Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Union Hills and we would have the biggest turnout of the season! We had 105 total entries (84 qualifying and 21 economy parlays) with 27 prize winners and a 1 in 3.89 cash ratio, paying out over $4,970 in main prize funds. The players bowled on the 41ft Beaten Path V2 oil pattern that provided a higher scoring pace. It would take about +75 to qualify for the quarterfinals.
We had our first Momma’s Mystery Pot winner worth $500! The winner was Michael Moser with a score of 160! Your winner of the drawing for the free plastic ball, with the option to upgrade to any high-performance Track ball for $99.00, was Arthur Lara!
There were 25 competitors who made it to the cashers round. The A Division would see Justin O’Donnell (+159) emerge as the #1 seed and his opponent would be Aaron Stein (+95). The B Division would have Ken Hall (+118) as the #1 seed, and he would take on Juan Brooks (+106). The C Division #1 seed was Michael Nguyen (+171) and he would meet up against Seth Krich (+91) and Marcus Haley (+84).
Going into the Final Round we would see two first time finalists (Juan and Michael) looking for their first title and Justin looking to take home their second AHT SFT title along with the $1,300.00 first place prize. This would be the largest 1st place prize of the season.
The finals would be very close throughout the entire match with no clear person taking control over the match. This type of pattern was a little softer than what these players are normally used to in our events, and everyone knew from the start that in order to bowl well, the striking shoes needed to be worn today. It was very back and forth with some opens early from Michael, but he would come back and clutch up in the final frames to put the pressure on Juan. Justin would also find a double late in the match but would end up just short. The match ended up coming down to the very last shot (as it seems to have been the trend for most finals of the season so far). Michael would need a double in the 10th frame to force Juan to stay clean in his 10th frame. Michael would get the first hit, but then come up a little high for a 4-pin on his second shot. This would mean that Juan would need a good count (5 pins) on his first shot to win the title. Juan ended up splitting and getting 7, which was just enough to clinch his 1st title and walk away with $1,300! He finished his game off with 222 with pins, while Michael took 2nd with a 217, and Justin took 3rd with a 216. Only 6 pins separating 1st and 3rd! This season has had some nail-biting finale finishes with 3 out of our 4 events having a 10-pin gap or less between 1st and 3rd!
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to bowl our tournament. Thanks to Jason Angeles and the staff at Bowlero Union Hills for having us out this weekend and making this event run smoothly. We had filled up the entire center for both squads and we could not run events this smoothly without a hard-working center! Also, thanks to Craig and Liz for helping run the event as well as improving the new systems we are using to help increase efficiency. Our goal is to train some new check-in people to help me (Joshua Molloy) out in future events so that Craig and Liz do not have to work the events in the future. If you are interested in helping out with future events, please click here to apply! As always, if you have any feedback, please let us know so we can further accommodate bowlers and improve our tournaments. We’ll be back in two weeks for a 2-squad tournament at Bowlero Union Hills. See ya there!
