Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Glendale and we would have a pretty good turnout! We had 104 total entries (80 qualifying and 24 economy parlay), 30 total cashers, and a 1 in 3.46 cash ratio and paid out over $6,700.00 in main and side event prize funds. Players bowled on the Kegel 43ft Krypton oil pattern that was a bit tricky on the fresh. Bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on the pattern. The cut scores would go up as the day went on and would settle at +50, which meant that you had to bowl about 15-20 pins over your average per game to qualify.
As always, we want to welcome our first-time bowlers Bria McClellan, Thomas Hofmann, Carey Hofmann, and Michelle Workman to the SFT bowling family! We hope you all had a good time at your first event and we look forward to seeing you at the next one! Congrats to Chris Huskins, Jaden Workman, Ming Shih, Jason Lowery, and Houston Von Kriegenbergh on advancing to their first quarterfinals or their first in quite a while! Also, congrats to Jeffrey Crowley as he would be our only bowler to advance to the quarterfinals through the Economy Parlay! Jeffrey made the quarterfinals off his $30.00 parlay investment and we almost always have one or two bowlers that advances by winning the parlay and then bowling well again. Congrats to Justin O’Donnell on winning the Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 212, for $500.00! Your winner of the free Track plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track High Performance ball for $95.00, was Stephanie Sell!
Since this was a 3-squad tournament, there would be a re-oil before the quarterfinals. The pattern seemed to play more in line with previous tournaments as we would see scores shoot through the roof and with the standings being tight. With 23 quarterfinalist, at least 7 bowlers in each Division, we would cut to the Top 2 in each Division and we would see the semi-finalists determined by the final game of the quarters. In the A Division, your #1 seed would be former SFT Player of the Year Tim Eichhorn (+80) and he would have to face off against Alec Johnson (+52). In the B Division, you would see Michael LePage (+83) versus Chris Huskins (+83). The C Division was led by #1 seed overall, Charles Nault (+117) and he would face off with Ming Shih (+56).
In the Semi-Finals, Tim and Alec would go back and forth to start. Alec would get lined up and catch fire as he would run away with the match as he would shoot 258 scratch to defeat Tim, 268 to 201. The B Division semi-final would also be the same between Michael LePage and Chris Huskins. Michael would struggle with the pair while Chris would get lined up and put up a big score to advance to the Finals, 268 to 180. The C Division semi-final would see Charles and Ming start off close to start. Ming would get lined up while Charles would struggle and we would see Ming pull away for the win, 235 to 197.
Going into the Finals and we would see Chris Huskins and Ming Shih making their very first Finals match. Chris is a SFT rookie who has been bowling a few events over the last few months and looked like this pattern matched his game. Alec Johnson had to be the favorite going into the Finals as he had just put up a huge 258 scratch game in the previous round and he was making his second Finals appearance. Alec previously came in second in his last Finals, so if he could get lined up quickly then it looked like he could get his first title and the $1,050.00 projected payout. Ming Shih has bowled our tournaments off and on over the last couple of years and had finally found success on this pattern to hopefully take home his first title. Unfortunately for Ming, he was not in the Progressive Pot. This would make him the crowd favorite due to him only being able to win $525.00 for first place and the rest of the $525.00 would be redistributed to all the bowlers than made the Quarterfinals that were in the Progressive Pot.
The Final match would start off with all three bowlers struggling with to start out. Alec was able to get lined up quickly as he was able to string a couple of strikes to try and make up the handicap difference that he was giving Chris and Ming. Chris would struggle with a couple of splits while Ming would keep pace with Alec. Ming would open in the fourth frame as Alec looked to catch up with a much-needed strike. Chris would make a ball change in the fifth frame which looked to make a difference as he would get his first strike of the match.
Midway through the match and Ming had a slight lead over Alec. Ming would continue to stay clean while Chris came alive with the ball change. Alec would struggle with carry on the right lane while striking on the left lane. Alec would open in the eighth frame to give Ming and Chris an opening to pass him in the match. It would come down to the tenth frame as Alec would be on the right lane. He would again leave a 7-pin on his first ball, but would not convert the spare to finish up with a score of 195. Chris would be up next and he double and get nine to finish with a score of 219. This would force Ming to mark to win. Ming’s first shot in the tenth would leave the 3-6-10, which he would spare and fill out his tenth to finish with a score of 230 to take home his first AHT SFT title and $525.00 first place prize! Congrats to Chris Huskins on 2nd place for $650.00, and also congrats to Alec Johnson on 3rd place for $400.00!
Thank you to everyone that came out today to bowl our event. A huge thank you to the staff at Bowlero Glendale for hosting us today and letting us come out. Thank you to Michael Dragon and Tawna McDonald for all the work they do behind the scenes for us to keep putting these tournaments on for you all. We will be back in a couple weeks with an Early Bird 2-squad tournament at AMF Mesa on Sunday, August 18th.
Hope you all have a good week and we’ll see you all soon!
Bowlero Glendale Finals - Alec Johnson vs. Chris Huskins vs. Ming Shih
