January 4, 2023 Nolan Hughes

After a long day of competition at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas, 16 finalists have emerged at the 2022 PBA Regional Players Invitational.

Half of the advancers earned their spots through their performance across 14 games of qualifying.

Fero Williams continued his brilliance and led the 84-player competition through qualifying. Williams averaged over 247 — nearly five pins per game better than the next-best player — to pace the field with a 3,459 total pinfall.

“I feel good,” Williams said. “I’m trying to keep myself grounded more than anything and not get ahead of myself. That’s one of the biggest things in my career is always trying to stay level headed.”

During the first round of qualifying, a ball change helped spur a 300 game. But today, Williams said the pattern played a little bit longer. That allowed him to stay in the same ball for all seven games.

“The last three games I stayed around the track,” Williams said. “I was tempted to switch balls like I did yesterday, but I was like, ‘Well, this ball is getting to the pocket good. I can control it. If I miss a little bit right, it actually recovers. So let me just stick with this.’

“When it comes to people making a charge (at the lead), I wasn't really paying attention to scores. It was always more about staying in the top eight to try to get those two-round byes.”

Cortez Schenck moved from fifth to second on the day, while Nathan Bohr, Colin Champion and Mykel Holliman each made strides up the leaderboard. Those five players, as well as Day 1 leader Cameron Weier, David Krol and Graham Fach, each clinched a spot in the Round of 16.

 

Eight additional competitors secured a berth in Thursday’s competition. While the ninth through 16th qualifiers earned a one-round bye, qualifiers 17-32 needed to win a pair of best-of-five matches to advance.

Tom Hess secured the final spot of the 32-player bracket with a 3,112 total, edging Evan Nash by a single pin. However, Hess was soon sent packing by Tim Foy Jr. in the first round of match play in consecutive games.

While Zacharay Wilkins and Sean Lavery-Spahr also swept their opponents, all five other first-round matches went the distance. 

John Furey’s comeback from an 0-2 deficit against Deo Benard was briefly outshined by Trevor Roberts. The Floridian delivered his second 300 of the day to force a decisive Game 5 against Brian Robinson, but the West Virginian ultimately prevailed.

 

 

However, Robinson ran into a freight train by the name of Cody Shoemaker in the Round of 24. The East region’s Player of the Year put up games of 288, 214 and 258 to take the match in a sweep.

The Round of 24 pitted Bailey Mavrick against Jeffery Mann, a pair of rising talents from central Indiana. Mavrick said the two compete almost every day back home.

Mavrick, a Midwest Region Qualifier finalist at the 2022 PBA Players Championship, leaped out to a 1-0 lead with a perfect game, the third of the day and sixth overall of the tournament.

Heading into the Round of 16, Mavrick said he’ll stick with the same gameplan but will be ready to adjust if the lanes show otherwise. He said urethane has looked good on the 43-foot oil pattern, and playing inside with reactive has been successful as well.

“There are many angles to play," he said. "All week I've just been following what I see. If I see moves, I try to make them as quickly as possible and just stay in the moment.”

The RPI resumes Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. ET on BowlTV.

Top-16 Matchups

#1 Fero Williams vs. #17 Tim Foy Jr.
#2 Cortez Schenck vs. #15 Cody Shoemaker
#3 Nathan Bohr vs. #14 Bailey Mavrick
#4 Colin Champion vs. #13 Alex Cavagnaro
#5 Mykel Holliman vs. #12 Jean Perez
#6 Cameron Weier vs.#22 Patrick Dombrowski
#7 David Krol vs. #10 Matt Sanders
#8 Graham Fach vs. #9 Anthony Schanen

Remaining RPI Schedule

Thursday, Jan. 5
8 a.m. PST | 11 a.m. ET — PBA Round of 16 (best-of-three matches)
9:30 a.m. PST | 12:30 p.m. ET — PBA Round of 8 (best-of-three
matches)
11 a.m. PST | 2 p.m. ET — PBA Round of 4 (single-game matches)
11:45 a.m. PST | 2:45 p.m. ET — PBA championship round (single-game match)