Many may say the number 13 is unlucky, but for the Morris Anderson Memorial Shootout, the 13th edition produced nothing but history making events.
The 13th annual Morris Anderson Memorial Shootout started Saturday with 127 bowlers bowling 8 games of qualifying. Following the qualifying round, the top 36 bowlers would advance to Sunday’s match play round and a shot at the $5000 top prize. The scoring started relatively slow as players negotiated the 2.19-1 ratio oil pattern. It was clear from the start that spares and quality shot making were required to compete.
Early on in the qualifying round, reigning Manitoba Open Champion Andy Mills struggled to find a decent look and found himself near last place through game two. Mills made a comeback shooting 1310 the last 6 games to vault himself to 23rd place earning him a spot in Sunday’s match play round.
Leading all bowlers on Saturday was once again Zach Wilkins. Zach was high qualifier in Winnipeg last weekend and took home the Can-Am Challenge with a perfect score of two points. The previous record for the Can-Am Challenge was Dave Langer and Michael Schmidt with 6 points. Zach took home the $250 Can-Am Challenge top prize to go along with a free entry into the Shootout next season for being high qualifier. The cut to the top 36 was former champion Richard Vitko at 1580 (-20).
On Sunday, the top 36 bowlers were split up into 3 groups of 12. Following round robin match play and a position round, the field was cut to the top 5 for the NDBowlTV Stepladder Finals. Highlighting the match play round was a couple of perfect games bowled by Douglas Wagner and Mike Allen. Entering the position round, a little over 100 pins separated first from 13th. The position round created fireworks as Douglas Wagner fired a 277 to vault himself into the show after starting the position round in 12th. This was by far the closest the scores have ever been in the position round at the CMA Memorial Shootout. Joining Wagner in the NDBowlTV finals would be Mike Allen, Dan Langer, Andy Mills, and the number one overall seed Justin Schiffler.
Stepladder results:
Allen def. Wagner 168-148
Allen def. Langer 195-152
Mills def. Allen 211-190
Mills def. Schiffler 267-217
You can watch the NDBowlTV Stepladder Finals by clicking HERE.
Results:
Day 1 page 1
Day 1 page 2
Day 2
The win gives Andy Mills his second consecutive Major Championship. Congrats Andy!
With the victory, Mills becomes the first bowler ever to win the Manitoba Open and the Morris Anderson Memorial Shootout in the same season. Mills also becomes just the 2nd bowler to win multiple Majors in the same season (Michael Schmidt won the Manitoba Open and NDBowling.com Classic in 2014).
I would like to thank Jeff Kragh, Rory Selk, and the entire staff at North Hill Bowl for running another great event. This tournament remembers the late Morris Anderson and he would definitely be proud of what this tournament has become and how well it is run.
Please keep an eye on the Upcoming Events page as we have several tournaments coming up including 2 more Majors. Our last NDBowlTV show of the season will take place in Moorhead, MN at the seasons final Major, the NDBowling.com Classic on March 5th and 6th.
Thank you all for visiting NDBowling.com!
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