This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Labor Day Major at Bowlero Mesa. We would see 260 total entries with 201 qualifying and 59 parlay entries this weekend. We can’t thank the bowling community enough for all the help in making this such a successful event. The event had 71 cashers, a 1 in 3.66 cash ratio and paid out over $14,696 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a Patriot Mystery oil pattern (2022 USBC Masters oil pattern) that proved to be very tough. Some players even joked that they would have preferred bowling on a 1:1 pattern. Players did not know any info on the pattern until Monday, as it was announced at the start of the cashers round. It would put a premium on avoiding splits and picking up spares. There was a hiccup on Sunday as the oiling machine broke down, meaning the bowlers were bowling on Saturday leftovers. This was very unfortunate but still provided a fair playing field as everyone was bowling on the same burn. The scores were surprisingly a bit higher, but it got really squirly the last squad, since it seemed like they were hooking out of the building.
We would see a few people win Momma’s Mystery Pot this weekend! We had a couple of people that were not in the Momma’s pot that had their number drawn this weekend, so it pays to put in the extra $5. Congrats to Deirdre Rose (222) who would win a whopping $500.00 on Sunday. Also, congrats to Curtis Spence (226) who would $384.00 on Monday. We also had our Memorial Day Mega Raffle, which featured more prizes than usual tournaments, and here are you mega raffle winners:
Free Track Ball of Choice
- James Roethle
Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $95.00
- Jericho Gaydos
Free Main Entry ($60 value)
- Ernie Mendoza
- James Strang
Free Economy Parlay ($35 value)
- Outlay Lalab
- Quinten Bell
- Lenny Grom
The Quarterfinals was a big one with 59 bowlers on the floor. The pattern was re-oiled before the start of the quarterfinals and it showed even lower scores.
The cut ratio to advance from the quarterfinals into the first Semi-Final round was 1 in 3. In the A division, the 24 semifinalists would wither down to 8 bowlers. The B division would go from 19 to 6. The C division would go from 16 to 5.
In the A Division, since there were 8 bowlers, there would be 3 total rounds needed to determine your A Division champion. We would go from 8 to 4, 4 to 2, and then 2 to 1. your #1 seed was Michael Arce and he had lane choice and bowler order. He would bowl against #4, #5, and #8 seeds. Those bowlers were Garret Strehl, Myles Hamilton, and Eddie Wilcox, respectively. The other Semi-Final match would see the #2 Josh Anthony, having choice of lane and order and he would play the #3, #6, #7 and seeds. Those bowlers were Bryton Bobbit, Jason Lowery, and Jeff Kraus, respectively. The 1st 4-bowler match would see the #4 seed Garret Strehl and the #5 seed Myles Hamilton emerge with scores of 218 and 173. The other 4-bowler match would have the #6 seed Jason Lowery and the #7 seed Jeff Kraus emerge with scores of 212 and 211. This would set up your A Division semifinal matches with Garret vs. Myles and Jason vs. Jeff. Myles would end up beating Garret in a nail biter match 195-193. Jeff would win the other match against Jason, 181-166. This would set up the finals between Myles and Jeff. This match would be one of the first matches in this division where it wasn’t practically even the whole match. Myles was able to take an early lead and held on to that to win over Jeff, 225-189.
In the B Division, we would have 6 bowlers remaining, which means we would have 2 separate matches, each containing 3 bowlers. 1 bowler from each match would emerge and play each other for the B Division title match. The #1 seed, Richard Perez, would have choice of lane and lane letters for the bowlers. He would bowl against the #4 seed, Jon Taylor, and the #6 seed, Lenny Grom. The first match would see Richard with a score of 227 emerge over Jon (189)and Lenny (210). The #2 seed, James Smith Jr., would have choice of lane and lane letters for the bowlers of the second match. He would bowl against the #3 seed, Bruce Franks Jr., and the #5 seed, Gunnar Hahn. The second match would see Gunnar (215) rise out of the match over James (175) and Bruce (195). This would set up our B Division finals, Richard vs. Gunnar. These finals would be close the whole way and would come down to the tenth frame. Gunnar would step up in the final frame and fall just short, leaving Richard with the win, 205-202.
In the C Division, we would have 5 bowlers all bowl in one match, having the top 2 bowlers emerge to play for the C Division finals. Those five bowlers were Lordan Ferguson (+79), Jeff Millmier (+64), Max Goldschmitt (+41), James Strang (+37), and Kaylene Almy (+29). Since Lordan was the #1 seed, he had choice of lane and lane letters for the bowlers. This match would go by fairly quickly and we see James (281) and Max (226) move on to the C Division final. This match was pretty close, but a late opening from James led to Max winning this match, 227-201.
For our Finals in our Majors, we use a different finals format. For this event, we would be using the format where the 3 Division champs bowl 1 game for 2 spots. Then the remaining bowlers bowl 1 more game for the title. Going into the Finals, we would see Myles looking for his second title, whereas Max and Richard would be looking to make their first title a major.
The first finals match would start off slow, but Max would quickly guarantee his spot into the last match by shooting a solid 220. Richard and Myles however would be very close. Myles needed a double and good count in the tenth to be Richard to move on to the final match, but would fall just short. The final score was Max (220) - Richard (185) - Myles (181).
The second finals match would also be another nail biter as it would go back and forth the whole way. It was ironic because everything one bowler did, the other would go up and essentially do the same thing. With both players doing a little bit of everything (striking, sparing, and splitting), the final frame would require Max to 15 pins in the fill, with good count on the first shot, in order to win. He would go up and leave a makeable spare. Max would make it and get 7 pins on the fill to win the title of Richard, 189-187, along with the major title!
This would give Max his first AHT SFT Major title for his first overall SFT title and $1,550.00! Congrats to Richard Perez for coming in second place and taking home $800.00 for his efforts this weekend.
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major tournament! Also, a BIG thank you to Jay Jay Newell and the staff at Bowlero Kyrene for hosting our tournament and providing us with great service all weekend! They were super helpful in getting us a working oiling machine in less than 24 hours.
We will be back on Sunday, June 15th at Bowlero Mesa for a 2-squad tournament! Hope to see you there!
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