John Janawicz Leads Opening Round of PBA50 TOC
Morgantown, West Virginia — After the first day of qualifying, John Janawicz is leading the Johnny Petraglia BVL PBA50 Tournament of Champions presented by Pleasant Day Schools.
On Wednesday, the defending champion started the tournament with 234, 235, 220, 289, 200, 247, 234 and 226 for a total of 1,885. The Bowlers to Veterans Link PBA50 Tour Advocate didn’t feel like he had a good look on the fresh 46-foot Petraglia oil pattern during the practice session on Tuesday. So, he developed a different strategy on how to attack the lanes.
“I tried to do a few things to allow me to keep it a little straighter in the ball track. It worked out really well,” Janawicz said. “It took me a little bit to fine-tune the right roll in order to carry. It was a pretty consistent day all the way across.”
The final game, he made a ball change to start his fifth frame, which led to seven out of eight strikes, to bail out a 226 game. He aims to do more of the same looking ahead to Thursday’s final daily of qualifying.
“I might try another couple bowling balls just to see because a couple of the ones I thought might work didn’t,” Janawicz said. “Hopefully, I will have a few other things ready just in case they are slightly a little bit different.”
Behind Janawicz in second is left-hander Michael Haggitt with 1,852, then Chris Barnes in third with 1,835.
The leader in this year’s Rookie of the Year race, Mike Machuga, led A-squad. He shot 180, 233, 235, 256, 258, 233, 248 and 189 for 1,832. Machuga felt the lanes broke down a little faster than what he anticipated from practice. That led to a couple of bad shots in the first game, which he said he really paid the price for.
“I had it going the rest of the way and then the last game I hung in the ball I was using too long,” Machuga said. “It was also a pair that I had in my notes from the practice day that I especially did not like the left lane.”
Machuga said he grinded out what he could, then left a 7-10 in the 10th frame. He admits he has mostly been a mental note taker, but he does have a spreadsheet that he has been building for about 15 years.
“It has probably 500 bowling balls in it that I have drilled over the years. I am building on it with some lane play. I have really been building it more for teaching than my individual bowling,” Machuga said. “This environment can be a bit chaotic. I am traveling with 57 bowling balls right now, so I am building a sheet that tells me what I should be looking for if this ball is working well than these other ones should complement it. If it didn’t look good in practice, then you can throw out all of these other ones. It just organizes the chaos.”
Overall, Machuga has enjoyed competing this season and feels it has gone well, yet there is still work to be done.
“To me, it is unfinished until there is a title. So, we have got to finish the job on one of these things to make it what I would consider a successful season,” Machuga said. “It has always been about the majors. I am off to a good start, and I could not really ask for more. (I will) take what we learned from this squad and apply it to the next one and hopefully just improve a little each day.”
There were two perfect games thrown on the day by Andy Neuer and Shane Phelps, both on B-squad. Qualifying continues on Thursday with eight more games to determine the top 32 players who will move into the Advancers Round on Friday. B-squad will be on the lanes at 9 a.m. Eastern followed by the A-squad at 3:30 p.m. ET only on BowlTV.com. Currently, Randy Weiss is the cut number at 1,655 (+55).
Top 10 PBA50 Tournament of Champions:
- John Janawicz, 1,885 total pinfall (+285)
- Michael Haggitt, 1,852 (+252)
- Chris Barnes, 1,835 (+235)
- Mike Machuga, 1,832 (+232)
- Pete Weber, 1,814 (+214)
- Andy Neuer, 1,801 (+201)
- Dan Knowlton, 1,785 (+185)
- Tom Daugherty, 1,782 (+182)
- James Campbell, 1,773 (+173)
- Mitch Sacks, 1,769 (+169)
