Our event this weekend was at Glenfair lanes and we had a huge turnout for our 2nd tournament of the 2022 season! We had a record breaking 134 total entries (92 qualifying and 42 economy parlays) for this 2-squad event, with a cash ratio of 1 in 3.72 and paying out over $8,300.00 in main and side event prize funds. The bowlers played on a very difficult 37ft Kegel Radium oil pattern, that is a bit short and flat, which saw some lower cut scores. The average cut to make it to the quarterfinals was about even, which meant that you just had to get close to your average to move on. Shorter patterns have always been very difficult at this bowling center. For whatever reason, regardless of the oil pattern, the gutters have always been a bit out of play and don't have a lot of reaction off of them. Because of this, shorter oil patterns are extremely difficult. The key this weekend was definitely spares!
We had some new bowlers join us for their first event and we want to welcome Mike Broglio, Braydon Duke, Jennifer Ball, Isaac Chavira, Evanne Coronado, Milo Coronado, Shaun Butterfield, Marc Espiritu, Joseph Hamilton, Justin Jones, Tim Eichhorn, Barbara Mangum and Jaamel Mangum who all bowled their first event! We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. Congrats to our Parlay Power Players in Jason Tunay and Peyton Lee both who made it to the quarterfinals on their $25.00 economy parlay entry. We’d like to say congrats to Marc Espiritu and Tim Eichhorn for making their first quarterfinals in their first event and also congrats to Renee Haney and Neiko McCullough or their first quarterfinals in quite a while! Also, congrats to Josh Williams, who would win Momma’s Mystery Pot with a score of 171 for $415.00! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance bowling ball for $85.00, was Dave Nelson!
Since this event was only 2 squads there would be no re-oil before the quarterfinals. This resulted in some low scores with the standings being very tight. It seemed like it would come down to the last game in the quarterfinals to determine who would be our semi-finalists. We had 26 quarterfinalists, with the A Division having 8 bowler and the B & C Divisions 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 the A Division while we would cut to the Top 3 in the B & C Divisions.
In the A Division, your #1 seed would be Eric Flick (+41) versus newcomer Tim Eichhorn (+21), in an all-lefty match. The C Division was led by Neiko McCullough (+80) and he would take on Marcus Haley (+33) and Outhay Lalab (+23). The B Division #1 seed was Dave Nelson (+90) and he would face off with Josh Anthony (+17) and we would have a three-way tie for the last spot in the semi-finals. Ron Gonzales, Marvin Randle El, Jr. and Justin Surat would all finish the quarterfinals round tied at 616. We would have to have a ninth and tenth frame roll-off to determine who would advance to the semi-finals!
The rules to the ninth and tenth frame roll-off would see each bowler’s handicap divided by 5, with the decimal playing in the event of another tie. Ron Gonzales would get 5 pins, Marvin Randle El, Jr. would get 5.6 pins and Justin Surat would receive 6.4 pins of handicap. Marvin would start off the ninth frame with a light mixer for a strike. Justin would follow up with a strike of his own and Ron would make it a trifecta throwing all ten pins back to keep the match close. Ron would be up first and his first ball in the tenth frame would hit a bit light leaving the 6-10. Ron would pick up his spare and his fill shot would miss a bit high leaving the 4-7-8 to finish at 42. Marvin would be up next and his ball would face up early leaving a crushing 6-7 split. Marvin he wasn’t able to convert the spare attempt and would finish up at 31.8. Justin Surat’s first shot in the tenth would go a bit high tripping out the 7-pin late to leave only the 6-10. Justin would make spare his spare and then get 7-pins on his fill ball to win the match with a score of 43.4 to advance to the semi-final round.
The A Division semi-final match would start off with both Eric Flick and Tim Eichhorn going back and forth with each bowler throwing strikes and making all their spares. The difference would come later in the match as Eric Flick would chop the 1-3 spare attempt in the seventh frame while Tim would get a light mixer in the seventh to take a lead. Tim would maintain his lead and go on to win the match, 231 to 203.
The B Division semi-finals would see Josh Anthony catch fire and go on a huge run to win the match with a score of 248. Dave Nelson and Justin Surat would try to keep up but would struggle with transition. Justin was able to eek out 2nd place, in the Division, by finishing up with a 183. Dave would come in just a bit behind Justin at 180 to finish up the semi-final match.
The C Division would be a back-and-forth match with all three bowlers having a chance to win the match going into the ninth and tenth frames. Outhay Lalab would get up in the ninth frame needing a strike, but he would go a bit high leaving the 6-10, which he would convert. Neiko McCullough would get up and go Brooklyn to strike while Marcus would also strike as well. Outhay would finish up the tenth by chopping his spare attempt to finish at 179. Neiko would get up next and leave a stone 9-pin, but he would miss his spare attempt to finish at 217. This would put pressure on Marcus to strike out to win the match. Marcus’ first shot in the tenth would go high, leaving the 1-2-4. Marcus would pick up his spare and get 3 on the fill to finish at 193.
Going into the Finals we would see Neiko McCullough and Tim Eichhorn both making their first title match appearance. Neiko and Tim were both looking at winning their first AHT SFT title and the projected first place prize of $1,300.00! Josh Anthony was looking at adding to his 2nd SFT title and had to be the favorite after his huge semi-final game.
The Finals would start off with Josh Anthony leaving a ring 7-pin, which he would convert while Tim and Neiko would go on to throw strikes. Josh would join the strike train in the second while Tim and Neiko would keep up with strikes of their own. The third frame would see Josh adjust from the first frame and go a bit light leaving the 3-pin, which he would pick up. Neiko’s third frame would see him crossover and leave the 1-3-6, which he would pick up to maintain his early lead. Unfortunately, Neiko would leave the 1-3-9 in the fourth that he wouldn’t pick up while Tim would try to cut into his lead by striking in the third and fourth frames for a 4-bagger. Josh would strike in the fourth and fifth frames to try and make up pins that Tim and Neiko had with their quick start.
Midway through the match we would see Josh start to get lined up while Neiko and Tim would start to struggle with transition on the pair. Neiko would open fifth and sixth while Tim would leave the 3-6-7 split in the sixth which he wasn’t able to convert. Josh would split in the sixth as well, leaving the 4-6 and he would only get 4-pin leaving all three bowlers about even with each other. All three bowlers would spare in the seventh. Tim’s first ball in the eight frame would look good off his hand, but would high very light to leave the 3-6-7-9 split. Tim couldn’t convert the spare while Neiko and Josh would both strike in the eighth.
Going into the ninth and tenth frames we had a very close match. Tim would strike in the ninth and look to try to stay in the match. Neiko and Josh would both double up in the ninth frame to set up their tenth frames. Josh would be up first in the tenth and his ball would hit the pocket a bit late leaving the 3-9. Josh’s spare attempt would go a bit wide and chop off the 9-pin to finish the match at 216. Neiko would be up next and his first ball in the tenth would crossover and almost Brooklyn strike, but would leave a 9-pin. Neiko would miss his spare attempt and he would finish just ahead of Josh with a 217. It would all come down the Tim in the tenth frame. Tim had just struck in the ninth, but was finishing on his lane that he had split twice on in the 6th and 8th frames. Tim’s first ball in the tenth looked good, but hit a bit flat and deflected off the head pin to leave the 3-7-9. Tim’s spare attempt would chop off the 3-pin and he would finish at 206. This would give Neiko his first AHT SFT title and $650.00!! Unfortunately, Neiko was not in the Progressive Pot, so he would only receive half of the projected $1,300.00 first place prize. Congrats to Josh Anthony on 2nd place and also to Tim Eichhorn for making all the way to 3rd place in his first ever event!!!
Thank you to everyone that came out today to support our event. It’s always amazing to see how many people come out to try our events and how many new members we see come out to give us a try. Thank you to Tawna McDonald for handling the huge check-in line and also thanks to Michael Dragon for stepping in and helping out today. We hope to see you all this coming Sunday at Bowlero Mesa for our 3-squad standard tournament!
Have a great week and hope to see you all soon!
FINALS - Tim Eichhorn vs. Josh Anthony vs. Neiko McCullough
