July 31, 2024 Nolan Hughes

History will be made this week at Hijinx Family Entertainment Center in Jonesboro, Ark. The PBA, PBA50 and PWBA Tours come together for an unprecedented trios tournament with a national title on each respective tour up for grabs.

Each tour will bowl two, five-game qualifying rounds. The PBA50 division will bowl at 9 a.m. Eastern (8 a.m. local) on Thursday and Friday, followed by the PWBA division at 2 p.m. ET and the PBA division at 6 p.m. ET.

After 10 games of qualifying, the top 16 players in each division will advance to match play. Trios teams will be formed based on qualifying seed (the top qualifier in the PBA, PBA50 and PWBA divisions will form Team 1, and so on).

Pinfall will be dropped for the 16 games of round-robin, baker match play. One player will bowl the first, fourth, seventh and 10th frames; a second will bowl the second, fifth and eighth; and the third will bowl the third, sixth and ninth frames. 

All rounds will be livestreamed on BowlTV.

PBA Awards Race Update

With just two title events remaining, the top stories on the PBA Tour relate to the Player and Rookie of the Year races. Last weekend’s Storm PBA/PWBA Storm Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles event, commonly known as the “Luci,” made two close races even closer.

First-year player Alec Keplinger entered the Luci trailing Nate Purches in points, earnings and average, but perhaps made up some ground in the Rookie of the Year race with a match play appearance and a 12th place finish.

With last weekend’s victory in Houston, Anthony Simonsen now leads the PBA Tour with three titles this season. He broke a five-way tie with EJ Tackett, Marshall Kent, David “Boog” Krol and Kyle Troup, who have each won twice.

Simonsen has won three standard titles this season, while Tackett, Kent and Troup have each won one standard and one major title. Krol, who started the season as a non-exempt player competing in pre-tournament qualifiers, has won two standard titles.

Tackett also led the tour in points and still leads in earnings and average. In fact, Tackett has a chance to surpass Jason Belmonte’s record average of 229.39 set in 2017. Tackett enters the event with a 229.29 average for his 430 games this season.

PWBA and PBA50 Stars

Jordan Richard, the reigning PWBA Player of the Year, returns to her old stomping grounds. Richard was a three-time All-American and two-time NTCA Division 1 Player of the Year during her three years at Jonesboro’s Arkansas State.

Additional PWBA stars in the field include Bryanna Coté, Verity Crawley and three-time Luci champion Danielle McEwan. All competing PWBA players are listed here.

This year’s PBA50 Player of the Year front-runner John Janawicz headlines the PBA50 division. Janawicz’s tour-best four titles this season has given him an almost 12,000-point cushion in points.

Chris Barnes, Jason Couch, Tom Hess, and the newest PBA50 major champion Mario Quintero will also be in the field, while Mika Koivuniemi looks to make his sixth consecutive stepladder finals on the PBA50 Tour.

All competing PBA50 players are listed here.

Tournament Schedule

All times listed in Eastern

Wednesday, July 31
11 a.m. — PBA50 practice session
1 p.m. — PWBA practice session
3 p.m. — PBA practice session
7 p.m. — Pro-Am 1
9:30 p.m. — Pro-Am 2

Thursday, Aug. 1
9 a.m. — PBA50 Qualifying Round 1 (five games)
2 p.m. — PWBA Qualifying Round 1 (five games)
6 p.m. — PBA Qualifying Round 1 (five games)

Friday, Aug. 2
9 a.m. — PBA50 Qualifying Round 2 (five games)
2 p.m. — PWBA Qualifying Round 2 (five games)
6 p.m. — PBA Qualifying Round 2 (five games)

Top 16 players in each division advance to match play
Trios teams matched up by seed; #1 seed in each division joins Team 1, etc.
All pinfall is dropped entering match play

Saturday, Aug. 3
9 a.m. — Trios Match Play Round 1 (eight baker games)
3 p.m. — Trios Match Play Round 2 (eight baker games)

Top five teams advance to stepladder finals

8 p.m. — Stepladder finals (baker games)

More information on the PBA/PBA50/PWBA Jonesboro Trios is available here.