A day after they moved into fourth and second, respectively, in team event at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, Locker Guy 1 and Cambridge 1 both made runs at the team all-events lead of S&B Pro Shop 1.
USBC hadn't put out a news release or updated the team all-events standings as of Sunday morning, but I pulled the scores from the USBC system and did my own figuring — please let me know if I made any errors!
S&B 1 leads team all-events with 9,954, as I blogged here, and I figured when they finished with that on Friday it might be a winning score.
But it almost fell the next day twice.
Locker Guy 1, a strong Minnesota unit that almost always bowls well at the Open Championships, fell just short with 9,925, led by David Langer's 2,070 all-events.
Chad Nelson added 2,066, Dan Bock 2,043, Dave Oulman 1,965, and Dan Langer 1,781.
Nelson (759) and Bock (660) moved into third in doubles with 1,419, and Bock took over ninth in singles with 749.
Cambridge 1 ended with 9,817, led by Shannon O'Keefe's 2,059 as she added 669 in doubles and 635 in singles to her stellar 755 in team.
Bill Webb added 2,044, Ron Nelson Jr. 2,043, Bryan O'Keefe 1,935, and Chris Viale 1,736.
Whether that 9,954 will hold is extremely difficult to predict due to the wild card of not all minors events squads bowling on fresh oil, which thankfully ends with this year's Open Championships.
There are not that many teams with the talent to shoot that kind of total, and it requires more than talent — it requires having a cross on the squad(s) before (unless it's the 7 a.m. squad where there is fresh oil) that provides a condition that makes it possible.
With the tournament nearing the halfway point (skewed lower by the lack of teams in February), it's pretty clear that this is going to be the lowest scoring Open Championships since 2005.
That is what most knowledgeable people surmised when the lane pattern was released on Feb. 10.
I would say the 9,954 has about a 75 percent chance of winning, with the highest possible total I could see being just above 10,000.
I would predict that the 3,401 of Nicholas J's Pro Shop will win team event at 3,401, although there probably are a dozen or so teams that could knock it off. To repeat, the key is getting at least 1,050 the first game.
I would expect Ryan Whitney's 2,170 all-events to be beaten with a score just shy of 2,200, although Whitney has survived so far.
I am surprised that the 1,429 of Hugh Miller and Adam Barta continues to lead doubles, and expect someone to shoot around 1,450.
I also expect someone to shoot a low 800 series and knock off Henry Teetz's 800 that leads singles.
So here's my winning score predictions: 3,401, 2,193, 1,458, 812, 9,954.
For those who might be offended that I am predicting some of the current leaders to be knocked off, please note that my predictions coming true would mean our Turbo 2-N-1 Grips team would not grab either the team or team all-events lead.
This is purely an academic enterprise and I hope readers will share their predictions on my Facebook page where I have posted this article.
How did I do last year?
In this blog on April 10, 2011, I wrote:
I still think 3,500 is an awful lot, but it would not surprise me if 3,439 didn't win team. I'd say 3,450 to 3,475 is quite possible. It would not surprise me if someone shoots 2,300 again in all-events, but I would expect a winning score of around 2,250 to 2,275, along with 1,500 to 1,525 in doubles, 825 to 850 in singles, and around 10,300 in team all-events.
The winning scores were 3,473, 2,268, 1,497, 826, and 10,283.
Not bad. Good enough, in fact, that I thought I'd offer exact score predictions this year.
One of my good friends who I tagged a Chicken Little early in last year's Open Championships predicted 3,521, 2,300, 1,527, and 857, with no prediction for team all-events.
