Sunday, March 9, 2025 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
Story by Enrique Torres
A determined Mike Duenas rallied after two open frames in the sixth and seventh by marking out the rest of the game, including picking up a split in the ninth to get past Joe Murphy 193-174 with handicap to claim the March Pin Point Senior Challenge title Sunday afternoon at the Central Lanes Bowling Center.
Veteran John Abad got things going by claiming the Last Man Standing Prize. He pulled two straight non-strike ball markers and got the required pins knocked down .
The bracket eliminations followed with 5th seed Mike Gumataotao and 9th seed Jim Pinaula survived the first cut over 7th seed Alex Santiago, 12th seed Tony Sobrevilla, 14th seed Edgar Nalundasan, and 16th seed Jude Tenorio in the A division. The B division resulted with 13th seed Yvonne Acda and 15th seed Frank San Agustin over 6th seed Manny Torre, 8th seed Gina San Nicolas, 10th seed Rick Torres, and 11th seed Henry Abasta.
The A bracket quarterfinals as 4th seed Murphy took out Ada and San Agustin to move to the semi-final round. The B bracket quarterfinals ended with Pinaula upsetting 3rd seed Jess Meno and Gumataotao to move on.
The semi-final round got a lot more interesting with Duenas rolling a strike in a tie-breaker to end Pinaula’s title quest. Murphy, in the meantime rolled two solid games to upset top seed Manny Tagle and getting a shot for the championship.
The title match put the two hard hitting keglers who survived the elimination rounds. Both men marked in the first three frames but three straight open frames by Murphy gave Duenas the chance he was waiting for to claim his first title this year. But he too suffered two straight missed frames in the sixth and seventh allowing Murphy a chance to close the gap because of the of Murphy’s ten pin advantage in handicap. But Duenas, who put in a lot of time in practice to prepare, regained his composure and completed his game by marking out the rest of the way and finishing with a thunderous strike in the tenth to seal the contest.
Afterwards, Duenas admitted he had longed to get back in the winner’s chair and spent every spare moment in practice and in qualifiers to position himself in the second seed slot and avoid having to struggle through the elimination rounds. But he still had to survive a nerve-wracking best ball roll off with Jim Pinaula to get to the final round. Qualifiers for the April tournament is currently ongoing. For details see Joey Miranda, Jim Pinaula, or Manny Tagle at the Pin Point Pro Shop in Central Lanes Bowling
Photos courtesy of Arlene Taitague and Manny Tagle.
Guam Bowling 