Sunday, December 17, 2023 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
RJ Santos and Cisco Uncangco were crowned the Budweiser King and Prince of the Lanes 2023 Grand Champions at the Central Lanes Bowling Center as the Guam Bowling Congress ended their year-long qualifier. Santos prevailed over 6th seed Aaron Elliott in the King of the Lanes finals to earn his second Grand Finals championship, seven years after his inaugural title.
Santos trailed Elliott midway through the championship match on the long and medium patterns by three sticks. Santos was able to put together a turkey to take a slim lead from Elliott as the latter doubled. As both bowlers spared in the ninth frame, the 2nd seed Santos, rose to the occasion with a double on the tenth and eleventh deliveries to seal the deal upending Elliott for the title and prize 202-188.
The year-end Grand Finals was contested on three different lane patterns, a short oil pattern 34’, medium 39’, and long 42’, which continues to hamper the competitor’s ability to continuously score big games.
Juan Blas led the field of finalists after eight games of competition held throughout the day. Although his aggregate total was one pin lower than Santos, he won six head-to-head matches for sixty bonus points against Santos’ four match wins to take pole position. Santos took second while Noah Taimanglo wound up in third, eleven sticks behind Santos. Jeremiah Camacho, Ricky Duenas, and Aaron Elliott followed suit as the top six bowlers advanced to the elimination rounds.
In match 1, Elliott had the hot hand and ousted third seed Noah Taimanglo 248-156. In bracket B, 5th seed Ricky Duenas was able to put together a turkey in the later frames to oust 4th seed Jeremiah Camacho 214-195 and move into the second round.
In the must beat the higher seed two games to advance round, Santos dashed Duenas’ hopes with a 193-155 set to advance to the final match. In bracket A, Elliott eliminated Blas 199-156 and 177-169 in a back-and-forth second-game battle which saw Elliott bouncing back in the last frame with a double to set up the final’s showdown.
Cisco Uncangco led the prince field after six games of qualifying, six pins ahead of Henry Abasta as the field numbers were close until the end. Isaiah Macias, Erwin Aguilar, Enrique Corcino, and Gomez Martinez advanced to the elimination rounds finishing in the top six of the division.
3rd seed Macias defeated 6th seed Martinez 203-153 including handicap to advance to the second round. The bracket “B” match came down to the wire as 5th seed Corcino was unable to stave off 4th seed Aguilar falling by one stick, with the handicap, 169-170.
The top seeds in the second round moved on to the championship pair as 2nd seed Abasta edged out Aguilar 176-168, and Uncangco used his higher seed status to fend off Macias in two games. Macias controlled the later frames of game 1 to force a rubber-winner advance match, but Uncangco prevailed with a three-pin margin, 171-168, to move on to the finals match.
Uncangco controlled the narrative against Abasta in the final matchup, connecting a couple of strikes on his way to his inaugural Grand Finals title and prize with a score of 223-192.
Guam Bowling 