Francisco Garcia
The two competitors who walked away with the two (Silver and Gold) titles at last weekend’s (Aug. 21-23) $500-added 10-Ball Championships, held under the auspices of Utah’s Salt City Pool Tournaments, are relative newcomers to the AZBilliards database. No big surprise there, as Utah doesn’t generally show up on our radar as a ‘hot spot’ of pool activity. It has, however, come to our notice that when a tournament weekend draws over 100 unique competitors, its participants and interested spectators tend to be members of a strong, local pool community. Reporting on such events is likely to bring the best among them (winners, in particular) notice that they’ve earned and deserve, while members of the broader pool community, in and out of Utah, learn about them in an EWS (Early Warning System) way that might prove informatively useful in upcoming events.
The two events were FargoRate separated and handicapped. Competitors with rates from 499 to 319 and below, played in a $250-added Silver bracket, while the 500 to 749 folks competed in a $250-added Gold bracket. Both Francisco Garcia (Gold) and Shane O’Rourke (Silver) went undefeated to claim the respective titles. Having advanced to the hot seat undefeated, Garcia’s win became ‘official’ when he and Carlos Ojeda Urgelles opted out of a final match and split the top two cash prizes. Garcia recorded his second cash payout with us, having finished in the tie for 13th in this past February’s 30th Annual Swanee Memorial in Las Vegas. Shane O’Rourke joined our database for the first time with a victory. In all, the event drew 45 entrants to its Gold tournament and 64 entrants to its Silver, both hosted by Chapter 1760 of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Murray, Utah.
Garcia’s trip to the Gold’s hot seat got off to a start with a double hill win (8-4) against Jonathan Escobar (racing to 5), after which Garcia downed Alex Castilla 8-3 and Robert Harrison 8-2. He drew Urgelles for the first and what proved to be the only time in a winners’ side semifinal, defeating him, double hill, and advancing to the hot seat match. Mike Kushlan, who played three opponents above his ‘pay grade’ and two below, defeated Shao Cheng 7-3 (below), Mario Mariani 7-4 (below), before facing and defeating three (above) opponents in a row; Victor Cucuzza 7-4, Ace Brown 7-6 (Brown racing to 8) and in the other winners’ side semifinal, in a straight-up race to 7, Jhovan Suarez 7-4.
Garcia gave Kushlan a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 8, defeated him 8-4 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Urgelles and Suarez dropped in and drew two competitors who’d been sent over following a loss in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals; Suarez picking up Cucuzza, Urgelles drawing Ace Brown. Urgelles eliminated Brown 8-6 and advanced to the quarterfinals. Suarez joined him after defeating Cucuzza, double hill (7-8).
Urgelles defeated Suarez 8-3 in those quarterfinals and in a double-hill, last match of the Gold event, downed Kushlan in the semifinals 8-6 (Kushlan racing to 7). The prize split was negotiated with Garcia, who became the event’s official winner.
O’Rourke downs Andrew Schafer twice, hot seat and final, to claim 10-Ball Silver title
Shane O’Rourke
In a 64-entrant Silver field, dominated by FargoRates in the ‘400’ range, eventual winner Shane O’Rourke entered as that range’s highest entrant (498). There was a lone ‘at 500’ entrant in the Silver battles, who finished in the tie for 5th/6th (Steven Perkey).
So it was, in racing to 6 throughout the event, that O’Rourke awarded ‘beads on the wire’ to half of his six opponents and played straight-up races to 6 against the other three. He opened with a straight-up, 6-2 win over Layne McPolin and followed with victories over Annette Munro 6-2 (Munro racing to 5) and a double-hill win versus Gregory Mellen 6-4 (Mellen racing to 5). He battled Anthony R Lepre in a straight-up to 6, double-hill match in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals, and then, awarding three ‘beads’ to Larry Knoll in one of the winners’ side semifinals, shut him out and advanced to the hot seat match.
Andrew Schafer, also racing to 6 throughout, played all but one of his matches, straight up, getting by Tina Rigger 6-4, before awarding Jennifer Fen three ‘beads’ and shutting her out. Schafer went on to down Uby Guttierez 6-2, Kilee Lucero 6-3 and in the other winners’ side semifinal, defeated the lone ‘500’ competitor, Steven Perkey, 6-1. O’Rourke took the first of his two against Schafer 6-4 and claimed the hot seat.
When Perkey joined the loss side, he drew Micah Semon, who’d been defeated in the opening winners’ side round and went on an eight-match, loss-side streak that had most recently eliminated Jason Roskelley, double hill, and with a single ‘bead on the wire,’ defeated Anthony R Lepre 5-3. He used that same single ‘bead’ in his match against Perkey and defeated him 5-3, as well, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Larry Knoll came over and picked up Gregory Mellen, who’d followed his third-round loss to O’Rourke with four in a row, that included the recent elimination of James Schoudel and Kilee Lucero, both 5-1. He joined Semon in the quarterfinals after defeating Knoll 5-2 (Knoll racing to 3).
Combined, the two quarterfinalists had won 13 matches on the loss side, one less than twice as many as O’Rourke would win to claim the Silver title. Their match went double hill. Mellon stopped Semon’s eight in a row and turned his own streak into six in a loss-side row 5-4.
Schafer put a stop to that in the semifinals, awarding a single ‘bead’ to Mellen and promptly shutting him out for a second shot against O’Rourke in the finals. That final race was a straight-up, extended race to 8. Schafer chalked up as many racks as he had against O’Rourke in the hot seat match (4), while O’Rourke added the pair of racks he needed to claim the Silver title 8-4.
Tournament director Justin McNeillie thanked the ownership and staff at the Fraternal Order of Eagles 1760 Wyatt location for their hospitality, along with sponsor JamUp Apparel (in the person of Damian Pongpanik) for the “incredible event jerseys” and added money. McNeillie also thanked the 109 players, who, noting them as the reason for the events, “travelled, entered, competed, supported one another and helped create such a great atmosphere.”
The next event on the Salt City Pool Tournaments’ calendar, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 16-18, will be a 9-Ball Jamboree, hosted, once again, by FOE 1760 in Murray, UT. Further information regarding upcoming events on the Salt City Pool Tournaments’ schedule can be found on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584899685861
This dispatch was curated from AZBilliards.
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