he would leave the 6-7-10 split and could not convert the spare attempt. Kyle would also open by missing a 6-pin spare.
Midway through the match and it was a pretty close match. All three bowlers would spare in the fifth to remain close. Brian would double in the sixth and seventh to get a small lead as Kyle would mark and stay clean. Dragon would nine-spare in the sixth and then throw a three-bagger to get himself back into the match. Brian would strike in the seventh and nine-spare in the eighth. Brian would set up his tenth frame with another strike in the ninth. Kyle would keep chugging along with a spares in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames to stay in the match.
It would all come down to the tenth frame as all three bowlers were within 10-20 pins over each other. Dragon would finish first as his first shot would get a bit right off his hand and hit the pocket leaving the Greek Church (4-6-7-9-10). Dragon would chop off the 6-10 to finish at 202. Kyle would be up next, and he would punch out in the tenth with all three strikes to finish at 241. This would mean that Brian would need a strike, or he could mark and strike on his fill to win by 1-pin. Brian’s first shot would hit a bit light as he would leave the 2-pin. Now he needed to pick up the spare and get a strike for the win or nine would mean a tie for a ninth/tenth frame roll-off. Brian’s spare attempt would look a bit right off his hand and it would just miss the 2-pin and he would finish with a score of 230. This would give Kyle his first AHT SFT title and $1,450.00 first place prize! Congrats to Brian Jackson on second place for $800.00 and also congrats to Michael Dragon on third place for $500.00!
Thank you to everyone who came out to bowl our tournament this weekend! It is always great to see so many faces coming out to give us a try. Also thank you to Chris Dancer and the staff at AMF Union Hills for hosting us this weekend! Another big thank you to Tawna and Skye for all the hard work they do to keep our tournaments running! We will be off for the next couple of weeks, and we will be back on Sunday, August 21st at Bowlero Via Linda for another 2-squad standard tournament! Hope you enjoy the time off and we will see you soon!!!
AMF Union Hills Finals - Michael Dragon vs. Brian Jackson vs. Kyle Zimmer!
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