Tenth seed Florence Gareza made her debut at the Guam Senior Bowling Association’s 2020 Guam Senior Bowler of the Month tournament shootout a memorable one as she ran over six straight male opponents including an upset of veteran Manny Tagle in two out of three games to take the first senior title of the 2020 season.
The tournament house pattern proved to be a high scoring one as the even bracket results began with sixth seed Rick Torres taking a nailbiter over Wen Concepcion 203-201 with handicap while Gareza started her title run with a 196-133 win over eighth seed Frank San Agustin. The odd number bracket opened up with eleventh seed Terry Roberto upsetting fifth seed Manny Torre 255-202. The other part of the odd bracket resulted in ninth seed Tagle over seventh seed Edgar Nalundasan 198-175 to move on.
The bracket shootout elimination to move to the quarterfinals continued with Gareza knocking out Torres 213-198. Tagle stopped Roberto 231-218 to make the next level to the title.
Gareza continued by upsetting third seed Rick Ada 232-177. Tagle, on the other hand, had a bit more difficulty before taking advantage of fourth seed Joe Murphy’s late frame miscue to win 222-198.
Now the semi-finals are even more difficult as the lower seeds must beat the higher seeds twice to advance to the title round. Tagle began by upsetting second seed Rose Tosco 220-176 and 242-205 to move to the championship round. Gareza took down top seed Jim Pinaula in two straight as well 192-132 and 249-242 as Pinaula left a ringing ten pin in the second game tenth frame to allow Gareza to head into the title round against Tagle.
The championship round could not have generated more drama as Gareza unfazed by the excitement of going against multi titlist Tagle stayed steady throughout the first match as she won 217-206 to draw first blood. Tagle came back to even the match with a 272-169 romp in the second game. But the petite Gareza overcame the second game loss and regathered her composure and with a few words of support from husband Felix, ground out a tough but gratifying wind putting strikes in the final two frames to lockout Tagle 216-209 and become the first senior champion of 2020 and a shot to the year end Grand finals provided she complies with the tournament rules.
To be eligible to enter this senior event, bowlers who are fifty years of age and over must be in the Friday Night Senior Bowling League at Central Lanes. The tournament uses the league series scores based on a point system to determine the top twelve bowlers who will compete for the championship title usually on the final Sunday of each month. There are at least four qualifiers prior to each tournament with a $20 fee for each qualifier you enter.
The next tournament will be at 11AM on Sunday, February 23rd at Central Lanes.
The new rules in effect this season include a mandatory check-in time from 10:15 to 10:45AM for the top twelve bowlers who made the qualifier shootout. Failure to do so will open the door for reserve bowlers ranked by order of finish in the qualifiers to enter the shootout. For more information contact Manny Tagle, GSBA Tournament Chairperson.
Guam Bowling 