Our event this weekend was at Glenfair Lanes and it was our last regular season event of the 2021 season. We had a great turnout with 104 entries (82 qualifying and 22 economy parlays) with 29 cashers, a 1 in 3.58 cash ratio and paid out over $7,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 40ft Kegel Highway to Hell oil pattern that played pretty tough for most of the day. There were some higher scores but bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on the pattern. The cut scores stayed around +50 for most of the day, which meant that you had to bowl about 10-15 pins over your average per game to qualify.
We had some new bowlers join us for their first event this weekend. We’d like to welcome Wayne Smythe, Shelby Lucero, Tim Eichhorn and Travis Jonovich to the SFT family. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. We had a few Parlay Power Players this weekend in Eddie Wilcox, Jericho Gaydos and Nick Tejada, who all would make it to the quarterfinals off their $25.00 economy parlay entry. Congrats to Kyle Ponzo, Tim Eichhorn, Wayne Smythe and Jordan Weeston for making it to the quarterfinals for the first time or their first time in quite a while. Wayne and Tim were able to make the quarterfinals in their first ever event! Also, congrats to Ken Nelson for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 146, for $500.00! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance bowling ball for $85.00, was Josh Anthony.
The quarterfinals were bowled on the fresh oil pattern. We had 25 quarterfinalists, with each Division having at least 8 bowlers with the C Division having 9 bowlers. The cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals is 1 in 3, so that meant we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in each Division while the C Division would cut to the Top 3 bowlers. After the re-oil, the pattern was still high scoring with the standings being tight and semi-finalists being determined by the final game of the quarterfinals.
In the A Division, your #1 seed would be Ross Lyons (+89), who would throw a perfect 300 game in the 2nd game of the quarterfinals, and he would have to face off with Kyle Ponzo (+20). In the B Division, you would see Gary Jenkins (+95) edge out Ken W. Davis (+94) for your #1 seed. The C Division was led by red-hot newcomer Wayne Smythe (+143) and he would have to face off with Emily Frerichs (+28) and June Hatfield (+5).
The A Division semi-final match would go back and forth with Ross Lyons jumping out to a quick lead. Kyle Ponzo would take a few frames to get lined up, but then he would start stringing a few timely strikes to get himself back into the match. Ross would struggle a bit with transition halfway through the match, but would get a key strike late and force Kyle to strike out in the tenth. Kyle would get up and throw a pretty good shot, but would leave a flat 10-pin. Kyle wouldn’t convert the spare which would give Ross the win, 229 to 192. The B Division would go back and forth with Gary and Ken struggling with the pair. They would both finish with the same scratch score, but Ken would come out on top with his 6-pins of handicap that he had on Gary, 182 to 176.
The C Division semi-final would be a nail biter as all three bowlers would go back and forth throughout the match. Emily Frerichs would finish up the match first as she would nine-spare and get eight on her fill to finish at 171. Next up would-be June Hatfield who was coming off a spare in the ninth and would get the first strike in the tenth. June would split on her second ball in the tenth and would go for count to finish at 226. Wayne would finish up the match needing a mark and good count to advance. Wayne’s first ball in the tenth would go a bit high through the pocket leaving the 3-6-10. Wayne would hook at his spare attempt and his ball looked good off his hand, but would jump left as it came towards the pins and would chop the 3-pin only to finish at 218, which would have June advance to the Finals.
Going into the Finals we would see Ross Lyons looking at winning his 3rd AHT SFT title and he had already won his previous title using his opposite hand (left). Ken W. Davis was looking at winning his first title and this would be his fourth Finals appearance. June Hatfield was making her first Finals and almost left earlier because she didn’t know that the C Division was taking 3 bowlers instead of the usual 2 bowlers to the semi-final round. June comes from Tucson to bowl our events and was looking to win her first title which would be an early birthday present since her birthday was coming up this Wednesday.
The Finals would see all three bowlers struggle with the pair. Both Ross and Ken, who have pretty high rev rates, would struggle with the over-under on the pair while June, as a more down and in bowler, would leave makeable spares that she would pick up to take the lead. Ross would make a couple of ball changes to try and figure out the pair, but it would be too little too late as he would finish the match with a score of 164. Ken would stay clean in the latter part of the match, but just couldn’t get his ball to hit the pocket right to carry. Ken would finish up with a score of 181. Meanwhile June would cruise along and would see a bit of trouble in the last few frames, but would overcome it to finish the match at 217 for her first AHT SFT title and $1,100!!! Congrats to Ken W. Davis for 2nd place and Ross Lyons on 3rd place.
Thank you to everyone that came out for our last tournament of the season. We are working on next year’s schedule and will post that up in the next couple of weeks. We hope you all have a great holiday season and look forward to seeing you all next season!
FINALS - Ross Lyons vs. Ken W. Davis vs. June Hatfield
