Glenfair - 5/29/2023

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This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Memorial Day Major at Glenfair Lanes. We would see 254 total entries (210 qualifying and 44 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 70 cashers, a 1 in 4 cash ratio and paid out over $20,000.00 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 Patriot (41ft PBA Bear) 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 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 Matt Villegas, Ryan Woodall, Marissa Romo, Kevin Meddock, Calvin Ellis, David Richard, Tim Harris, Douglas Bukauskas, Joseph Quintanar, Jared Brown, Conrad Brasgalla, Charles Franzen, Jacob Miller, Issac Flores, Eric Coker, Tricia “Red” Richards, Patrick Yarns, and Alex Rosenblum 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 Tim Harris, Kevin Meddock, Martin Purnell, Robert Sanders, Douglas Bukauskas, David Richard, Alex Rosenblum, Nick Edinger, David Klatt, Conrad Brasgalla, Tricia “Red” Richards, Joshua Chandler, Sue Lingard, Issac Flores, and Charles Franzen on making their first quarterfinals or first in a while. We also would like to congratulate this weekend’s Parlay Power Players in Nick Edinger and Richard Kasting, Jr. who both made it to the quarterfinals off their $30 economy parlay entry with a chance to turn their $30.00 entry into the $1,750.00 first place prize.

We would see only one person win Momma’s Mystery Pot as it had grown into three separate pots. Congrats to Patrick Yarns who would win $500.00 with a 138 game on Monday. Also, congrats to our Memorial Day MEGA Sweeper winner James Strang III who would win $300.00 for his 756 set. We had 133 entries in the MEGA sweeper with the low to cash being 26th place. The final results can be found at https://aht.strikeforcetour.com/content/2023-memorial-day-info-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

  • David Corcino

Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $85.00

  • Jason Tunay
  • Robert Sanders
  • Sandie Davis

Free Main Entry ($55 value)

  • Stephanie Smith
  • Houston Vonkriegenbergh

Free Progressive Pot ($25 value)

  • Nick Edinger
  • Jason Tunay
  • Payton Lee

Free Economy Parlay ($30 value)

  • Ron McDonald
  • Michael Dragon
  • Kenny “Powers” Koen

Free Strikeforce T-Shirt ($10 value)

  • Josh Williams
  • Derek Hamm
  • Ryan Woodall
  • Charlie Light
  • Jeff Kraus

Free Strikeforce Towel

  • Robert Behrendt
  • Michael Killgore
  • Ken W. Davis

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 Brian Waugh (+6), #2 Thomas “Buddy” Darnell (+59), #3 Richard Kasting, Jr. (+53), #4 Chris Strehl (+35), #5 Kevin Meddock (+30), and #6 seed was Josh Williams (+27). We would see the Brian Waugh vs. Chris Stehl vs. Josh Williams on one pair with the highest score advancing to the second semi-final round. On the other pair we would see Buddy Darnell vs. Richard Kasting, Jr. vs. Kevin Meddock with the highest score from that pair advancing. The first semi-final match would see Josh Williams (208) advance from the pair as Chris Strehl (210) and Brian Waugh (184) would be eliminated. The other match would see Buddy Darnell (201) defeat Kevin Meddock (183) and Richard Kasting, Jr. (170) to move on to the second semi-final match.

The B Division #1 seed would be Justin Surat (+56), #2 Martin Purnell (+30), #3 Douglas Bukauskas (+29), #4 Ron Gonzales (+13), #5 Robert Sanders (+8), and the #6 seed would be Brian Jackson (+8). The first semi-final round for the B Division would see Justin Surat vs. Ron Gonzales vs. Brian Jackson with the top score advancing to the next round. In the other B Division semi-final pair would have Martin Purnell vs. Douglas Bukauskas vs. Robert Sanders with the highest score moving on to the next semi-final round. The first round in the B Division would see Ron Gonzales (202) narrowly defeat Justin Surat (201) and Brian Jackson (168) to eliminate them from the tournament. The other B Division match would see Martin Purnell (241) advance as he would defeat Robert Sanders (211) and Douglas Bukauskas (185).

The C Division #1 seed was James Bastell (+58), #2 David Klatt (+57), #3 Conrad Brasgalla (+56), #4 Lordan Ferguson LH (+52), #5 Nick Edinger (+33), and your #6 seed was Peyton Lee (+33). On the first pair in the C Division, we would see James Bastell vs. Lordan Ferguson LH vs. Peyton Lee. In the other match we would see David Klatt vs. Conrad Brasgalla vs. Nick Edinger. 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 Lordan Ferguson LH (226) advance while Jason Bastell (215) and Peyton Lee (193) would be eliminated. The second C Division semi-final match would be a close one with Nick Edinger (195) squeaking by David Klatt (194) and Conrad Brasgalla (193) to narrowly advance to the next round.

The second round Semi-Final match in the A Division would see Buddy Darnell (211) defeat Josh Williams (197) to secure his spot in the Eliminator Finals match. The second round of the B Division Semi-Final match would have Ron Gonzales (176) grind out a win by defeating Martin Purnell (135) to lock up his spot in the Finals as well. The C Division would see Nick Edinger (196) continue to do enough to defeat Lordan Ferguson LH (178) and make it 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 $1,750.00 first place prize!

Going into the Memorial Day Eliminator Finals we would see Buddy Darnell looking to win his first SFT Major title and second title overall. Former SFT Player of the Year and Senior Player of the Year, Ron Gonzales, was looking to win a SFT record 11th title and looking for his first Major title. Ron had made the Finals a few years ago and had finished in second place and was looking to take home the big prize. Standing in his way was Parlay Power Player Nick Edinger who was looking at turning his $30.00 economy parlay entry into $1,750.00. Nick had been grinding out wins throughout the day and it seemed that if he could just get through the first match, then he would have to good chance to win the whole enchilada!

The first Eliminator Finals game would see Nick (217) and Buddy (213) get lined up and put up some good scores to secure their spots in the second game. Ron would struggle as the only lefty on the pair and would finish in third place, with a score of 169, for $600.00!

The Championship match would go back and forth between Nick and Buddy. Both bowlers would have issues with the right lane, and it would seem that whoever could figure it out first would have the advantage. Midway through the match and Nick would get his ball to finally read the right lane correctly for a double in the fifth. Buddy would have issues with carry and Nick would continue to grind out the match for the win, 217 to 171. This would give Nick his first AHT SFT title and one of our largest economy parlay wins by turning $30 to $1,750! Also, congrats to Thomas “Buddy” Darnell on second place and $950.00.

Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major! Also, a BIG thank you to Jason Lucero, Kabrina Slaten, and the staff at Glenfair Lanes for hosting our tournament and providing us with great service all weekend! I also would like to thank Tawna McDonald, Michael Dragon and Chris Berryman for the help this weekend. I’m not sure we could put on this 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 Kyrene for another 3-squad event on Sunday, June 11th! Hope to see you there!

 

2023 Memorial Day Major - Eliminator Finals

Match #1 - Buddy Darnell vs. Ron Gonzales vs. Nick Edinger

 

Match #2 - Buddy Darnell vs. Nick Edinger for $1,750.00!