Photo by Nolan Hughes- PBA Tour
APRIL 13, 2024 NOLAN HUGHES
Kawazoe and four PBA Tour champions advance to stepladder finals of PBA Shark Championship
The stepladder finals for the PBA Shark Championship at the PBA World Series of Bowling XV was set on Saturday night.
Japan’s Shota Kawazoe earned the top seed for next Wednesday’s championship round, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern on FS1, followed by EJ Tackett, Anthony Simonsen, Kris Prather and Matt Russo.
The top 16 players after 15 games of qualifying on Friday and Saturday on the 48-foot Shark pattern advanced to match play on Saturday night at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.
The four players who won their Round of 16 and Round of 8 matches — Kawazoe, Tackett, Simonsen and Prather — advanced to the stepladder finals with qualifying position determining seeding. The fifth seed was awarded to Russo, the highest qualifier who lost in the Round of 8.https://www.instagram.com/p/C5udP5FOjtn/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=810&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pba.com&rp=%2F2024%2Fapril%2Fjapans-shota-kawazoe-earns-top-seed-pba-shark-championship#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A485.5%2C%22ls%22%3A202.79999995231628%2C%22le%22%3A469.5%7D
Kawazoe will make his third career PBA Tour finals. He previously made the Go Bowling PBA 60th Anniversary Classic finals, finishing fourth, and the 2019 Go Bowling PBA Jonesboro Open, finishing fifth.
Coincidentally, Simonsen, Tackett and Prather each made the Jonesboro show as well and the Shark pattern was used on the left lane in that event.
Kawazoe said winning the title would fulfill his dream and the dream of all Japanese bowlers.
This marks Tackett’s seventh championship round appearance in 11 events this season. In the four events he did not make the finals, he finished 17th, sixth, 22nd and 40th.
While Tackett has yet to win a title this season, he has a chance to break Jason Belmonte’s 2019 PBA-record average of 229.39. Tackett, including his 71 games in the WSOB, is averaging 230.60 this season.
“It’s been a great season, obviously I’ve bowled really well, but the only thing missing is a trophy. Hopefully, Wednesday night that is going to change,” Tackett said. “I can’t think about records. Like last year, when I was trying to win the U.S. Open, you can’t think about the Triple Crown. You can’t. You just have to do the job that’s in front of you. And if I do those things, those other things happen at the end of the season.”
Simonsen earned the No. 3 seed after a unique path, even for his standards, to the show.
The two-hander bowled the first two games of Shark Championship qualifying with a backup ball. He said he tried to replicate the success of the southpaws on Cheetah and Scorpion.
Simonsen’s plan didn’t quite work out, and he switched back to a conventional gameplan for the third and fourth games before giving the back-up ball another go in the fifth game. Simonsen shot 1,039 and was 152 pins behind 16th place.
In that evening’s second round, he committed to a conventional gameplan and shot 1,283 to rise from 88th to 20th. In Round 3, he shot 1,183 to earn the No. 13 seed for match play.
“Obviously when I tried some things based on previous results this week, that wasn’t the best decision,” Simonsen said. “At the same time, I’m sure I gave away some pins, but ultimately it worked out. The big thing I told myself the last two blocks is ‘just find a way.’ As mentally defeating as it’s been, with as many strikes as you had to throw, it’s kind of hard to get yourself excited to be able to try to make a run at a number. I wasn’t the best mentally and wasn’t the best physically this week. I was happy that I was able to bounce back after the first two patterns and find a check in the World Championship. We’ll see if we can bring home a title on Wednesday.”
In the opening round, Simonsen overcame a 0-2 deficit against Matt Sanders. Needing a strike to win the game and match, Sanders left an 8-pin in the 10th frame of Game 5.
Simonsen then took down the No. 5 qualifier Nicola Pongolini of Italy in five games to advance to the championship round. Pongolini fired 1,299 for his five games, including 810 the final three games, to make both the Shark and World Championship cuts. Pongolini, after losing the first game against Keven Williams in the Round of 16, shot 279, 300 and 268 (847) with 26 consecutive strikes to win that match, 3-1.
“He was impressive,” said Simonsen, who bowled with Pongolini for all 15 games of Shark Championship qualifying as well. “At one point, he was +553 for nine games, which was pretty ridiculous. I got to be a first-hand witness to that throughout the week. That is why when we bowled our match, I didn’t want to just get out and start striking with him. I wanted to try and make them at least a little trickier, just different than what we had bowled on because obviously he had great ball reaction.”
After shooting 197 in his final game of qualifying, Prather left Thunderbowl Lanes in anticipation of missing the cut. A text from his wife later — which read “Hey, you’re in a roll-off. You should get back. — and Prather had a new life.
Kevin McCune shot 300 his final game to force the roll-off, but couldn’t maintain his striking pace and Prather moved on to face top qualifier AJ Johnson. Prather swept the match despite Johnson a) shooting 762 for three games and b) never losing a game by more than four pins. Prather won 269-265, 259-258 and 242-239 to win the match, 3-0.
“I felt like today I bowled insanely well from start to finish,” Prather said. “On Cheetah, you know, we’re all going to strike on that. On Scorpion, I felt like I was going to bowl better but I just could not get my ball to hook. And that’s where I came up with this gameplan for Shark of taking the surface up and staying close to the friction.”
In the Round of 8, Prather defeated 20-year-old Swedish rising star Robin Ilhammar, who won the IBF World Youth Cup in January, in four games.
“What an incredible kid, right?” Prather said after the match. “When (the tournament director) announced that he was youth world champion last year, that made me feel really old. But also, the kid just didn’t quit. I went up 2-0 and he fought right back with 250. I had to throw the front-nine at him (in Game 4) to put any kind of pressure on him, And even then, if he struck out I would’ve still had to mark. It was an incredible performance. Kudos to him.”
Russo earned his second championship round appearance in three days, advancing to the stepladder finals as the highest qualifier defeated in the Round of 8. He defeated Carlos Grandos in his first match, 3-0, before falling to Tackett in a rematch of the Scorpion Championship Round of 8 (which Russo won).
“I feel like my game is really at a point where it’s all clicking. Whether I’m trying to throw it hard or soft or trusting my ability, I think it’s all clicking at the right time,” Russo said. “I think beating EJ to make the Scorpion Championship show and be the No. 1 seed tipped (my confidence) over. I just wanted to have three good blocks and stay in the World Championship number and see what happens, and I’m on the show again.”
In addition to making his second show in three days, Russo leads the PBA World Championship through 45 games with a total pinfall of 10,893 (+1,893).
Jesper Svensson, Justin Knowles, Tackett and Packy Hanrahan round out the top five. Match play for the 16 advancing players will take place on Thursday.
The full PBA WSOB XV schedule is available below.
Shark Championship Match Play Results
Round of 16
No. 16 Kris Prather def. No. 1 AJ Johnson, 3-0
No. 9 Robin Ilhammar def. No. 8 Mitch Hupé, 3-0
No. 2 Shota Kawazoe def. No. 15 Nate Purches, 3-2
No. 7 Jake Peters def. No. 10 Rasmus Edvall, 3-2
No. 3 Matt Russo def. No. 14 Carlos Granados, 3-0
No. 6 EJ Tackett def. No. 11 Matt Ogle, 3-1
No. 13 Anthony Simonsen def. No. 4 Matt Sanders, 3-2
No. 5 Nicola Pongolini def. No. 12 Keven Williams, 3-1
Round of 8
No. 2 Shota Kawazoe def. No. 7 Jake Peters, 3-0
No. 6 EJ Tackett def. No. 3 Matt Russo, 3-1
No. 13 Anthony Simonsen def. No 5 Nicola Pongolini, 3-2
No. 16 Kris Prather def. No. 9 Robin Ilhammar, 3-1
Full scores and standings are available here.
WSOB SCHEDULE
Thunderbowl Lanes | Allen Park, Mich.
All times Eastern
Sunday, April 14
Noon— Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship finals on FS1
1pm — Pro-am
Monday, April 15
7pm — PBA Cheetah Championship finals on FS1
Tuesday, April 16
7pm — PBA Scorpion Championship finals on FS1
Wednesday, April 17
7pm — PBA Shark Championship finals on FS1
Thursday, April 18
10am — World Championship Match Play Round 1 (eight games)
5pm — World Championship Match Play Round 2 (eight games)
- Top nine players advance to PBA World Championship stepladder finals
Saturday, April 20
7pm — PBA World Championship semifinals on FS1 (seeds 5-9)
Sunday, April 21
Noon — PBA World Championship finals on FOX