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Our 700 Bandwagon Continues

Ed Townsend - Columnist
Posted 2/4/21

His name comes up very often and that is because he is one of the better bowlers in Sullivan County.

Pedro Agapito III once again leads the 700 scoring column with a big 750 in the Friday Night …

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Our 700 Bandwagon Continues

Posted

His name comes up very often and that is because he is one of the better bowlers in Sullivan County.

Pedro Agapito III once again leads the 700 scoring column with a big 750 in the Friday Night Mixed league at Kiamesha Lanes. Pedro maintains a 233 average in this league as he smashed the maples for single games of 225, 268, 257.

Keith Smith hit a 728 series off single games of 226, 257, 245 and Jonathan Wilhelm scored a 734 series off single games of 198, 258, 278.

Up at the Fox Bowling Center Dan Wormuth hammered out a 784 series off single games of 237, 280, 267 in the Thursday Night 3 league.

The Wednesday Night Men's league bowled two matches this week and in the first match Zuke Wormuth scored a 721 with single games of 223, 255, 243 and in the second match he recorded a 704 off single games of 223, 213, 268.

Mitch Persbacker scored a 710 off single games of 226, 248, 236. Shawn Card added a 700 series with a 704 off single games of 268, 257, 179.

O'Neill Tests Positive

For Coronavirus

After testing positive for the coronavirus last Sunday morning, Bill O'Neill, the defending champion at the PBA Players Championship, will not participate in the regional stepladders.

Like the rest of the field, O'Neill participated in regional qualifying last weekend and last Saturday began exhibiting symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. He was tested last Sunday morning and told FloBowling the test came back positive.

“I was getting congested and then right before I went to bed I got really cold,” O'Neill said of the symptoms he experienced Saturday night. “I developed a fever over the night and never could get rid of the chills. Luckily my fever broke a little bit ago so hopefully it stays that way.”

O'Neill's flight to Florida had been scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Sunday but instead of heading to the airport, he went and received a rapid test. That test came back positive, forcing him to officially cancel his plans to compete in the event.

“I'm obviously disappointed in the timing but many people have lost way more because of this pandemic,” O'Neill said. “So, hopefully I'm OK, and if that's the worst thing to happen to me then I'm good. I'm just concerned about my family being OK at the moment.”

At the East Region qualifying event in Richmond, Virginia, last weekend, O'Neill said he took precautions to avoid contracting the coronavirus. He said he could not specifically pinpoint that he contracted it at the event but said he hasn't gone many places since.

Asked if he wore his mask the entire time at the regional qualifying site, O'Neill said he did.

“I recently got contacts specifically so I could bowl without having to remove it at any point,” O'Neill said. “The only time I lowered it was to eat and drink.”

O'Neill advanced out of the East Region as the No. 5 seed and his stepladder was scheduled to be recorded Monday for future broadcast, leaving time for the PBA to identify a replacement for the show.

The 2021 PBA Players Championship is the biggest PBA Tour event in years with a $1 million prize fund and a $250,000 first-place prize. O'Neill won the event last year and picked up a $100,000 payday.

Ed's Outlook

Lavoie Advances To

Players Finals

Top seed François Lavoie advanced to the PBA Players Championship Finals, striking in a one-ball, sudden-death roll-off to defeat third seed Keven Williams. As the higher seed, Lavoie had the choice of order and lane for the roll-off. He opted to bowl first on the left lane, a reversal of his pre-game belief that the right lane would be better for him.

“In hindsight, I should've finished the game on the left lane,” said Lavoie. “After I left the 1-2-4-8 on the right lane in the eighth frame, I knew I made the wrong decision to finish on that lane. I thought I could just keep the speed up and throw it to the spot and it would hook, but after the 1-2-4-8, I realized I didn't have that much room to miss.”

After Williams rolled the back five strikes for 232, Lavoie had a chance to win the match in the 10th frame—on the right lane—by striking twice. He rolled the first strike but left a 4 pin on his next shot. A spare tied him with Williams, requiring a sudden-death roll-off to decide the winner.

“I never got super comfortable on the lanes,” said Lavoie, “and when it came time for the roll-off, I didn't want to mess around with the right lane anymore. I wanted to be done with it, throw one good shot on the left lane and see what happened.”

With a strike to begin the roll-off, Lavoie forced Williams to match in order to extend the match. Williams, who had just closed his 10th frame with three strikes on the left lane, was unable to get another, leaving a 7 pin to end his tournament.

The only player in the Southwest Region Finals with a PBA Tour title, Lavoie owns four of them, including two U.S. Open titles. A win in the PBA Players Championship would be Lavoie's third major championship and fifth title overall, which would make him performance-eligible for PBA Hall of Fame consideration.

Lavoie joins West Region winner Anthony Simonsen in the PBA Players Championship Finals, which will feature the winners from all five regions competing for a major championship title and a top prize of $250,000.

The PBA Players Championship Finals will air live on FOX Broadcast Channel Feb. 21.

Bowling Tip

By Mike Luongo

Bowling has reached a real fork in the road. Never has the gap between league bowler and the elite professional bowler been larger.

Some league bowlers routinely average 230-plus on lane conditions that are engineered by bowling centers to allow recreational bowlers to get maximum pleasure from their league experience by carrying inflated averages that mean absolutely nothing in the real bowling world.

The USBC does absolutely nothing to preserve the integrity of the game, they only minimally regulate bowling balls and allow bowling centers to put out conditions that are so forgiving that honor scores are really a thing of the past as they are so common today for league bowlers.

When these same league bowlers go to the USBC Nationals each year, they are routinely deflated when they have to bowl on a lane condition that requires accuracy and repeat ability to yield high scores.

On the other hand, you have the PBA. Each year the Professional Bowlers Association comes up with new and more difficult oil patterns to challenge the game's elite players.

The newest patterns, introduced a couple of years ago, challenge the players to unheard of degrees. From the 32 feet Wolf pattern that reduce the greatest players in the world to using non-aggressive urethane equipment, to the 54 feet Badger pattern that leaves only eight feet of friction past the pattern for the ball to react.

The new patterns have put elite bowlers in the unenviable position of looking like rank amateurs on televised matches that are routinely viewed by league bowlers who have no understanding of the impact of oil patterns on bowling performance.

Something needs to happen at this critical fork in the road for bowling. Either the USBC needs to start regulating oil patterns at the league level, or the PBA needs to start putting out variations of house shots and let the best bowlers in the world carry 260 averages.

As putting out tougher house shots would undoubtedly result in the loss of a large percentage of house bowlers ... the PBA softening up the pro patterns is really the only viable alternative.

Mike Luongo is a certified IBPSIA Pro Shop Operator, Master Instructor, USBC Silver Level Coach and an Advisor-Special Events assistant with the Storm and Roto Grip Bowling Ball Company. Have a question, email at mikel@stormbowling.com.

Local Scores

Kiamesha Lanes

Monday Men's

Kyle Matthews 278, 656, Paul Minton 234, 625, William Schubert 267, 233, 688, Bobby Patel 236, 601, Charlie Tuttle 248, 666, Vinny Collura 226, 615, Nate Goldsmith 224, 638, Kevin Stackhouse 225, 235, 644, Bill VanAken 235, Allan Jones 222, 620, Jim VanAken 225, 643, DanVanAken 236, 622, Jaryl Scott 256, 630, Jon Wilhelm 244, 258, 694.

Tues Mixed Firefighter league got snowed out last week.

Friday Mixed

Esther Barber 186, Lauren Blume 176, Lisa Cartwright 161, Nicole Feller 166, Anne Kaplan 165, 166, Wendy Swan 160, Charlie Tuttle 213, 609, Kevin Stackhouse 228, 639, Tom Skiff III a 258, 667, Frank Scuderi 221, 649, Shane Cunningham 238, 225, 686, Sarafin Rodriguez III a 234, 226, 682, Jason Rogers 246, 233, 672.

Fox Bowling Center

Wednesday Independent

Two weeks of the Wednesday Men's Independent, Doc Bolduc 274, 636, Brian Drumm 233, 609, Anthony Gately 231, 609, Bill Gleim 236, 238, 677, Ben Green 268, 678, Rob Johnson 243, 672, Don Marino 243, 656, Scott Wahl 236, 619, Jay Wormuth 228, 635, Doc Bolduc 225, 613, Andrew Bullis 238, 659, Anthony Gately 242, 627, Ben Green 245, 625, Pete Green 278, 682, Rob Johnson 258, 619, Scott Lacy 223, 619, Don Marino 235, 650, Mitch Persbacker 236, 625, Jason Scofield 221, 638, Scott Wormuth 228, 645.

Thursday Night 3

Dale Conklin 226, 632, Shane Dirig 243, 648, Scott Ellis 247, 685, Dan Keesler 222, 623, Mike Robinson 227, 613, Natasha Tuttle 231, 624.

Friday Couples

Jalene Allen 201, 503, Andy Bullis 247, 602, Dale Conklin 245, 662, Melinda Conklin 191, Denise Dirig 180, Shane Dirig 226, 649, Linda Ferris 188, Julie Martin 187, Rick Mills 266, 644, Ria Robinson 212, Brian Tiffany 236, 610, Dan Wormuth 249, 632, Jay Wormuth 215, 631, Jeremy Wormuth 248, 687.

Sat. Fox Youth Mixed

Joshua Dunlap 110, 103, Landon Fuller 149, Olivia Johnson 113, 146, Alex Mosher 150, 132, Landyn Robinson 108, Cooper Wormuth 113, 109.

Sunday Mixed

Landyn Fuller (youth) 161, 119, 124, 404, Don Marino 212, 247, 651, Rick Mills 238, Gabe Rynearson 228, Fred Shakelton 224, Paul Siegler 204, 599.

Port Jervis Bowl

Thursday Women's

Carmela Montaperto 179, 213, 221, 613, Carol Flynn 171, 185, 180, 536, Sherri Laird 143, 181, 173, 497, Rachel Rivera 164, 132, 179, 475, Maureen Decker 159, 156, 158, 473, Bobbie Palmer 162, Lori Strelecki 162.

Ed Townsend is a Public Relations Consultant to the sport of bowling and brings over 60-years of sports journalism experience in writing and compiling the information for this column. If you have league or tournament information, bowl a 300 game or 800 series, let Ed know at 845-439-8177, email to bght75@gmail.com or fax at 845-205-4474. View this column and Ed's photos at http://bght.blogspot.com We are also on Facebook and Twitter.

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