This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Memorial Day Major at Bowlero Kyrene. We would see 273 total entries (205 qualifying and 68 parlay entries) this weekend and 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 3.84 cash ratio and paid out over $19,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. It was great to see everyone come out to compete and had a good time. We would draw entries from around the state to bowl our event. The players bowled on a 41ft Freedom (41ft Kegel Arsenic) oil pattern that proved to be very tough but playable when moving pair to pair. There were some bowlers that seemed to match up well for a game or two but would get lost in transition when moving pairs.  This would put a premium on spare shooting this weekend. Bowlers had to be able to leave makeable spares and try to repeat shots. The scores were on par with bowlers only needing to get slightly above average to make the cut. The pattern would hold up for the weekend with cut scores remaining about the same for all three days.

We had 18 new bowlers come out and try the event for the first time! We would like to welcome Michael Cross, Aaron Gutierrez, Dion Locket, Christopher “Stewie” Stewart, Roam Hicks, Darin Jackson, Kevin Johnson, Jennifer Harris, Caden Meliska and Bryan Kobold to the SFT Family. We hope you all have a good time and thank you all for coming out and trying out our event.  Congrats to Roam Hicks, Jennifer Harris, Zack Huglin, Chris Weyrauch, Romeo Fermil, Clay Fritz, Eric Carroll, Abbie Newell and Joseph Aguilar on making their first quarterfinals or first in a while. We also would like to congratulate this weekend’s Parlay Power Players in Douglas Bukauskas, Peter Trofimuk, Edward Lee and Joseph Aguilar who all made it to the quarterfinals off their $30.00 Economy Parlay entry with a chance to turn their $30.00 entry into the $1,500.00 first place prize.

We would see only two people win Momma’s Mystery Pot as it had grown into three separate pots. Congrats to Michael Arce who would win $140.00 with a 157 game on Saturday. Also, congrats to Gary Jenkins, who would take home $350.00, with a score of 159 on Monday. Congrats to our Memorial Day Sweeper winner Ernie Mendoza who would win $300.00 for his 727 set. We had 123 entries in the MEGA sweeper and we would pay out 24 places with the low to cash score of 624. We also had our Memorial Day Mega Raffle, which featured more prizes than usual tournaments, and here are you Memorial Day raffle winners:

Free Track Ball of Choice

• Josh Anthony

Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $95.00

• Eric Flick
• Justin Surat

Free Main Entry ($55 value)

• Justin Surat
• Donnell Martin

Free Progressive Pot ($25 value)

• Terry Bandel
• Darin Jackson

Free Economy Parlay ($30 value)

• Dan Friedline
• Kenny “Powers” Koen

Free Strikeforce Towel

• Justin Surat
• Myles Hamilton
• Outhay Lalab

The Quarterfinals was a huge one with 55 bowlers on the floor. The pattern was re-oiled before the start of the quarterfinals, and it showed as the scores to advance past the quarterfinals would be just over average with the C Division needing a bit higher than the other Divisions to advance. The cut ratio to advance from the quarterfinals into the Semi-Final round was 1 in 3. So, with at least 18 bowlers in all three Divisions, we would be cutting to the Top 6 in each Division.

Since there were quite a few more quarterfinalists than our regular tournaments, the #1 & #2 seeds from the quarterfinals would have the option to pick which lanes the first semi-final round matches would be bowled on and, they got to decide the order for their pair.

In the A Division, your #1 seed was Douglas Bukauskas (+163), #2 Kyle Ponzo (+108), #3 Carlos Vejar (+24), #4 Charlie Price (+11), #5 Dylan Taylor (+11), and #6 seed was Kyler Adams (+9). We would see the Douglas Bukauskas vs. Carlos Vejar vs. Dylan Taylor on one pair with the highest score advancing to the second semi-final round. On the other pair we would see Kyle Ponzo vs. Charlie Price vs. Kyler Adams with the highest score from that pair also advancing. The first semi-final match would see Douglas Bukauskas (239) advance from the pair as Dylan Taylor (199) and Carlos Vejar (185) would be eliminated. The other match would see Kyle Ponzo (216) defeat Charlie Price (183) and Kyler Adams (153) to move on to the second semi-final match.

The B Division #1 seed would be Clay Fritz (+56), #2 Justin Surat (+50), #3 Romeo Fermil (+23), #4 Eric Flick (+5), #5 Zack Huglin (-10), and the #6 seed would be Lordan Ferguson (-11). The first semi-final round for the B Division would see Clay Fritz vs. Romeo Fermil vs. Zack Huglin with the top score advancing to the next round. In the other B Division semi-final pair would have Justin Surat vs. Eric Flick vs. Lordan Ferguson with the highest score moving on to the next semi-final round. The first round in the B Division would see Zack Huglin (209) narrowly defeat Romeo Fermil (205) and Clay Fritz (183) to eliminate them from the tournament. The other B Division match would see Justin Surat (221) advance as he would defeat Lordan Ferguson (210) and Eric Flick (177).

The C Division #1 seed was Michael Arce (+52), #2 Kaylene Almy (+44), #3 Steve Convirs (+36), #4 Jennifer Harris (+25), #5 Lan Duong (+16), and your #6 seed was Michael Rhoads (+13). On the first pair in the C Division, we would see Michael Arce vs. Steve Convirs vs. Lan Duong. In the other match we would see Kaylene Almy vs. Jennifer Harris vs. Mike Rhoads. Both pairs would have the top score on each pair advance to the next round. The semi-final match in the C Division would see Michael Arce (240) advance while Lan Duong (211) and Steve Convirs (189) would be eliminated. The second C Division semi-final match would see Mike Rhoads (222) defeat Jennifer Harris (205) and Kaylene Almy (187) to advance to the next round.

The second round Semi-Final match in the C Division would see Michael Arce (207) put together a couple of strikes to get by Mike Rhoads (193) to secure his spot in the Eliminator Finals match. The second round of the B Division Semi-Final match would have Zack Huglin (194) grind out a win to defeat Justin Surat (177) to lock up his spot in the Finals as well. The A Division would be a close match as we would see Kyle Ponzo (208) finish the match first. Douglas Bukauskas would need to double at get at least a six count in order to win the match. Doug would get the first two strikes but would only get a five count to finish the match tied with Kyle with a score of 208. This would force a ninth and tenth frame roll-off to determine the A Division winner.

The format for the ninth and tenth frame roll-off works is that both bowler’s handicap is divided by 5 with the decimal in play if there is another tie. Kyle would receive 2.2 pins of handicap and Doug would receive 2.4 pins of handicap. Since Doug was the higher seed, he would determine the order and which lane he would finish on. Doug would start off the match on the left lane and would go on to strike in his ninth frame. Kyle would be up next on the right lane and would throw a great shot, which would crush the pocket, but leave a stone 9-pin. Kyle would go on to pick up his spare and then proceed to punch out the tenth frame for a score of 52.2. Doug would be up next needing to strike on his first ball. Doug’s first shot in the tenth frame would see his ball just hit a bit high leaving the 4-7, which he would convert and he would strike on his fill ball to finish with a score of 42.4. This would give Kyle the win and he would advance to the Finals.

For our Finals in our Majors, Memorial Day and Labor Day, we use a different Finals format. For this event we would be using the Eliminator format where all three bowlers would bowl one game with the low score being eliminated. The remaining two bowlers would continue to the next game with the highest score winning our $1,500.00 first place prize!

Going into the Memorial Day Eliminator Finals we would see Michael Arce making his very first Finals appearance and looking to win his first SFT title. Michael just started bowling our events towards the end of the 2023 Season and we’ve seen him improve a lot along the way. Zack Huglin was looking to win his first SFT Major title and 6th title overall. Zack had taken a break from bowling as he found a new hobby in Pickleball. He decided to dust off the shoes to come out today to bowl and was showing that he still had it. Kyle Ponzo was coming off that crazy ninth/tenth frame roll-off and was looking to take home his first SFT Major title to add to the other two titles that he won last season. Kyle is the current SFT Rookie of the Year and runner-up SFT Player of the Year for last season. With a win today it would put him near the top of this season’s Player of the Year points race.

The first Eliminator Finals game would see Michael Arce (220) get lined up and put up a good score to secure his spot in the Championship game. It would come down to the tenth frame between Kyle and Zack to see which one of them would join him. Kyle would finish the match up first as he would strike on his first ball and would leave the 4-9 split on his second shot. Kyle would not convert the spare and would finish up with a score of 195. Zack, who was coming off a double in the eight and ninth frames, would need a strike and good count to advance. Zack’s first ball in the tenth would hit light leaving the 2-pin, which he would convert, and then leave a 2-pin again on his fill ball to finish with a score of 192 for third place.

The Championship match would go back and forth between Kyle and Michael. Michael would have issues with carry as Kyle would continue to string strikes along early in the match. Midway through the match Michael would fall behind as he would have a couple of opens in the fourth and fifth frames. Kyle would continue to mark and spare as he made up the handicap difference he was giving to Michael. Kyle would seem to get lined up as he would fire off five in a row to take home the win, 266 to 221. This would give Kyle his third AHT SFT title and his first Major SFT title for $1,500.00! Congrats to Michael Arce on second place for $800.00!

Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major! 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! I also would like to thank Tawna McDonald, Michael Dragon and Liz Sortais for the help this weekend. I’m not sure we could put on this event without them!

Hope you all have a great week, and we’ll see you all in a couple of weeks!  We are going to be at AMF Chandler for another 3-squad event on Sunday, June 9th!

Hope to see you there!

 

Eliminator Finals - Game 1

Kyle Ponzo vs. Zack Huglin vs. Michael Arce

 

Memorial Day Championship Match - Kyle Ponzo vs. Michael Arce