Pictured L To R Are: Dylan Taylor And Steve Mackie.
Rio Rancho, NM. - - - Congrats to Dylan Taylor, of Scottsdale, on winning the 17th annual New Mexico Open. Taylor, defeated Francois Lavoie, in the title match to win this years event. Arizona was well represented in the field, and in the top 20 in particular.
Here is a list of Arizona bowlers who made it to the top 20:
Cortez Schenck, 3rd; Matthew Zweig, 4th; Keith Dommer, 5th; Kyle Duster, 10th; Keith Fung, 12th; Michael Fitzgerald, 15th; Andrew Cain, 18th; and Kevin Jenkins, 19th.
The event took place this past weekend, August 21-22, at 10 Pins + More in Rio Rancho.
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A THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH NMO POST: Courtesy Of Steve Mackie, Proprietor 10 Pins And More Rio Rancho, NM.
First and foremost, thank you to our Lord God for His mercy in getting us fully open, fully staffed and fully busy this summer. Next, thank you to the state for only requiring masks and social distancing indoors since last Friday - anything else would have been difficult for our tournament operation. To the 81 bowlers from New Mexico (almost 42% of total entries), we could not run this event without your brave support. Immense thanks to you all.
Event staff were attentive and as quick as possible attending to crowds, especially on Friday and Saturday, when we ran over 44 lines a bed both days, stressful behind the pinsetters on occasion but ran close to time on all squads. Supervisors, Brianna, Jeff and Tracy and your crews, take a big-time bow.
To the bowlers, families and friends from 13 states and Canada, who made up the other 58% of the 194-person field, our gratitude for your time, effort and money spent in giving us an exciting and memorable tournament.
As always, Mike provided a challenging lane condition to overcome, which many did, with about a dozen over a 200 average. He and Dana had another worthy recipient of their "Dee Miller Memorial Encouragement Award" in defending champion, Duane Mellinger who beat prostate cancer earlier this year.
Jeff Hemer, arguably the most hands-on tourney director in America, did a fabulous job, as did newcomer, Emil Williams Jr with his first-to-last ball coverage via BowlStreamTV.com. Volunteers, Steve Neal and Becky Fisher were invaluable as support staff, along with my wife, Dana, who managed to keep me on an even keel throughout the week and the two-plus years between tournaments, stress no-one needs.
The 40 sponsors who anted up their hard-earned dollars during a pandemic and enabled us to pay out $ 62,250 in the main event along with $ 3,610 in the Pro-Am, $ 3,217 in Sweepers and $ 7,400 in brackets for a $ 76,477 weekend are to be supported at every opportunity. And finally the top four who faced a daunting challenge from Dylan Taylor who went a rare 4-0 to beat Matt Zweig, Cortez Schenck and two-time US Open champion, Francois Lavoie twice, including a 176-175 title tilt - what a championship round!
Next year's NMO is scheduled August 19-21, 2022. Be here or nowhere...
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Nick Tejada Wins First SFT Title. SFT News, Courtesy Of SFT.
Chandler - - - Our event this weekend, August 22, was at Bowlero Kyrene and it was our first tournament back after a two-week break. We had a huge turnout with 161 entries (106 qualifying and 55 economy parlays) with 39 cashers, a 1 in 4.12 cash ratio and paid out over $9,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. Our first squad of the day had a record 69 bowlers, which is amazing to see! The players bowled on the 42ft PBA Scorpion oil pattern that played pretty tough for most of the day but the lanes would open up later in the day. There were some higher scores but for most of the day bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on the pattern. The cut scores stayed around +60 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 quite a few new bowlers that would join us for their first event. We want to welcome Sterling Ventura, Cayden Matherly, Karla Fila, Rebecca Detwiler, Jack Saron, Destin Jonovich, Antoni “Tiny” Card, Carl Stafford, Jr., Scott Sandy, Richard Armstrong, Matt Blevins, Andrew Lewis, Carter O’Neal and Ryan John who all bowled in their first event this weekend. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. Congrats to Carter O’Neal who all made it to the quarterfinals in his very first event! Also, congrats to Garret Strehl, Thomas Stead, Jason Lowery, Curtis Spence, Nicholas Tejada and Eddie Wilcox for being this weekend’s Parlay Power Players. All these bowlers were able to qualify for the quarterfinals off their $25 parlay investment. Also, congrats to Shane Smith, Carter O’Neal, Jason Lowry, Larry Schwarzberg, Roy Gross, Rene Villa and Rick Passey for making their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while. Congrats to Chris Strehl for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 224, for $500.00!! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $85.00, was Mike Hodge.
The quarterfinals would be bowled on the fresh oil pattern and the scores showed as we would see lower scores more in line with the 1st squad of the tournament. Picking up spares was the key to advancing to the Semi-Final round, with those that could limit mistakes and leave makeable spares being able to separate from the pack. With the bigger turnout, we would cut to the Top 3 in each Division for a one game match with handicap and the winner moving on the Finals against the other Division winners.
Your A Division leader would be Garret Strehl (+136) and he would have to face off against Thomas Stead (+37) and Josh Williams (+12). In the B Division your overall #1 seed would be Bryton Bobbitt (+68) and he would take on newcomer Carter O’Neal (+36) and we would have a tie for the third spot between Chris Tucker (+20) and Jason Lowery (+20). The C Division would see youth bowler Ryan Doyle (+68) emerge as your #1 seed and he would be matched up against Roy Gross (+37) and we would have another tie with Nicholas Tejada (+23) and Rene Villa (+23). We would have not one, but two ninth and tenth frame roll-offs to find out who would make it to the Semi-Final round in the B and C Divisions.
The B Division roll-off would start with Chris Tucker striking in his ninth frame. Jason Lowery would get up and also strike in his ninth frame. Jason would throw his first shot in the tenth just a bit wide and his ball would come back late just missing the pocket leaving the 1-2-6-10. His spare attempt would just miss the head pin taking out the 6-10 to finish at 28. Chris would calmly get up and throw his first shot, which went a bit high, leaving the 6-pin. He would pick up his spare and get nine on the fill to win the roll off and get into the Division Semi-Finals.
Next up we would have the C Division roll-off with Nick Tejada and Rene Villa. Rene would start off getting his ball too far outside and it wouldn’t hold on and go into the gutter. He would get nine on his spare attempt to put himself into a hole. Nick would strike in his ninth frame and go a bit high on his first shot in the tenth leaving the 6-pin. He would pick up his spare and get 8 on the fill to finish at 40.75. Rene would need all three strikes in the tenth to win the match by a faction of a pin since the handicap is pro-rated for the roll-off and the decimal plays. Rene’s first shot in the tenth would look good off his hand, but take off and high the pocket high leaving the 6-10. He would pick up the spare and get 8 on the fill to finish at 29.66.
The A Division semi-final match would go back and forth with each bowler struggling to string strikes early in the match. Thomas Stead would take an early lead as he would triple in the 3rd, 4th and 5th frames, but an open in the sixth would give Josh and Garret a chance to catch back up. Garret would struggle for most of the match and finish up in third at 167. Thomas Stead would get back on track, but a costly split in the ninth would see him finish at 191. Josh Williams would get some timely strikes and he would stay clean for most of the match to win with a 208 and punch his ticket into the Finals.
The C Division Semi-Final match would see Nick Tejada stay hot after the roll-off to win the match. Both Ryan Doyle and Roy Gross would struggle with the lanes while Nick would take advantage by picking up some key strikes throughout the match. Ryan would punch out in the tenth to try and put some pressure on Nick, but Nick would double in the tenth to finish at 236. Ryan would come in second at 204 and Roy would finish up in third at 190.
The B Division Semi-Final would be a nail biter with it all coming down to the tenth frame. Carter O’Neal would struggle with the pair and finish up in third with a score of 172. Bryton Bobbitt would finish up the tenth frame getting 8-spare and getting 8 on his fill shot to finish at 223. Chris Tucker was coming into the tenth on a double in the eighth and ninth frames. Chris would need to strike on the first shot in the tenth and seven-spare on the fill to win the match. Chris’ first shot in the tenth would absolutely crush the pocket and leave a stone 9-pin, which was pretty unbelievable. Chris would pick up his spare and strike on the fill to finish at 216, giving Bryton the win.
The Final match would feature 2021 AHT SFT Player of the Year runner-up, Josh Williams, looking to add his third title in his young career. Josh had used one of his exemptions to get into the quarterfinals and was able to take advantage of it. Exemptions are a prize that are awarded to the Top 4 bowlers in the overall season points race and also the Match Play Invitational that is held at the end of the season. The exemption allows for a bowler to be placed directly into the quarterfinals without having to qualify for the event. Overall Player of the Year is awarded 20 exemptions that they can use throughout the season and you can always check out our rules on our website for more information. Bryton had been to the Finals three times before and was looking at riding his momentum from the semi-finals to get his hands on his first title. Nick Tejada was looking at riding his $25 economy parlay entry all the way into his first title and $1,500.00 first place prize.
The Final match would start off with all three bowlers struggling to get lined up on the pair. Nick would open leaving a washout and Josh would pick up a huge spare 4-7-10 split to take an early lead. Bryton would dig himself into a huge hole by missing a few spares early. Nick and Josh would go back and forth as Josh was looking to make up some of the handicap difference. Halfway through the match and it was still close as Josh and Nick would open in the fifth while Bryton continued to struggle with the pair. Nick would get hot throwing a 3-bagger to get out to a lead that he would never give up. Josh would try to catch up, but couldn’t string enough strikes together. Nick would finish up at 228 to give himself his first AHT SFT title and the huge $1,500.00 first place prize. Josh would come in 2nd at 202 and Bryton would finish up in third place at 149.
Thank you to everyone that came out and supported the event this weekend. It was great to see us fill up a 40-lane house with our first squad of the day. We hope to see you all next Sunday at Bowlero Mesa and also don’t forget about our 3-Day Labor Day Major at Bowlero Via Linda in two weeks!! Hope you all have a great day!
FINALS - Josh Williams vs. Bryton Bobbitt vs. Nick Tejada.
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TUCSON TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED FOR 2021-22
By Mark R. Kerr
TUCSON – Your new Tucson Metro USBC Board has announced their schedule of events for the upcoming 2021-2022 bowling season.
Tournaments will take place in all of Tucson’s bowling centers.
The Arizona State USBC will be holding their Senior Women’s Open, the weekend of October 2-3, at Cactus Bowl, as well as the Arizona State Senior Open, scheduled for the weekends of October 23-24 and October 30-31, also at Cactus Bowl.
With these tournaments and suggestions from bowlers, the new Tucson USBC Board announced the schedule:
The first tournament on the Tucson Metro USBC schedule will be the Senior Masters Tournament, October 9-10 at Tucson Bowl, 7020 East 21st Street.
Following will be the Senior Women’s Tournament will be the second event on the calendar, November 13-14, and will be held at Lucky Strike Bowl, 4015 East Speedway.
On December 4-5 and 11-12, the Senior Open Tournament will take place at Cactus Bowl, 3665 South 16th Avenue.
To begin 2022, the annual Women’s Tournament will take place at Bowlero, 114 South Camino Seco over the weekend dates of January 22-23 and 29-30, 2022.
Fiesta Lanes, located at 501 West River Road, will host the annual Open Tournament, February 19-20, February 26-27 and March 5-6.
On March 19-20, the Open Masters Tournament will take place at Tucson Bowl, 7020 East 21st Street.
Your new Tucson Metro USBC Board wants to thank Vantage Corporation and Bowlero for hosting these tournaments for the 2021-22 season.
Tournament applications, rules and otherwise will be available soon online and at your Tucson bowling center. For more information, call Steve Harris, Association Manager, (520) 591-0622 or E-mail am@tucsonmetrousbc.com.
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AZ State Tournament Schedule 2021-22 Season. Courtesy Of AZ State USBC.
Good Evening to all. The Arizona State USBC has their upcoming tournament schedule finalized for the next 3 years. Listed below are the tournaments and dates for the upcoming 2021-2022 season. Some centers are still TBD! Please mark your calendars. As the tournaments come up, we will update the info as we get it. Dates and times are subject to change.
2021-2022 season:
Masters and Queens - August 29, 2021 R.H. Johnson Lanes Sun City Az.
Senior Womans - October 2-3 2021 Cactus Lanes Tucson Az
State Senior Open - Oct 23-24 30-31 2021 Cactus Lanes Tucson Az
Senior Masters and Queens - November 6 or 7 2021 R.H. Johnson Lanes Sun City West Az
Womans Open Championships - April 2-3, 9-10, 23-24 2022 Location TBD
Open Championships - May 14-15 21-22 28-29 June 4-5 2022 Location TBD
Pepsi Sectionals - Feb 5-6 2022 Location TBD
Pepsi Finals - Feb 26 Location TBD
Youth Open Championships and TOC - April Location and Date and Times TBD.
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Bowlers Day At The Ball Park.
Leslie Marsh & Mike Friedrichs are hosting a Bowling Day at Chase Field on September 4th. Let’s all join together and cheer on the Diamondbacks against Seattle for a much needed win!
There will be door prizes and lots of fun.
Here is the link to the website to buy your tickets:
See You There!!