The annual NDBPA State Scratch Team Event took place this past weekend at Sunset Lanes. This season, the tournament featured a full field of 24 bowlers all competing for over $11,000 in total prize money. $2,000 in prize money was added by the NDBPA and Country Titan Games.
All teams bowled 12 games across the 24 lane center. Saturday’s 6-game block was held on the 45 foot PBA Weber pattern and Sunday was held on the 41 foot PBA Harry Smith pattern. With 2 patterns being used, the payout was modified to reward performances on each pattern as well as the tournament as a whole. 30% of the payout was based on Saturday totals, 30% based on Sunday totals, and 40% of the payout would go to the overall winner following 12 games.
Prior to the start of the event, most in the building knew ND Storm was the team to beat. ND Storm has won the last 2 State Scratch Team tournaments and 8 of the last 12. ND Storm featured most it’s usual roster of Travis Hersrud, Randy Peterson and Tayler Wallstrum. With Eric Kempel unable to participate, Matt Meyer joined ND Storm as their 4th this season.
ND Storm was once again a model of consistency as the team produced 12 consecutive games over 800 with a high game of 974. ND Storm placed all 4 members in the top 10 individually including 3 of the top 4. Matt Meyer fired off the top overall score for the weekend with a 2642 total.
ND Storm may have captured another team title, but it wasn’t easy this year. The challengers? a group of college kids. Degenerate Gamblers (Tommy Burns, Lucas Hersrud, Dawson Peterson & Zach Andresen) arrived on Sunday with the tournament lead, but hit a couple rough pairs late in the block. Degenerate gamblers finished in 2nd just 68 pins behind ND Storm. The top two teams separated themselves from the field early on and finished 400 pins better than the other 22 teams.
Final Team Standings:
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Final Singles Standings:
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Congratulations to ND Storm on winning yet another State Team Title. The win gives them 9 titles in the NDBowling.com era (Since 2012). Team captain, Randy Peterson, has been on each of the 9 title winning teams. How good has Randy been in team competition? Since 2012, Peterson has bowled in 11 of 13 tournaments held and won the singles option in 1 of the 2 tournaments his team didn’t win.
Thank you to folks at Sunset Lanes for doing a great job hosting the event. Shout out to the NDBPA and Ryan Krabbenhoft at Country Titan Games for adding money to the prize fund. Hope everyone has a safe holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at NDBowling.com!