National Championship Nearing 1,000 Qualifiers

SSB National Championship Update: May 12, 2008

Qualifiers Double to Over 600 During Past Week

44 Perfect Games Rolled by Top Shooters

National Leaders

With one month in the books and less than three weeks remaining to qualify for the inaugural Silver Strike Bowling National Championship, players from across the country are putting on a remarkable display of shot making prowess as they compete for one of the coveted top eight spots in each region.

And the reason is clear: Vegas, baby!

Five of the top eight bowlers in the country are in the Midwest region including the top three. This fiercely contested battle continues to be won by Matt Kisling of Cedar Rapids. His lead is a remarkable 974 pins over new second-place challenger, Chris Pioske of Minneapolis. The fight for the final qualifying spot is much closer with Josh Rademacher of Big Lake Minnesota holding a narrow 150-pin margin over St. Paul’s Kyle McDonough.

In the Northeast Ronald Hammersley has come from nowhere to claim the top spot. Hammersley of Beach Grove Indiana leads previous leader Charles Whalley of Indianapolis by 329 sticks. Hammersley’s three 300’s and three 298’s helped him take the lead. The battle for eighth place has Morton Pennsylvania’s Jeff Broadbelt 157 pins ahead of Telly Rogers of Avon Indiana.

In the Southeast the leaders flip-flopped with Joshua Myers of Largo, Florida taking a miniscule 69-pin lead over Chris Beverly of Conway, South Carolina. These two guys appear to be in head-to-head fight to the finish. The battle for the final qualifying spot is too close to call right now with Mike Zugras of Ocala Florida holding a 285-pin lead over Jon Campbell of Easley South Carolina.

The West has a new leader with James Krull of Vancouver Washington leapfrogging over Kevin Bonney and Steven “Sonny” Tunstall. Bonney from Omaha and Tunstall from Houston will have their work cut out for them as they trail Krull by 250 and 714 pins respectively. Mitch Clark of Lynwood Washington is holding off all challengers for the eighth and final playoff spot.

18 more perfectos were rolled this past week and the total 300’s rolled by the top 32 now approaches 50. No one could have anticipated this many perfect games when the tournament started.

“I’m shocked,” said tournament director Dan Schrementi. “We figured that 20 or so perfectos would be tossed. But 44 already? I never could have dreamed that in a million years. Vegas is really going to be something!”

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