bowlsbt news - Courtesy of John Verbil.
2026 Jake's Auto Labor Day Classic
September 5-7, 2026
Bowlero Kyrene - Chandler, Arizona
Tournament Champion: Myles Hamilton - $8,000
2nd place: David Pope - $3,500
3rd place: Joshua Brown - $2,000
4th place: Anthony Rose - $1,000
Chandler - - - Myles Hamilton of Arizona City conquered a very tough pattern in impressive fashion to win the inaugural SBT Jake's Auto Labor Day Classic at Bowlero Kyrene in Chandler on Monday, September 7th and take home a huge check for $8,000!
With 185 bowlers rolling 371 entries, it was easily the largest SBT event yet, surpassing the 2026 Morongo Classic's 340 entries. Bowlers came from not just Arizona, but California, Nevada, New Mexico, and even Alberta to bowl in this huge 3-day event with 9 qualifying squads and 5 cuts across the first two days.
With a custom-designed 45-foot oil pattern using 29.145mL of volume and asymmetrical 2.41:1 and 1.9:1 ratios, most players found it extremely difficult to get to the pocket. Consistent speed control was critical to get the ball to read the pattern properly, with no miss room to the outside. Washouts and splits were common, and as is usual on tougher patterns with strikes hard to find, making spares was key. Cut scores were very low, averaging +5 overall. The lowest cut was -56 in the Senior division on Sunday morning, while the highest cut was +61 in the Scratch division on Sunday afternoon.
63 bowlers took to the lanes for the Cashers Round on Monday. The atmosphere was electric all afternoon as the 63 were whittled down to 21, then to 10 for the first two eliminator rounds. The Challenger division, with 24 advancers, needed a third eliminator round to determine their champion. Nearly all of the eliminator matches were nail-biting affairs, capped off with an exciting 9th-10th roll-off between Anthony Rose and Jeff Kraus for the Challenger Division championship, which was won by Rose.
Hamilton, 35, the lefty Scratch Division champion, faced off against David Pope, 67, of Cave Creek (Senior Division, 8 pins hcp), Josh Brown, 35, of Peoria (Foundation Division, 35 pins), and Rose, 35, of Las Vegas (Challenger Division, 12 pins) in the championship match. Early in the match, it appeared as if Hamilton might run away with it, rattling off a 4-bagger to start the game. However, from that point forward, he was unable to get the ball to read the left lane properly while he continued to crush the right lane, and this created an opening for others.
Rose was unable to put any strikes together while Brown missed several spares, taking both of them out of title contention late in the match and leaving them to battle for 3rd and 4th. Pope, however, strung together strikes with a high flush shot, a squash on the headpin, and a Brooklyn to put himself into contention through the 8th frame.
Hamilton led off the 9th on the left lane, again unable to get his ball to pick up early enough and leaving the 3-5-6, giving Pope a chance to surge ahead. Pope, however, then went high and left a 4-pin, increasing Hamilton's lead with handicap to 3 pins after both bowlers picked up their spares.
Pope started the 10th with a ball that was a touch high, leaving the 4-7 and Hamilton with a clear path to victory with a mark and good count. But as Hamilton headed back to the right lane, he oozed confidence, having not missed on that lane in the entire match, and true to form, he struck on all three shots to claim the victory and the $8,000 top prize! Pope took second for $3,500, with Brown receiving $2,000 for third place and Rose winning $1,000 for his fourth-place finish.
Hamilton had an opportunity to increase his winnings to $11,100 by breaking the Progressive Pot with three additional strikes after his victory. But having to start that string with a strike on his left-lane nemesis was a tall order, and as before, he couldn't get the ball to quite turn the corner in time. Even so, he walked away with a huge $8,000 check. The balance of the Progressive Pot now carries over to SBT's next regional event at Riverside Lanes in Laughlin in October, where SBT estimates a broken pot could yield a $9,000 payday.
The division finals shaped up like this:
Foundation Division: Brown, with 218 (175+35), defeated Gerald Toll of Kingman with 175 (149+25).
Challenger Division: Rose (184+12) and Kraus (190+6) tied at 196 and Rose defeated Kraus in the roll-off.
Scratch Division: Hamilton, with 207, defeated Kyler Adams of San Tan Valley with 180.
Senior Division: Pope, with 192 (183+9), defeated Rick Mayber of Payson with 178 (170+8).
Jay Jay Newell and his terrific staff at Bowlero Kyrene were on top of things all weekend. The team in this center is very experienced at handling tournaments and it shows. We have already agreed to continue holding this event each year at Kyrene. Next year, we expect to pay $10,000 for first place. We can't wait.
SBT thanks all of our sponsors for making this event possible, but especially our title sponsor, Jake's Bethany Auto Repair, who added money to make the large top prize possible. We thank Marc Bakunowski for reaching out to us and asking to help make this event a big one, and wow -- was it ever a big one!
Our continued thanks to all of our outstanding sponsors, many of whom provide prize giveaways for our bowlers which are awarded randomly during the tournament to early-bird entrants. Ryuma Murphy and Anthony Rose won free high performance bowling balls, courtesy of Brunswick. Josh Brown won a free SBT jersey from EFX, while Rick Darnell won a free single entry for any SBT event in the next year. Mike Pleasant won a B3 Performance lane package with Specto, and Jamman Manuel won a one-year subscription to Tenpin Toolkit!
Thanks also to our other local Arizona sponsors Chuck's Painting, Melody Rane with Rane Family Insurance, and Precision Cellular Wellness, all of whom are stepping up to support bowling in our community and helped make this event possible. Please show your appreciation to our sponsors by patronizing these businesses and letting them know how much you appreciate their support of SBT!
Our Mystery Score pot paid out $1,600 in this event, including a $500 prize won by Jarod Griffeth. About $700 carries over to the SBT Riverside Fall Classic.
High qualifiers from each division in our Saturday morning cut won $50 in SBT credit toward a future event. Congratulations to Tracy Miller, Jarod Griffeth, Ryuma Murphy, and Ken Friedrich!
The championship match is available for streaming on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@bowlsbt to be notified of future event postings. You can watch a playback of that event here: https://youtu.be/IQLM_5gtEr8?si=i665w4iPDDfzO1FB. Full results are posted at bowlsbt.com/results.
Our next event is Saturday Shootout IX at AMF Peoria Lanes on September 19th, where we're again guaranteeing $2,500 for first place with the Progressive Pot, with a potential of as much as a $5,000 payday if the pot is broken in that event. Register online by September 16th to enter at the $109 early-bird price, which goes up to $125 the next day.
One of the most amazing aspects of this absolutely huge event is that we ran it with only three staffers on the first two days and two on the last day without any major hiccups. Amanda Larson and Chris Wiley joined John Verbil to run this event. John has continued to improve the software to speed and simplify tournament operations, and we believe it's starting to bear real fruit. Thank you for bearing with us through the occasional "beta" glitches as we continue to deploy new features and work out the kinks in them. Our team can't wait to see you at AMF Peoria and at Riverside Lanes!
Tournament Results
Championship Match
Myles Hamilton, Scratch Division, Champion, $8,000
David Pope, Senior Division, 2nd place, $3,500
Josh Brown, Foundation Division, 3rd place, $2,000
Anthony Rose, Challenger Division, 4th place, $1,000
Advancers from the Cashers Round:
Foundation: Gerald Toll $450, Mike Pleasant $350, Stef Matheos $225*, Jason Dehmer $350
Challenger: Jeff Kraus $550, Tayler Esping $325*, Shawn Finch $450, Melissa King $350, Erica Pursell $350, Steven Banas $350, David Wester $350
Senior: Rick Mayber $450, Patrick Lombardo $350, Ced Bell $350
Scratch: Kyler Adams $450, Alec Johnson $350, Chris Klerk $350
Other cashers -- all winning $250 except $125 as noted * due to ties for the last qualifying position:
Foundation: Kayla Melton, Tracy Miller, Spencer Culbertson, Chuck Lucas, Helbert Andryans, Matthew Gordon Jr., Migh Shih, Melody Rane, Debbie Russell, Joshua Ford*
Challenger: Jarod Griffeth, Ken Davis, David Beasley, Tuk Jacobson, Chase Rohlik, Sinatra Grace*, Alex Lindahl, Gary Roff, Justin Perry, Jonathan Mayer, Seth Krich, Bob Charney, Chris Case, Rachel Weyrauch, Marc Bakunowski, James Roethle
Senior: Bryan Bauman, Dave Inoshita, Brian Katz, Brian Waugh, Ken Friedrich, Kyle Howard, Rick Darnell, Shan Nosbusch
Scratch: Ricky Armstrong, Dylan Taylor, Zach Van Dusen, Ryuma Murphy, Reggie Elliott, Derek Acuff, Cody Johnston, Curtis Spence
Optional Doubles - 400 Division
Doug Bukauskas & Seth Krich $94, Edward Polansky & Michael Arce $48, Kurt Lucas & Jonathan Mayer $32, Ashley Perez & Myles Hamilton $26
Optional Doubles - 370 Division
Steven Banas & Matthew Gordon Jr. $136, David Pope & Josh Brown $68, Stef Matheos & Tracy Miller $46, Zach Ramirez & Kayla Melton (Sun 6PM) $36, Zach Ramirez & Kayla Melton (Sun 2PM) $30, Stef Matheos & Josh Brown $24, Ricky Montgomery & Lin Conklin $20.