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Lee
Eighmy, Jr. captured his second
consecutive qualifying title and 4th
overall in a runaway. It was the
largest qualifying margin victory in
a 10-game qualifier, 152 pins, the
previous record was Ron
Palombi, Jr's 135 pin victory in
1992. Eighmy's 10-game total of
2,485 is the second highest ever,
only Chuck Schommer's 2,506 in 1999
was better and it was Schommer's 300
in the final game that trimmed
Eighmy's margin to just 152. Eighmy
shot 227-207-269-258-235-1,196 for
the day while Schommer registered
243-170-211-211-300-1,135. The 300
was the only one of the finals and
Schommer's 3rd in Times-News Open
competition. Palombi leads the way
with 7 perfect games, Schommer is
second with three.
Schommer finds himself in the finals
for the 8th consecutive year and has
finished in the top 8 in each of
those years with two runner up
finishes in 2001 and 2004. He is
just half way to the record as Pat
Malone qualified for the finals 16
years in a row from 1979 to 94.
Bob
Kane, Jr. had the highest block of
the day, 1,215 on games of
223-276-215-257-244. Bob will be in
the finals for the first time since
1993, the year high 5 consecutive
finals' string ended.
Jim
Muroski tallied the high score from
the B squad. His
201-227-215-266-278-1,187 was third
best for the day and his total of
2,281 placed him 5th. Jim was the
alternate (13th) in his last and
only other TN Open in 1978.
Defending and 6-time Champion Ron
Palombi, Jr. slipped a bit during
the round, dropping from 5th to 13th
but remains in the hunt to defend
his title. He has captured titles
from the 14th and 15th qualifying
positions, he now can see if 13 is
also lucky.
4-time Champion Mike Shady
(2002-03-04-06) jumped from 16th to
9th and will also challenge for the
title. Ken Berlin, Jr. is the only
other past champion in the final
field, he won his lone title in
1987.
4-time Champion and 26-time finalist
Pat Malone was one of the victims of
the day, slipping from a position in
the top 16 to 29th place after
finishing with 3 sub-200 games. 2001
Champion Steve Benke finished 19
with 2,144.
Half
the field of finalists (8) were
finalists last year while the other
half are new, including 3 first time
finalists, Jeff McKinley, Muroski,
and Dave Ward.
Check out the all the
scores
here.
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