Pictured Are: Finalist From The SFT Labor Day Event. Photo Courtesy Of SFT.
SFT News - Courtesy Of SFT.
Union Hills - - - This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Labor Day Major at Bowlero Union Hills. We would see 201 total entries with 174 qualifying and 27 parlay entries this weekend. We can’t thank the bowling community enough for all the help in making this such a successful event. The event had 61 cashers, a 1 in 3.30 cash ratio and paid out over $9,590 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a Stars and Stripes Mystery oil pattern (41 ft Kegel Arsenic) that proved to be very tough. Players did not know any info on the pattern until Monday, as it was announced at the start of the cashers round. It would put a premium on avoiding splits and picking up spares. The scoring pace seemed to improve each day, as it seemed some bowlers starting to experiment and in different parts of the lane to see where they had the best look. Most people moved further outside on the gutter and those people seemed to have more success.
We would see only one person win the Momma’s Mystery Pot this weekend! That bowler was Lordan Ferguson who won with a score of 147 for $500! 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
- Justin O’Donnell
Free Plastic Ball
- Richard Perez
Free Main Entry ($60 value)
- Jon Taylor
- Tim Eichhorn
Free Economy Parlay ($35 value)
- Jack Haines
- Tim Eichhorn
- Michael LePage
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The Quarterfinals was a big one with 54 bowlers on the floor. The pattern was re-oiled before the start of the quarterfinals and it showed a wide variety of score.
The cut ratio to advance from the quarterfinals into the first Semi-Final round was 1 in 3. In the A division, the 17 semifinalists would wither down to 5 bowlers. The B division would go from 23 to 8 (should have been 7 but TD made an error lol). The C division would go from 14 to 4.
In the A Division, we would have 5 bowlers all bowl in one match, having the top 2 bowlers emerge to play for the A Division finals. Those five bowlers were Myles Hamilton (+167), Drew Merrell (+143), Brett Wolfe (+72), Dave Inoshita (+68), and Sean Trzaskowski (+48). This match would surprisingly be slightly lower scoring as we would see Brett (235) and Max (197) move on to the A Division final. The A Division final match would attract a crowd as both players were striking and would end up being one of the best matches of the season with Brett taking the win 286-277, (276-270 scratch!).
In the B Division, since there were 8 bowlers, there would be 3 total rounds needed to determine your B Division champion. We would go from 8 to 4, 4 to 2, and then 2 to 1. your #1 seed was Jake Howell and he had lane choice and bowler order. He would bowl against #4, #5, and #8 seeds. Those bowlers were Jericho Gaydos, Lordan Ferguson, and Justin Surat, respectively. The other Semi-Final match would see the #2 Harper Schmidt, having choice of lane and order and he would play the #3, #6, #7 and seeds. Those bowlers were Richard Perez, Michael LePage, and James Daab, respectively. The 1st 4-bowler match would see Jericho Gaydos and Jake Howell emerge with scores of 247 and 228. The other 4-bowler match would have James Daab ensure his spot with a 202, with both Richard and Harper tying at 176, requiring a 9th/10th frame roll-off to determine who would move on. Harper elected to start the match, and we would convert a spare in the 9th. Richard would then go double, 9 spare, for 49 (53.8 with handicap). This would force Harper to double and he would only get 9, allowing Richard to move on. Final roll-off score was 53.8-43.8. The first B Division semifinal match would result with Jake Howell winning over Jericho with 199-169. The second B Division semifinal match would have Richard Perez advancing over James Daab 208-202. The B Division finals would result in Jake Howell escaping with the win over Richard Perez 203-197, allowing him to move on into the finals. He is also the only bowler not in progressive to make it past the cashers round who managed to climb his way all the way to the finals.
In the C Division, we would have 4 bowlers all bowl in one match, having the top 2 bowlers emerge to play for the C Division finals. Those four bowlers were Kaylene Almy (+86), Henri Myllymaki (+44), Joshua Chandler (+38), and Sable St. James (-3). This match would go by fairly quickly and we see Joshua (254) and Henri (233) move on to the C Division final. This match was pretty close, but an open in the 10th from Henri led to Joshua barely winning this match, 234-229.
For our Finals in our Majors, we use a different finals format. For this event, we would be using a stepladder format, where the highest seed is the bowler with the highest game in the previous round where all bowlers bowled. This meant that Brett would be the highest seed (with the massive 286 game). This means the first match would be between Joshua and Jake.
The first finals match would favor Joshua as he found a good look on this pair. Jake did not have much but was staying clean. Unfortunately for Jake, Joshua was not looking back, and would win the match, 261-220. The second finals match would favor Joshua early on, as he had the first 5 out of 6 strikes. He was able to resist Brett’s comeback attempt and would win his first major and his 2nd SFT AHT title for $1,390! Final scores were 237 (Chandler) - 211 (Wolfe).
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to support our Major tournament! Also big thank you to Jason and the staff at Bowlero Union Hills for giving us their center for the weekend and working with us.
We will be back on Sunday, September 14th at Bowlero Kyrene for a 2-squad tournament! Hope to see you there!
Video Link to Final Match: https://youtube.com/live/MnI3BK3gTmI?feature=share