GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling VIII Gets Underway

Perfect Game Vaults Novak into PBA Cheetah Championship Qualifying Lead

Top 24 set for match play elimination rounds as GEICO World Series of Bowling VIII gets underway

RENO, Nev. – A 300 in his final game Tuesday pushed three-time Professional Bowlers Association’s regional titlist Brandon Novak of Chillicothe, Ohio, into the qualifying lead in the PBA Cheetah Championship, presented by PBA Bowling Challenge Mobile Game, as well as the early lead in PBA World Championship qualifying, as the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling VIII got underway at the National Bowling Stadium.

The Cheetah Championship is a PBA Tour title event, and it also is the first of four animal pattern qualifying stages leading to the PBA World Championship, the final major championship of the 2016 season. The World Championship will be decided live on ESPN on Sunday, Dec. 11, at 1 p.m. ET.

Novak rolled games of 205, 269, 268, 247, 212, 226 and 231 before capping his round with his perfect game. With a 1,958 total, he overtook early leader BJ Moore III of Greensburg, Pa., by nine pins. Novak and Moore are both 28-year-old fourth-year PBA Tour competitors who are trying for his first PBA Tour title.

“I had the front seven strikes in the last game and realized if I could shoot 300, I’d lead the tournament,” said Novak, whose highest previous finish in a PBA Tour event was a tie for ninth place in the United States Bowling Congress Masters earlier in the year. “I practiced with two balls yesterday, and I just happened to pick the right ball today. It matched up perfectly. Then it was just a matter of making good shots and staying focused.”

Moore, a newlywed (he married Professional Women’s Bowling Association competitor T’Nia Falbo in September), was a member of the 2016 PBA League Elias Cup champion Dallas Strikers team, but he has never finished higher than sixth place in PBA Tour singles competition.

“This has always been an event where I’ve been close to making the cut, but I never could get past the edge,” Moore said. “I worked with (long-time PBA Tour ball rep) Chris Schlemer during practice Monday and he gave me a couple of trigger points to try to make things as simple as possible. Admittedly, I have a tendency to over-think things, but with one or two things to think about, it helped me slow down and become more fluid. That’s all I worked on in practice and obviously it paid off.”

In third place was Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., who won his 10th and 11th PBA Tour titles earlier in the year. Rash closed his round with back-to-back 279 games to finish with a 1,898 total, 20 pins ahead of Greg Ostrander of Freehold, N.J., and 27 pins ahead of EJ Tackett of Huntington, Ind.

Among the surprise contenders was Poland’s Daria Pajak, who finished one pin behind Tackett. A June graduate of Florida’s Webber International University bowling in her first PBA Tour event, Pajak hopes to join Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y. (2014), and Clara Guerrero of Colombia (2013) as the third woman to advance to a Cheetah Championship television final. She will be among the top 24 Cheetah qualifiers who will return to the National Bowling Stadium for best-of-five-game match play eliminations on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and Thursday, Dec. 8 to determine the top four players for the ESPN match play finals that will be contested on Saturday, Dec. 10, for tape-delayed telecast on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 1 p.m. ET. The Cheetah finals will be live-streamed on ESPN3 on Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. ET.

WSOB VIII competition, which includes 169 bowlers from 23 countries, continues Wednesday with qualifying in the PBA Chameleon Championship presented by HotelPlanner.com. The Chameleon round also is the second stage in PBA World Championship qualifying. After the Scorpion and Shark Championship stages Thursday and Friday, respectively, the top 42 players based on 32-game pinfall totals will advance to the PBA World Championship cashers on Sunday.

All qualifying and match play elimination rounds in the World Series are being covered live, exclusively by PBA’s online live-streaming service, Xtra Frame. To sign up for an Xtra Frame subscription, visit xtraframe.tv.

PBA CHEETAH CHAMPIONSHIP

presented by PBA Bowling Challenge Mobile Game

National Bowling Stadium, Reno, Nev., Tuesday

Final Standings (after 8 games; top 24 advance to best-of-five-game match play elimination round on Tuesday, Dec. 6):

1, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1,958.
2, B.J. Moore III, Greensburg, Pa., 1,949.
3, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 1,898.
4, Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 1,878.
5, E.J. Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 1,871.
6, w-Daria Pajak, Poland, 1,870.
7, Pascal Winternheimer, Germany, 1,868.
8, Brad Miller, Maryland Heights, Mo., 1,857.
9, Francois Louw, South Africa, 1,854.
10, Dom Barrett, England, 1,847.
11, Mitch Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 1,836.
12, Mike Wolfe, New Albany, Ind., 1,834.
13, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,832.
14, Matthew O’Grady, South Amboy, N.J., 1,826.
15, Richie Teece, England, 1,825.
16 (tie), Anthony Simonsen, Princeton, Texas, and Dave Wodka, Beavercreek, Ohio, 1,812.
18, ss-Ron Mohr, Las Vegas, 1,811.
19, Andrew Graff, Las Vegas, 1,808.
20, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,807.
21, Joe Paluszek, Bensalem, Pa., 1,804.
22, Darren Tang, San Francisco, Calif., 1,801.
23, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,800.
24, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,798.

Failed to advance:
25, Bob Learn Jr., Erie, Pa., 1,797.
26, Zhiyong Wang, China, 1,796.
27, Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 1,793.
28, Jakob Butturff, Chandler, Ariz., 1,790.
29, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,788.
30, J.R. Raymond, Bay City, Mich., 1,786.
31, Cameron Weier, Tacoma, Wash., 1,777.
32, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 1,770.
33, w-Liz Johnson, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 1,767.
34, Rhino Page, Orlando, Fla., 1,765.
35, Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., 1,764.
36, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,762.
37 (tie), Kevin Donovan, Painted Post, N.Y., and Daniel Fransson, Sweden, 1,761.
39, Liu Shaoyi, China, 1,756.
40, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,755.
41 (tie), Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., and Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 1,753.
43, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,751.
44 (tie), Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., and Jason Belmonte, Australia, 1,750.
46, John Furey, Freehold, N.J., 1,747.
47, Chris Arcaro, Wilmington, N.C., 1,741.
48, Patrick Allen, South Salem, N.Y., 1,738.
49 (tie), Patrick Dombrowski, Parma, Ohio, and Brett Cunningham, Clay, N.Y., 1,737.
51 (tie), Jesse Buss, Belvidere, Ill.; Carsten Hansen, Denmark, and Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 1,730.
54 (tie), Noel Vazquez, Sacramento, Calif.; Jason Sterner, Cocoa, Fla., and Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., 1,727.
57, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 1,724.
58, Ryan Graywacz, Feeding Hills, Mass., 1,722.
59, D.J. Archer, Friendswood, Texas, 1,719.
60 (tie), Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y.; Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pa., and Jon Van Hees, Charlestown, R.I., 1,718.
63, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,714.
64 (tie), w-Anggie Ramirez, Colombia, and Cody McCowin, Daytona Beach, Fla., 1,713.
66, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., 1,712.
67, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 1,711.
68 (tie), Kristopher Prather, Milton, Fla.; Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela, and Tyler Jensen, Ft. Worth, Texas, 1,710.
71, Markus Jansson, Sweden, 1,709.
72, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 1,708.
73, Matthew Wozney, Clayton, Del., 1,706.
74, PJ Haggerty, Roseville, Calif., 1,705.
75 (tie), Xu Chen, China, and Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,700.
77, Benjamin Canfield, Tempe, Ariz., 1,698.
78, Jeff Evans, Supply, N.C., 1,697.
79 (tie), David Haynes, Las Vegas, and Anton Ahlgren, Sweden, 1,694.
81 (tie), Steven Arehart, Chesapeake, Va.; Michael Wittendorff, Denmark; Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., and Blake Demore, Springfield, Mo., 1,693.
85, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,692.
86 (tie), Graham Fach, Canada, and Matthew McNiel, Minneapolis, Minn., 1,690.
88 (tie), Chris Bolosan, Newport News, Va., and Stuart Williams, England, 1,688.
90 (tie), Craig LeMond, Jasper, Ind., and Lucas Legnani, Argentina, 1,687.
92 (tie), Kristian Rogers, Salisbury, N.C., and Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 1,685.
94, Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, 1,684.
95 (tie), Martin Larsen, Sweden, and Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,683.
97, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 1,681.
98, Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 1,677.
99, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 1,676.
100, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 1,674.
101, Mik Stampe, Denmark, 1,670.
102, Lonnie Waliczek, Wichita, Kan., 1,661.
103, Johnathan Bower, Middletown, Pa., 1,657.
104 (tie), Aaron Lorincz, Belleville, Mich., and Zhongli Mi, China, 1,653.
106, Casey Knutson, Sparks, Nev., 1,652.
107, Scott Newell, Deland, Fla., 1,651.
108, Nicholas Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 1,646.
109, Wang Hongbo, China, 1,642.
110 (tie), John Szczerbinski, N. Tonawanda, N.Y., and Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 1,635.
112 (tie), Mike DeVaney, Winchester, Calif., and Brett Cooper, Denver, 1,634.
114, Jonathan Hocsman, Argentina, 1,632.
115, Mohamed Janahi, Bahrain, 1,626.
116, A.J. Johnson, Oswego, Ill., 1,619.
117, Kim Bolleby, Thailand, 1,618.
118 (tie), Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., and Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 1,617.
120, Lou Yi, China, 1,616.
121, Qi Wankang, China, 1,615.
122, w-Ashly Galante, Palm Harbor, Fla., 1,614.
123, Anthony Pepe, Elmhurst, N.Y., 1,602.
124, Mike Scroggins, Amarillo, Texas, 1,596.
125, Isaac Russell, Malaysia, 1,595.
126, Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,594.
127, ss-Kevin Croucher, Grants Pass, Ore., 1,593.
128, Martin Bedford, Altus, Okla., 1,589.
129, Lars Nielsen, Denmark, 1,586.
130 (tie), LeVinc Samuels, Bermuda; Jonathan Wilbur, North Clarendon, Vt., and Hashim Guinomla, Philippines, 1,584.
133, Zhang Haitao, China, 1,582.
134, Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan., 1,576.
135, David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,571.
136, Yong-Jin Gu, South Korea, 1,567.
137, Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., 1,566.
138, Wang Dali, China, 1,565.
139, Ray Teece, England, 1,564.
140, w-Ingelimar Beasley, Venezuela, 1,558.
141, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 1,553.
142, David Maycock, Bermuda, 1,546.
143 (tie), Shawn Maldonado, Houston; Clint Land, Houston, and w-Liz Kuhlkin, Rotterdam, N.Y., 1,544.
146 (tie), Agustin Aranguren, Argentina, and Will Vidulich, Parsippany, N.J., 1,538.
148, Steve Ford, Seaside, Ore., 1,525.
149 (tie), Andrew Cain, Phoenix, and Andres Gomez, Colombia, 1,507.
151, Paul Moor, England, 1,506.
152, Tobias Boerding, Germany, 1,502.
153, Michael Duran, Banning, Calif., 1,501.
154, w-Summer Jasmin, Beckley, W.Va., 1,498.
155, Adam Wilson, Reno, Nev., 1,492.
156 (tie), Jeremy Mooney, West Palm Beach, Fla., and w-April Lordwittig, Steilacoom, Wash., 1,483.
158, w-Jill Creamer, Folsom, Calif., 1,465.
159, Derek Handy, Redmond, Wash., 1,452.
160, Douglas Hankins, Boise, Idaho, 1,440.
161, J.T. Jackson, Sherman Oaks, Calif., 1,395.
162, Russell Lopes, Carmichael, Calif., 1,384.
163, Mateo Hernandez, Argentina, 1,381.
164, Stephen Bennett, Hampton, Va., 1,377.
165, Rickai Binns, Bermuda, 1,334.
166, Tim Frenz, Dickinson, N.D., 1,326.
167, Xiao Lu, China, 1,260.
168, Cody Copeland, Abilene, Texas, 1,240.
169, Adrian McCoy, British Virgin Islands, 1,213.