Paul Koehler Led PBA50 Petraglia Championship, while Barnes Leads the World Championship
Jackson, Michigan – After qualifying in third place Tuesday at the 2024 PBA50 Monacelli Championship at the PBA50 World Series of Bowling II, Florida native Paul Koehler bowled even better on Wednesday at the PBA50 Petraglia Championship. He averaged 240.25 to finish his day at +322 to earn the top spot.
“I knew I was close to the lead and all I was thinking about was I had such a good shot, and I am trying to get as many pins as I can to pad in there for the World Championship because they are going to come in handy,” Koehler said, about his mindset. “It feels great. I have been in the zone before, and I found it again. When I got locked in and I got the right ball in my hand I just zoned in on my target and that was it.”
Once again, his 10-year-old son, Kristopher was excited and a big help. Koehler said maybe it was a good thing he did not make the PBA50 Ballard Championship cut, as now he can rest up on Thursday and get prepared for the other three match play rounds still ahead of him. He will bowl the Monacelli, Petraglia and World Championships after finishing in third overall at +798 for 24 games.
A trio of North Carolina natives and roommates this week had a memorable qualifying day on Wednesday. A day after turning 50, Mark Clark achieved his goal and more competing in his first-ever PBA50 event. He wanted to make a cut at the WSOB II. He did that at the Petraglia Championship, averaging 238.38 to finish in second place, and he qualified in 10th place at the World Championship.
Clark was on A-squad on the same pair as Brad Angelo. Clark shot 258 in Game 8 to pass Angelo reaching the top of the leaderboard after the first squad finished. Clark said it was a huge help being able to follow Angelo watching what his ball was doing each time they moved to a new pair of lanes inside JAX 60.
It also helped having his roommates Jeff Himes and Brian Dennis on each side of him, so they could talk about what they were all seeing. Himes did not make the cut, but Dennis did, as well as their final roommate Dennis Killough, who is in third place.
Clark admits he would not be paying for dinner on Wednesday night, but he knew they were all going to enjoy themselves.
“That means the house has a chance at making a TV show, which would be fantastic,” he said.
Clark, who works full-time for a commercial real estate firm, said it never made financial sense for him to pursue bowling on the PBA Tour because he was married, had kids and a good job. Yet, he always wondered how he might have done and saw this moment as “my chance to take a swing and see how I fair.”
He plans to cheer Brian Dennis on Thursday during the Ballard Championship before getting himself ready for the Petraglia Championship match play on Saturday followed by the World Championship on Sunday.
“It is going to be hard to make up some ground, but if there is a will there is a way,” Clark said.
Parker Bohn III and Tom Adcock were the final bowlers to make the cut at the Petraglia Championship tied at +223. Bohn III was also in a tie at the cut line for the World Championship at +466 with Tom Hess and Eddie Byrd.
Brad Angelo, Mika Koivuniemi, and Mario Quintero made every cut this week.
After the 24 games of qualifying at the WSOB II, the overall top 18 bowlers now advance to the World Championship round-robin match play. All qualifying pins carry over into that major event scheduled to start at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Before the start of Game 7 at the Petraglia Championship on Wednesday, according to PBA50 Tournament Director Toby Contreras, Pete Weber quit the tournament. At that moment, he was averaging 231.5 and was just outside of the cut line, while being inside the cut for the World Championship.
As for the World Championship, the top five are defending champion Chris Barnes, Angelo, Koehler, Quintero and Koivuniemi.
Now that qualifying is complete, bracket match play for the Ballard Championship begins at 11 a.m. Eastern Thursday. The remaining bowlers will be in best three-of-five game matches starting with the Round of 16 followed by the Round of 8 at 3 p.m. The overall winners and the highest seeded losing bowler in the Round of 8 will make the stepladder finals scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday. Bracket match play for the PBA50 Monacelli Championship is on Friday.
As for the World Championship, round robin match play starts at 9 a.m. ET Sunday with six games followed by Round 2 at 2 p.m. Match play will conclude with six final games in Round 3 starting at 2 p.m. Monday. The top five will advance to the stepladder finals seeking the $25,000 first-place prize along with a PBA50 major title. Those finals will start at 6 p.m. ET Monday.
You can watch the remainder of the PBA50 WSOB II only on BowlTV.
PBA50 Petraglia Championship Match Play Advancers:
- Paul Koehler, 1,922 (+322)
- Mark Clark, 1,907 (+307)
- Dennis Killough, 1,894 (+294)
- Charles Ferrell, 1,893 (+293)
- Mika Koivuniemi, 1,890 (+290)
- Mario Quintero, 1,876 (+276)
- Ricky Schissler, 1,861 (+261)
- Ryan Shafer, 1,860 (+260)
- Brad Angelo, 1,856 (+256)
- John Janawicz, 1,853 (+253)
- Mark Sullivan, 1,837 (+237)
- Eugene McCune, 1,835 (+235)
- Brian Dennis, 1,833 (+233)
- Skip Pavone, 1,827 (+227)
- Parker Bohn III, 1,823 (+223)
- Tom Adcock, 1,823 (+223)
Full standings - PBA50 Petraglia Championship
PBA50 World Championship Round-Robin Match Play Advancers:
- Chris Barnes, 5,667 (+867)
- Brad Angelo, 5,626 (+826)
- Paul Koehler, 5,598 (+798)
- Mario Quintero, 5,556 (+756)
- Mika Koivuniemi, 5,527 (+727)
- Jason Couch, 5,487 (+687)
- Brian Dennis, 5,446 (+646)
- John Janawicz, 5,344 (+544)
- Ryan Shafer, 5,343 (+543)
- Mark Clark, 5,330 (+530)
- Tony Oliva, 5,307 (+507)
- Bo Goergen, 5,304 (+504)
- Brian Diede, 5,287 (+487)
- Eugene McCune, 5,276 (+476)
- Brian Schamber, 5,272 (+472)
- Tom Hess, 5,266 (+466)
- Eddie Byrd, 5,266 (+466)
- Parker Bohn III, 5,266 (+466)
Full standings - PBA50 World Championship
More information on the PBA50 WSOB II is available here.