This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Labor Day Major at Bowlero Kyrene. We would see 350 total entries (238 qualifying and 112 parlay entries) this weekend which would get close to but would come up short on our qualifying entries record that we set Memorial Day Major event! It was great to see everyone come out to compete and have a good time. Honestly, we cannot thank the bowling community enough for all the help in making this such a successful event. We would draw entries from around the state and it was great to see some bowlers that we have not seen a while.
The event had 83 cashers, a 1 in 4.2 cash ratio and we would payout of over $26,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a 41ft Patriot (Kegel Arsenic) oil pattern that proved to be very tough when moving pair to pair. There were some bowlers that seemed to match up well for a game or two but would get lost as they moved to a new pair. This would put a premium on spare shooting. 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 hit their average or maybe a few pins above average to make the cut. The scores looked a bit higher on Saturday but would slightly decrease as the weekend would go on. The pattern would get tougher after each strip and re-oil with scores remaining about the same for all three days.
We had 10 new bowlers come out and try the event for the first time! We would like to welcome Chad Jovich, Craig Weller, Gabriel Wilson, Aliyas Sargento, Aaron Coleman, Albert “Sonny” James, Conner Collins, Chris Case, Steven Muller, and Holly Carroll to the SFT Family. We hope you all have a good time and thank you all for coming out and trying out our event. We hope to see you all soon at future events. We also would like to congratulate this weekend’s Parlay Power Players in Armando Viramontes, Mathew Wykoff, Dan Friedline, Aliyas Sargento, Charlie Light, Aaron Coleman, Juan Brooks, Christopher Mayes, Shelby Dempsey, and Josh Perry. All of these bowlers made it to the quarterfinals off their $30 economy parlay entry and with Christopher Mayes turning that chance into the $1,700 first place prize, but more on that in a bit. We would also like to congratulate a few bowlers that were making their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in a while. Congrats to Chad Jovich, Chris Allen, Jay Jay Newell, Josh Hancock, Aaron Coleman, Aliyas Sargento, Alex Souza, Shelby Dempsey, Jon Celery, Josh Perry, and Mike Deutsch!
We would see a couple of bowlers win Momma’s Mystery Pot with only one of them winning the full $500 pot. We had a few 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 Josh Williams who would win $160 with a 215 game on Saturday. Also, congrats to John Masterson who both bowled 142 on Sunday for the full $500 pot! Also, congrats to our Memorial Day MEGA Sweeper winner Juan Brooks who would win $300.00 for his huge 740 set. We had 218 entries in the MEGA sweeper with the low to cash being 43rd place. We also had our Labor Day Mega Raffle, which featured more prizes than usual tournaments, and here are you mega raffle winners:
Free Track Ball of Choice
- Darwin Hicks
Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $85.00
- Ron McDonald
- Derek Hamm
Free Entry to the PBA Virtue Open Pro-Am Event ($60 value)
- Chip Carr
- Jason Tunay
Free Main Entry ($55 value)
- Anthony James
- Armando Viramontes
- Azusena Munoz
Free Progressive Pot ($25 value)
- Derek Hamm
- Josh Williams
Free Economy Parlay ($30 value)
- Brandon Loss
- Sandie Davis
Free Strikeforce T-Shirt ($20 value)
- Darwin Hicks
- Josh Williams
- Kevin Robertson
- Bryton Bobbitt
Free Strikeforce Towel
- David Corcino
- Ken W. Davis
- Brandon Loss
The Quarterfinals was a huge one with 60 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 A 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 20 bowlers in all three Divisions, we would be cutting to the Top 6 in each of the Divisions. 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 Aliyas Sargento (+88), #2 Chris Ingram (+66), DJ Kneifel (+57), Ben Perry (+57), Tim Eichhorn (+41) and Armando Viramontes (+34). We would see the Aliyas Sargento vs. Ben Perry vs. Armando Viramontes on one pair. On the other pair we would see Chris Ingram vs. DJ Kneifel vs. Tim Eichhorn with the highest score from each pair advancing. The first semi-final match would see Ben Perry (240) catch fire and defeat Armando Viramontes (198) and Aliyas Sargento (196) to advance from the pair. The other match would see DJ Kneifel (218) cruise along as Chris Ingram (180) and Tim Eichhorn (180) would struggle with the pair and would be eliminated.
The B Division #1 seed would be Christopher Mayes (+86), #2 seed Lordan Ferguson (+24), Justin Surat (+23), Aaron Coleman (-6), William Standefer (-6) and Josh Hancock (-15). The first semi-final round for the B Division would see Christopher Mayes vs. Aaron Coleman vs. Josh Hancock while the other semi-final pair would have Lordan Ferguson vs. Justin Surat vs. William Standefer, with the highest score on each pair moving on to the next semi-final round. The first round in the B Division would see Christopher Mayes (254) moving on as Josh Hancock (182) and Aaron Coleman (172) would be eliminated. The other B Division match would see William Standefer (218) advance as he would defeat Lordan Ferguson (187) and Justin Surat (181).
The C Division #1 seed was Bryan Schultz (+88), #2 seed would be Josh Perry (+80), Mathew Wykoff (+44), Kenny Koen (+41), Cayden Matherly (+31) and Bill Roberts (+13). On the first pair in the C Division, we would see #1 seed Bryan Schultz vs. Kenny Koen vs. Bill Roberts. In the other match we would see #2 seed Josh Perry vs. Mathew Wykoff vs. Cayden Matherly. Both pairs would have the top scorer on each pair advance to the next round. The first match in the C Division would see Bill Roberts (220) hold off Kenny Koen (213) and Bryan Schultz (175) to advance to the next round. The other C Division semi-final match would not be as close with Mathew Wykoff (243) getting lined up to eliminate Cayden Matherly (216) and Josh Perry (195).
The second round Semi-Final match in the A Division would be left versus lefty with DJ Kneifel defeating Ben Perry, 205 to 172, to secure his spot in the Step Ladder Finals. The second round of the B Division Semi-Final match would see Christopher Mayes continue to run hot as he would win his match with William Standefer, 239 to 202. The second round of the C Division Semi-finals would see Bill Roberts run out of steam as Mathew Wykoff would go on to win the match, 202 to 173.
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 Step Ladder format where all three bowlers would be seeded based on their semi-final’s totals. This would make the #1 seed Christopher Mayes (+93), #2 seed would be Mathew Wykoff (+45) and the #3 seed would be DJ Kneifel (+23). Mathew and DJ would have to face off in the first step ladder match with the winner going on to face Christopher. This would mean that Christopher Mayes would be guaranteed at least $900.00 second place prize with first place being $1,700.00!
Going into the Labor Day Step Ladder Finals we would see DJ Kneifel looking to go back-to-back Labor Major titles as he won last year's Labor Day event at Bowlero Via Linda. Mathew Wykoff was making his very first Finals and was looking to turn his $30 Economy Parlay entry into $1,700. Standing in their way was Christopher Mayes who had been running hot all day and was also looking into turning $30 parlay entry into the $1,700 first place prize. Christopher was making his first Finals appearance, but he is no stranger to winning titles as he has won quite a few on the Junior Bowlers Tour (JBT). So, it looked like it would be a great step ladder finals.
The first step ladder match would see #2 seed Mathew Wykoff taking on #3 DJ Kneifel. This match would go back and forth with both bowlers striking but unable to string strikes together. It looked like it would come down to whoever would make a mistake and who would capitalize on it. Mathew would make the first mistake as he would go high through the head pin and leave the 4-6-7 split in the seventh frame. Mathew would get the 4-7 on the spare attempt and would send the 4-pin just behind the 6-pin for an open frame. DJ would get up strike in the sixth but would go high on the right lane leaving the 5-8 in the seventh. DJ would pick up the spare but would need to get a couple of strikes to put some pressure on Mathew to do the same. Mathew would spare in the eighth and then get a much-needed strike in the ninth to set up his tenth frame. DJ would need to strike in the ninth to match Mathew but would leave the five pin on his first shot and would go on to pick up the spare. DJ would get up in the tenth frame needing to strike out to force Mathew to mark and get good count to win. DJ’s first ball in the tenth would sail a bit and hit the two-pin leaving the 1-3-4-6-7. DJ’s spare attempt would chop the 1-3 to finish at 208. Mathew would get up in the tenth frame needing only good count to win and he would go one to get seven and miss his spare attempt to finish at 225. DJ would be eliminated in third place and would take home $600.00 for his efforts.
We would move into the Championship match between #1 seed Christopher Mayes and Mathew Wykoff. Mathew would start us off as he would go high on his first shot leaving the 3-6-10. Mathew’s spare attempt would miss right giving him an open frame. Christopher would get up and crush the pocket on his first two shots as he would strike in the first and second frame. Mathew would leave a 2-pin in the second frame and on his spare attempt he would hook at the spare, but his ball would just miss to the right. It looked like a bit of fatigue was setting in and the lanes were starting to transition a bit. Mathew would get nine in the third frame and would go on to pick up his spare. Christopher would strike in the third and then go seven-spare in the fourth frame as he looked to make up the handicap difference that he was giving Mathew. Mathew would switch balls in the fourth frame and would go eight spare. In the fifth frame Mathew would pick up a very tough 1-3-6-8 spare to try and keep himself in the match.
Midway through the Championship match and Chris would crush the pocket again for another strike and nine-spare in the sixth to take a small lead. Mathew would try to rally in the sixth frame with a Brooklyn strike but would open in the seventh when he would chop the 3-6-9-10. Christopher would take advantage of the open frame by going nine-spare in the seventh and striking in the eighth and ninth frames. Mathew would struggle in the eighth and ninth frames as Christopher pulled away. Mathew would finish the match with a score of 185 while Christopher would go on to finish with a score of 247. This would give Christopher his first AHT SFT title and his first Major title plus the $1,700 first place prize. Congrats to Mathew for second place and $900.00!
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major tournament! Also, a BIG thank you to Jodi Bach, 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, Skye Lennen and Hokey Begay for all the help this weekend. I am not sure that we could put on this 3-Day event without them!
Hope you all have a great week, and we’ll see you all again in a couple of weeks! We are going to be at AMF Mesa for a 2-squad event on Sunday, September 18th! Hope to see you there!
Final side pot and MEGA sweeper results can be found at http://aht.strikeforcetour.com/content/major-event-info
Labor Day Major Stepladder Match 1 - #2 Mathew Wykoff vs. #3 DJ Kneifel
Labor Day Major Championship Match - #1 Christopher Mayes vs. Mathew Wykoff
