September 24, 2026 Jill Winters

Star-studded fields will pack this weekend’s PBA ELITE Regional Tour events at the Southwest and West Regionals. The Southwest Region standard division roster is filled with familiar names, including four 2026 PBA Player of the Year and two Rookie of the Year nominees. They will all battle it out at FireLake Bowling Center in Shawnee, OK.

The standard division features Brandon Bonta, Boog Krol, Spencer Robarge and Zach Wilkins, who were on the Player of the Year ballot. Bonta and Robarge were also on the Rookie of the Year ballot. Adding to the strength of this group are Francois Lavoie, Shawn Maldonado, Packy Hanrahan, AJ Chapman, Deo Benard, Eric Jones and Keven Williams.

Maldonado and TJ Rock have won the past two FireLake Invitationals. Benard already has 16 regional titles at just 22 years old, and he is the reigning champion of the Regional Players Invitational. The senior division roster includes Rick Benard, Tony Franklin, Robert Lawrence, Jon DeLaney, Dino Castillo and Chris Warren, who is tied for first with the most regional titles at 47. Warren is second all-time in regional titles with 60 behind Walter Ray Williams Jr.  

The early trend of father-son duos continues with the Benards, DeLaney’s son, Chris, and Warren’s 21-year-old son Chris Warren II in the standard division. The young guys to keep an eye on are Ernesto Reynoso, 20-year-old Trae Henrichsmeyer, Josh Hammons, Connor Fleming, Braden Mallasch, Kaeden White and Jackson Wigington. Several of them have been on Junior Team USA and bowl for Wichita State University. You will likely see a lot of black and yellow jerseys from current and former Shocker players.

There are two squads with qualifying starting at 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. After seven games, there will be a cut to the top third of the field in standard and senior division. Those bowlers will return to the lanes at 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday for four games in the advancers round. From there, the top 8 in each division bowl round-robin match play, scheduled to begin at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Overall, the bowler with the highest pinfall total will win their division. There is no stepladder final. The pattern for this tournament is 48 feet. For more details on the first regional in the Southwest, click here.

WEST

The West Region roster is highlighted by 17-time PBA Tour champion and 2026 Player of the Year nominee Anthony Simonsen, Darren Tang, who is the first player to ever win a PBA title one-handed and two-handed, along with Jake Peters. PJ Haggerty will be seeking his 22nd career regional title. Last weekend’s Northwest Regional standard division champion, Dallas Leong will try to win back-to-back but watch out for Nickolaus Freiberg. He led the majority of that tournament until Leong rolled past him in the last game. Freiberg is just 23 years old, and he has won two regional titles in the last 11 months. A few other rising stars are 23-year-old Hunter Mayes, 24-year-old Michael Loera, 22-year-old lefty and international player Ben Robinson.

As for the senior division, the powerful Robert Smith will have the pins flying inside Buena Lanes in Ventura, CA. He has won 10 regional titles and seven PBA National titles, including the 2000 U.S. Open. Michael Haugen Jr. has won nearly 30 regional titles between the two tours. Rich Corwin is leading the points list in the PBA50 West Region and David Leverage has won six senior regional titles, in addition to being named the West Region’s senior Player of the Year three times in the last four years.  

There are two squads with seven games of qualifying starting at 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET before cutting to the top third in the field. Those bowlers will return at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday for four games in the advancers round. The top 8 in the standard and senior division will bowl round-robin match play to determine a winner for each division beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. The oil pattern for the first West Regional is 43 feet. More information about this regional can be found here.

The top 5 non-PBA Tour priority finishers in every PBA ELITE Regional Tour event earn an automatic berth into the PBA RPI held in December. At that prestigious tournament, three priority status positions on the 2027 PBA Tour will be rewarded.

All rounds of qualifying for every PBA ELITE Regional Tour will be livestreamed on BowlTV or Bowling TV, a free, ad-supported channel.

To follow the continuous coverage of the PBA ELITE Regional Tour, click here.