By JILL WINTERS
PBA Communications
COLUMBUS — After the completion of 16 games of qualifying, Amleto Monacelli’s name remains at the top of the leaderboard at the PBA60 Tristan’s T.A.P.S. Memorial Tournament.
The Venezuelan followed up his huge block Monday with 244, 203, 214, 256, 223, 258, 240 and 257 giving him a two-day total of 3,957. After using just one ball over his first eight games, the USBC and PBA Hall of Famer noticed the lanes were hooking earlier than the previous day, so he relied on three balls in his second block.
“The ball that I used yesterday (Envy Tour) didn’t skid as much in the front, so when that happens the ball doesn’t recover in the backend,” he said. “In the third game, I changed to the (Brunswick) Infinity, I had a really good shot. The last pair I started with it then changed to the (Ebonite Game Breaker 4) GB4 Hybrid with a little more response in the backend.”
With all qualifying pins dropping after the field was cut to the top 24, Monacelli will get a first-round bye Wednesday into the round of 16. He plans to keep his same thought process that has worked so far, and just worry about himself and the lanes, not who he is bowling against as he looks to win this tournament in back-to-back years.
In addition to Monacelli, Pete Weber, Walter Ray Williams Jr. — who also shot 300 during the second-round of qualifying — Mike Dias, Matt Ballard, Lyle Zikes, Lennie Boresch Jr. (300 in Game 9) and Robert Lawrence will have first-round byes. Adcock was in 39th coming into Tuesday and shot 1,909 to get to ninth place.
Also reaching the top 10 was Wadsworth’s Dale Csuhta, who finished 10th with 3,323 after sitting 54th after the opening eight games. He averaged 241.4 over his final eight games to make the jump.
In the final game, Ashtabula’s Dave Johnson shot a 299 game to go from 43rd place to 18th. And the final player to make the top 24 was John DiSantis at +295. Darryl Bower also shot 300 in Game 9 to earn the 20th position.
Former North Canton resident Tim Elsass moved from 48th to 23rd with 1,699 Tuesday, an average of 224.9 over his final eight games, to make the match-play cut by 10 pins. Falling short was Ontario’s Rob Sommers, who finished seven pins behind DeSantis after a 190 during his final game.
Among other area players, former Hartville resident Dick Gran finished 50th (3,388) in the 112-player field.
Three game total pinfall matches for qualifiers 9 through 24 will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Those winners and the top eight qualifiers will bowl their matches starting at noon, before the round of eight will start at 3 p.m.
Positions one through four will be determined based on their bracket seed number, and the highest seed that loses in the round of eight will be the fifth player to make the finals. The stepladder will begin 5 p.m. Wednesday. You can watch all of the action on BowlTV.com.
See complete qualifying scores here: