GUAM BOWLING CONGRESS – The New Year’s Resolution Tournament was a worthwhile uphill battle for eventual champion Joey Miranda III.
Being in the second to the last place after three of eight games during the qualifying round, Miranda inched his way slowly but surely and eventually cracked into the top six of the field where he placed 5th in the round to advance to the Step-Ladder Elimination Finals. As it turned out, it was just what he needed to win the 2007 New Years Resolution Bowling Tournament held at the Central Lanes Bowling Center on Sunday.
In the first round of the Step-Ladder Finals, Miranda beat 4th seed Brian Manibusan and 6th seed Manny Tagle to advance to the semi final round with a score of 225 against Manibusan’s 151 and Tagle’s 202.
Miranda again won the next round, this time by a narrow margin of 5 pins. He bowled a 204 game against Buddy Saludo’s 199 and Duane Camacho’s 182, 2nd and 3rd seed, respectively.
The final match was a classic tale story of the tortoise and the hare, in this case, based on the speed of which each bowler generates on a bowling ball. 16 year old top seed Keith Guerrero registers an average of 23 revolutions per minute to the older Miranda’s 14. With Miranda successfully defeating bowlers from the second to sixth position in the previous matches, the classic confrontation was set. In the twice-to-beat finals, Miranda won a close first game against Guerrero, toppling 192 pins against Guerrero’s 188. He led the game until the 4th frame, and at the 5th frame, score was tied at 91 a piece. Guerrero then grabbed the lead from the 6th frame but missed a six pin on the 9th frame of which Miranda seized the opening and held on to force a rubber match.
In the second game of the finals, Miranda led from the 1st frame and never looked back. He scored a strike on the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th frame to win the match and the championship with a score of 187 against Guerrero’s 158.
In the qualifying rounds, Guerrero easily conquered the dual pattern lane condition to lead the field by more than 200 pins finishing with an astonishing 1820 eight game for a 218 average. Senior Bowler Buddy Saludo finished second with 1615 followed by Duane Camacho 1588, Brian Manibusan 1565, Miranda 1552 and Tagle’s 1538 whose 228 last game vaulted him from 9th place to qualify for the Step Ladder.