This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Memorial Day Major at Bowlero Mesa. We would see 371 total entries (273 qualifying and 98 parlay entries) this weekend which would smash our previous record of 317 total entries (226 qualify and 91 parlays) for a Major event! It was great to see everyone come out to compete and have a good time. Honestly, we can’t 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 would even see some bowlers come down from Utah to bowl our event.
The event had 98 cashers, a 1 in 4 cash ratio and we would pay out a record payout of over $29,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a 41ft Patriot (2022 USBC Masters) oil pattern that proved to be playable but 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 in transition and 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 pretty much on par with bowlers only needing to get about 10 pins above average to make the cut. The scores were a bit lower on Saturday but would slightly increase as the weekend would go on. The pattern would hold up for the weekend with cut scores remaining about the same for all three days.
We had 12 new bowlers come out and try the event for the first time! We would like to welcome Scott Strehlow, James Strang, Lawrence Wallett, Savannah Sears, Barry Isler, Tucker Cunningham, Santiago Viramontes, Seth Krich, Chaz Maltby, Jeremy Plante, Jason Summers and Jeremiah McLelland 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 Curtis Spence, Eric Flick and David Corcino. All three of these bowlers made it to the quarterfinals off their $30 economy parlay entry and all had a chance to turn that into the $1,900 first place prize.
We would see three people 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 Michael Killgore who would win $500 with a 201 game on Sunday. Also, congrats to Trevor Jolley and Brayden Duke who both bowled 141 on Monday and would split the $500 pot between them for $250 each. Also congrats to our Memorial Day MEGA Sweeper winner Jonah Tafoya who would win $300.00 for his 733 set. We had 214 entries in the MEGA sweeper with the low to cash being 43rd place. The final results can be found at http://aht.strikeforcetour.com/content/2022-memorial-day-results. 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
- Ryan Staunton
Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $85.00
- James Stang
- Thomas “Buddy” Darnell
Free Main Entry ($55 value)
- Kevin Dollar
- Thomas “Buddy” Darnell
Free Progressive Pot ($25 value)
- Ken W. Davis
- Mathew Wykoff
Free Economy Parlay ($30 value)
- Ron McDonald
- Kevin Dollar
Free Strikeforce T-Shirt ($20 value)
- Justin Surat
- Kevin Dollar
- Michael Killgore
Free Strikeforce Towel
- James Strang
- Barry Isler
- Taylor Comon
The Quarterfinals was a huge one with 70 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 23 bowlers in the A and B Divisions, they would be cutting to the Top 7 in each of the Divisions. The C Division had 24 quarterfinalists so they would cut to the Top 8 after 3 games in the quarterfinal round.
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 Kyle Ponzo (+93), #2 DJ Kneifel (+45), #3 Josh Anthony (+44), #4 Brian Waugh (+43), #5 Mark Large (+40), #6 Eric Flick (+14) and #7 seed was Jon Mayer (-4). We would see the Kyle Ponzo vs. Josh Anthony vs. Mark Large vs. Jon Mayer on one pair with the two highest scores advancing to the second semi-final round. On the other pair we would see DJ Kneifel vs. Brian Waugh vs. Eric Flick with the highest score from that pair advancing. The first semi-final match would see Jon Mayer (208) and Mark Large (204) advance from the pair as Josh Anthony (192) and Kyle Ponzo (169) would be eliminated. The other match would see Eric Flick (243) defeat Brian Waugh (199) and DJ Kneifel (188) to move on to the second semi-final match.
The B Division #1 seed would be Isaac Chavira (+37), #2 Howard Strause (+29), #3 Curtis Spence (+28), #4 Brandon Loss (+27), #5 Ken W. Davis (+23), #6 Dan Friedline (+11) and the #7 seed would be Lordan Ferguson (+9). The first semi-final round for the B Division would see Isaac Chavira vs. Curtis Spence vs. Ken W. Davis vs. Lordan Ferguson with the top 2 scores advancing to the next round. In the other B Division semi-final pair would have Howard Strause vs. Brandon Loss vs. Dan Friedline with the highest score moving on to the next semi-final round. The first round in the B Division would see Curtis Spence (241) and Isaac Chavira (234) moving on as Ken W. Davis (208) and Lordan Ferguson (165) would be eliminated. The other B Division match would see Brandon Loss (226) advance as he would defeat Dan Friedline (203) and Howard Strause (165).
The C Division #1 seed was James Strang (+75), #2 Savannah Sears (+72), #3 David Klatt (+43), #4 Brett Harrison (+25), #5 Melissa King (+18), #6 Azusena Munoz (+16), #7 Scott Cook (+14) and your #8 seed was Alex Pellegrino (+8). On the first pair in the C Division, we would see James Strang vs. David Klatt vs. Melissa King vs. Scott Cook. In the other match we would see Savannah Sears vs. Brett Harrison vs. Azusena Munoz vs. Alex Pellegrino. Both pairs would have the top two scores on each pair advance to the next round. The first match in the C Division would have James Strang (249) and Melissa King (230) advance while David Klatt (177) and Scott Cook (164) would be eliminated. The second C Division semi-final match would be a close one with Brett Harrison (210) and Azusena Munoz (173) as the top 2 scores as Savannah Sears (172) and Alex Pellegrino (169) would narrowly be eliminated.
The second round Semi-Final match in the A Division would see Mark Large (209) defeat Jon Mayer (198) and Eric Flick (191) to secure a spot in the Eliminator Finals match. The second round of the B Division Semi-Final match would have Brandon Loss (234) defeating Isaac Chavira (218) and Curtis Spence (216) to lock up his spot in the Finals as well.
The second Semi-Final match in the C Division would have all four bowlers on one pair with the top two scores advancing to a third semi-final match. The top two scores would be James Strang (227) and Melissa King (226) as we would see Brett Harrison (183) and Azusena Munoz (178) be eliminated. The third semi-final match in the C Division would see Melissa King continue her run as she would defeat James Strang, 214 to 188, to put her into the Eliminator 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 a SFT record payout $1,900.00 first place prize!
Going into the Memorial Day Eliminator Finals we would see all three bowlers looking to win their first AHT SFT title. Mesa Metro Association Hall of Famer Mark Large was making his finals debut under the current Strikeforce Tour. Melissa King had been bowling well all day and was making her first Finals appearance as well. Finally, we would have our current SFT Rookie of the Year Brandon Loss looking for his first win as he had come up just short finishing third in last year’s Memorial Day Major at Bowlero Glendale and was looking at a chance to redeem himself.
The first Eliminator Finals game would see Brandon Loss get lined up and put up a big score of 226 to secure his spot in the second game. It would come down to last few frames between Melissa and Mark to see who would be moving on to face Brandon. Melissa would open in the seventh and eighth frames while Mark would miss a split (3-10) in the eighth to remain close. Melissa would pick up her spare in the ninth to force Mark to strike in the ninth. Mark’s shot would hit the pocket light leaving a mixer 7-pin which he would not convert. Melissa would strike in the tenth to seal up her spot with a score of 182. Mark would finish out the match and be eliminated in third place taking home $675.00 for his efforts. The Final match would see Brandon Loss continue to remain on fire as he would put up his highest score of the day to defeat Melissa King, 254 to 187. This would give Brandon his first AHT SFT title and $1,900.00! Congrats to Melissa King on second place and $975.00.
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major! Also, a BIG thank you to Jodi Bach, Tiffani Werden and the staff at Bowlero Mesa for hosting our tournament and providing us with great service all weekend! I also would like to thank Tawna McDonald, Skye Lennen and Michael Dragon for all the help this weekend. I’m not sure we could put on this record-breaking event without them!
Hope you all had a great week, and we’ll see you all in a couple of weeks! We are going to be at Bowlero Christown for the first time in 5 years for a 2-squad event on Sunday, June 12th! Hope to see you there!
Memorial Day Eliminator Finals - Mark Large vs. Brandon Loss vs. Melissa King
