The 2012 edition of the Insidebowling.com Open Tournament is now officially in the books. Congratulations to Daniel Spink from Florissant, Missouri who defeated Jake Peters in the 2 game final match 433 to 390.
This year's event was presented by Roto Grip & Grey Eagle distributors. Roto Grip donated bags, balls, and towels to the event which were mostly given away during the live-stream broadcast. Bowlers could automatically pick a prize for any game bowled of 279 or higher on the streamed pairs. In addition, any participant that bowled a clean game on the live-stream pairs were entered into a drawing to win the remainder of the prizes.
Grey Eagle distributors represent the Budweiser family of beers and were a contributing sponsor of the live-stream broadcast. The Anheuser Busch family of beers are the official beers of Insidebowling.com. They also provided custom masking units and signage for the event which helped add professionalism to the event.
A total of 21 bowlers took to the lanes for A squad. This squad scored quite high considering the toughness of the oil pattern. George Gohagan III from Dayton, Ohio led the squad at +191 for 6 games. The rest of the top 5 were Brad Miller from Raytown, Missouri at +181, Michael Williams from Montgomery, Alabama at +179, Austin Kircher from Orangevale, California at +142, and Danny Spink from Florissant, Missouri at +141.
B squad was set to hit the lanes at 12:30PM, but got de-railed due to some unfortunate circumstances that were outside of my control. While re-oiling, I decided to walk down to the lane machine and make sure the pattern was the correct pattern being put down. I did this because I noticed a different employee oiling lanes than the morning block. Good thing I checked because the pattern was the wrong pattern being put on the lanes. This caused for a major delay as 18 lanes had already been oiled. I was very disappointed in the center's lack of attention to detail, but handled it as best as I could.
Once all lanes were oiled, we fired up the music and began practice. I noticed immediately while sitting in the live-stream booth that the lane condition was not the same as the morning. I immediately held everyone up from practicing and began investigating what had happened. I concluded that lanes 1-8 were correct as well as lanes 21-32. It was lanes 9-20 that were extremely dry as I observed bowlers going runaway Brooklyn on both sides of the lanes. This was a very big inconvenience to the bowlers and I was embarrassed to say the least.
I then talked to center manager Mike Remaklus about the issue and he agreed to re-oil the lanes that were incorrect. This delayed the tournament even longer, and pushed us back over 2 hours from our original schedule. Looking back, I would have oiled the entire house again, but due to time limitations, I chose to just oil the lanes that were clearly not the correct pattern and leave the lanes that appeared to have the same condition as A squad.
B squad was the largest squad with 55 entries. It also proved to be the lowest scoring squad. Marvin Hale from Roswell, Georgia led B squad with +137. The rest of the top 5 were Jack Sullivan from Arlington Heights, Illinois at +109, Kyle Sherman from O'Fallon, Missouri at +101, Mike Dole from Chicago, Illinois at +97, and Casey Murphy from Nixa, Missouri at +89.
C squad had its fair share of re-entries and it was Pete Weber from St. Ann, Missouri who posted a score that led all squads at +192. The rest of the top 5 were Craig Nidiffer from Trenton, Michigan at +167, Blake Paris from Brentwood, California at +158, Ed Smaglik from Flagstaff, Arizona at +153, and Dan Lemiesz from Machesney Park, Illinois at +142.
All three squads combined for 116 entries which were 25 more than the inaugural event in 2011. This meant that 58 bowlers would come back to participate in the evening 6 games known as the night block. From here, 29 bowlers would cash and 16 would return Sunday for 16 games of round-robin match-play awarding 30 bonus pins for each victory.
Top 16 Finalists:
1st - Craig Nidiffer +295
2nd - Jake Peters +287
3rd - Brett Shepherd +283
4th - Brian Valenta + 283
5th - Brad Miller +272
6th - JR Raymond +268
7th - Michael Williams +264
8th - George Gohagan III +261
9th - Blake Paris +258
10th - Danny Spink +247
11th - Dean Richards +233
12th - Austin Kircher +225
13th - Dan Lemiesz +220
14th - Shea Bittenbender +213
15th - Ed Smaglik +205
16th - Connor Druhm +198
Connor Druhm tied for 16th with Andre Parker. Druhm defeated Parker in a one game roll-off 268 - 190.
Sunday's 16 finalists returned to the lanes at 9:30AM for 16 games of match-play with no break. They would bowl everyone once, and the last game would finish with a position round.
Early in the day it was JR Raymond from Michigan who seemed to be running away with the top spot as he was +720 after just 7 games. But as the day went on, it was the emergence of last year's champion Jake Peters who at the end found himself at the top of the leader board at +1046. Last year, Jake won the event by surviving a 32 person double-elimination bracket. To see Jake at the top again just proves to what a great talent this young man is.
Qualifying 2nd and 3rd respectively were Lindenwood University teammates Brad Miller (2nd) and Daniel Spink (3rd). Miller finished the day +1026 and Spink finished at +1015.
The first step-ladder match featured Miller vs. Spink. The first game was a very close match with Miller boasting a 236 with Spink closely behind with 234. Being a two-game total pinfall match, it was Spink who pulled away by posting 224 against Miller's 182. Miller finished 3rd and received $1,600 for his efforts.
In the final match Spink faced Peters in another 2 game total pinfall match. Game 1 was also very close with Peters shooting 204 and Spink 201. The second game Spink was able to overcome the left lane and defeat Peters 232-186 for a final score of 433 - 390. Spink took home $5,000 for his victory and Peters received $3,000 for 2nd.
Spink's victory was very special to him as he is from Florissant where Crest Bowl is located. He earned a spot on Junior Team USA back in 2008, and has gone on to Lindenwood University where he seeks a Collegiate National Championship. He is someone I have personally watched grow and mature into one of the best young talents to come out of the St. Louis area in recent years.
Lindenwood University was well represented in the finals of this tournament as Spink, Miller, Bittenbender, Valenta, Druhm, Lemiesz and Richards are all either currently enrolled or alumni. Ed Smaglik from Flagstaff, Arizona was the oldest competitor on Sunday at age 35.
Bowlers from 16 states were represented at this year's event: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.
This event showcased shot-making and put bowlers through a long mental grind. I compare the lane condition to the Masters golf tournament played in Augusta Georgia. Daniel Spink averaged 225.28 for 32 games of competition en-route to victory.
Final Standings:
1st - Daniel Spink - $5,000
2nd - Jake Peters - $3,000
3rd - Brad Miller - $1,600
4th - Craig Nidiffer - $1,000
5th - Shea Bittenbender - $800
6th - Brian Valenta - $600
7th - George Gohagan III - $575
8th - JR Raymond - $550
9th - Blake Paris - $500 Scholarship
10th - Michael Williams - $480
11th - Brett Shepherd - $460
12th - Connor Druhm - $440
13th - Dan Lemiesz - $420
14th - Dean Richards - $400
15th - Ed Smaglik - $390
16th - Austin Kircher - $380
17th - Andre Parker - $370
18th - Kyle Sherman - $360 Scholarship
19th - Mike Dole - $350
20th - Christian Azcona - $340
21st - Marvin Hale - $330
22nd - Tim Behrendt - $315
22nd - Brett Cunningham - $315
24th - Adam Johnson - $300
25th - Casey Murphy - $290
26th - Dwayne Stiegemeier - $280
27th - Jason Puett - $270
28th - Aaron Lorincz - $260
29th - Cody Shoemaker - $250
Next year, I have made the decision to move the tournament to a new venue. If anyone is interested in hosting the 2013 IB Open, please contact me directly at mike@insidebowling.com.
All live-streaming from this event is archived on our Ustream channel.
You can watch the final match also on our Youtube channel.
Pictures and standings from each round can be found below in our picture gallery.
Please check back to Insidebowling.com for more announcements of upcoming tournaments coming to a city near you!
