Pete Rusch, Kyle Wondra and Jason Buerger Finally Break Through to Win the 14th Annual Holiday Classic
Like last year’s winners Ben Cleveland, Tyler Atkinson and Don Suckow, who broke through with their first Holiday Classic victory, Pete, Kyle and Jason are seemingly always in the hunt year after year.
Their best finish to date was in 2008 losing to Josh Gulig, Nicole Burt and Jesse Burt.
In 2012, they finally broke through and won the Holiday Classic at Anchor Lanes on December 15th defeating Nathan Michalowski, Aaron Cleveland and Steve Richter 397 – 387 on a torn-up USBC White #2 pattern.
To view a listing of all the historical winners of the Holiday Classic, click here.
Leading into the finals, Pete, Kyle and Jason defeated #3 seed Mike Walters, Jeremy Gmach and Kevin Gmach 447 – 442 while in other semi-final action, Michalowski, Cleveland, Richter defeated #5 seed Phil Cummings, Vern Heidenreiter, Mike Nett 452-399.
In the opening round of action, Walters, Gmach, Gmach defeated the #6 seed Josh Gulig, Nicole Burt, Jesse Burt 375-318. On the other side of the bracket, Cummings, Heidenreiter, Nett upset #4 seed Steve DeKerf, Scott Cavanaugh, Mike Miller 401-384.
Click here to view a copy of the championship bracket.
In singles action, Pete Rusch led all qualifiers with a nice 750 set. He was followed by Nathan Michalowski (706), Mike Walters (702), Chris VanAkkeren (697), Harley Aumann (696) and Josh Gulig (690).
Click here to view a complete listing of how each bowler performed.
In the One Shot Pot game, Aaron Cleveland called a 9-count and rolled that to win the $187 pot.
Steve DeKerf had his ticket pulled as the winner of a new Roto Grip Defiant bowling ball.
In the Roto Grip Bowler of the Year competition, Mike Walters leads Pete Rusch in the points race by 6 points. Trailing Those two are Aaron Cleveland and Kyle Wondra (102), Josh Gulig (97) and Jason Buerger (91).
Click here to see the updated Bowler of the Year points list.
To see a game by game account of how all teams faired, click here for:
After Game #1, After Game #2, After Game #3, After Game #4, After Game #5
The tournament committee would like to thank Larry’s Distributing (Tyson Gutschow and Ken Hummitzsch) and Roto Grip (Hank Boomershine and Roger Noordhoek) for their continued support of our events.
The next event is the Galactic 9-Pin Tournament, Thursday, December 27th at 6:30 at Odyssey Fun Center. To sign up, contact Erick at 920/467-3578 or erickheling@sbcglobal.net.
Click here to view the entry blank for the Galactic 9-Pin Tournament.