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 Well,
it's time to stop and take a deep
breath. Watching this year's
qualifier was like watching a swarm
of bees ... on fast forward. The
magic number of this qualifier was
299. There were 4 299 games shot
this day, Dave White, Dave Bille,
Cain Hickey and Greg Figurski. Even
more importantly was Tom Lytle's 299
... he struck on his last 4 shots to
finish at +299 to capture the 16th
and final spot by just 5 pins. Mike
Shady, who was unable to
successfully defend his title last
year due to illness looks poised to
pick up where he left off in 2004.
Mike's round featured games of
238-238-268-236-279-1,259, the
second highest of the day for a
10-game total of 2,456 to pass Cory
Bithell by a slender pin. Cory used
games of
235-236-248-246-258-1,221-2,455.
First round leader Pat Malone
slipped to 3rd, 1,167-2,428, Ron
Palombi, Jr. finished 4th with
1,225-2,417 and Steve Benke rounded
out the top 5 with 1,237-2,389.
Rich Williamson began the day
with games of 237-268-300-805 and
fell just 5 pins short of becoming a
first-time finalist, his total was
2,294. Ron
Palombi, Jr. fashioned the day's
other 300 game, which came in the
3rd game of the day.
Although the 10-game qualifier
mark of 2,506 (Chuck Schommer, 1999)
just about every other record did.
The previous highest qualifying cut
was 2,232 (1999). This year's 2,299
bested that mark by 67 pins. Also,
the highest score not to qualify,
previously 2,220 is now 2,294. The
field averaged 203.6 yesterday which
was a first round record. Today's
field averaged 209.2, just shy of
the 210.1 mark from 1999 and the
overall average for the qualifier
was 206.3, a shade under the 1999
record of 206.7.
Check out the all the
scores
here.
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