The Buffalo Bills lost four Super Bowls, and the Buffalo Sabres were snookered out of the Stanley Cup by a bad call that made the Dallas Mavericks NHL champions two years ago, but the team of PWBA touring pro Michelle Frank and Steve John brought the Cream of the Crop mixed doubles victory home to Buffalo at Lane Glo North Bowling Center June 3.
The John/Frank team beat the team of PBA pro Jack Jurek and Sue Nawojski 426-386 to split $5,000. Both teams traveled 1,500 miles to the Cream of the Crop from suburban Buffalo, where they all compete as teammates in league competition at their local bowling center.
Frank and her girlfriend, Penny Schmidt, yelled and cheered on every shot for Jurek and Nawojski to beat the team of Cream of the Crop women’s singles winner Paula Aguirre and Tommy Jones in the semifinal match 358-334 to set up the title match among best friends. Frank said bowling with familiar faces allowed her to relax and focus on her title match.
“We all bowl together in Buffalo, and I bowl against Susie in tournaments,” Frank said. “I bowl in a league with Stevie, Jay, and Jack, so we felt right at home in the finals.”
Frank took time off from the PWBA Tour to prepare for her wedding in three weeks and thought the Cream of the Crop would be a comfortable transition for the 1996 and ’98 Buffalo Bowler of the Year.
“Sterner will be my new name, and I won’t be using Frank anymore—no hyphenated names for me because people know me with my red hair and I don’t need to hyphenate, so this is my last victory under the Frank banner.”
John said bowling in their local league gave his team a clear advantage.
“We were just saying before match play that it would be great if you guys Jack and Susie would make the finals with us and we could all bowl in the finals together and our dream came true and it was perfect,” John said. “We are very loyal to each other. We bowl tournaments in Buffalo against competitors like Tom Baker, Dave Guindon, Brian Angelo, and we bowl against them every day on tough shots. We had a tough shot here, and all of that experience has got to make you better. Jack Jurek has worked with my game a lot, and the student beat the teacher today.”
The Polish pair of Jurek and Nawojski climbed the ladder in the championship round to meet their best friends in the title match by also beating Shirley Hintz and Darrin Hayes 392-380 in the opening match and Tom Daugherty and Sharri Johnson in the following match 410-395.
Jurek-Nawojski earned $2,500 for second, Aguirre-Jones took home $1,250 for third and Hayes-Hintz split $1,000 for fourth place.
Brian Graham and Lee Vanderhoef won the Men’s Doubles event, beating Dave Guindon and Brad Angelo in the title match 511-408 for $5,000.
Defending Cream of the Crop Men’s Doubles champions Bob Belmont and Ricky Ward were on their way to repeating their feat from a year ago by beating Dino Castillo and Tommy Jones in the opener 461-428 but were eliminated in the next hard-fought match 431-410 by Tony Gonsales and Mike Sealy to earn $1,000.
“With the extra pressure, I didn’t make the shots I needed to, and this 153 is the low game of the tournament for me,” Ward said. “When it came down to the last couple of games, Bobby shot a 250 and a 230, but I felt I was the weakest link like that new game show on TV going into the final round when it meant the most for us. Lack of execution on my part was what lost it for us and I was poor overall and there’s no excuse for it. To say we should have won would have been like being struck by lightning twice. I feel fortunate that we got as far as we did.”
Sealy-Gonsales lost the following match to Graham-Vanderhoef 419-390 for third place and $1,250 in the extreme inside line long ball battle.
“In the last game, it got to the point where the lanes were so dry that we had an overthrow situation and we went way to the left and threw it way to the right to get it there in the pocket,” Vanderhoef said. “It’s not like what we bowled on earlier, but we did what we had to do to win.”
Graham liked the extreme outside shot and said it gave him an advantage over the other team.
“I was launching the balls over the left gutter,” Graham said. “They were nice in there and you had to throw it down the lane which was my only option. The lanes were on fire and my shot was a bailout. The Guardian lane surface hooks early and often, and that eliminates 90 percent of the bowlers. But I can handle that shot, and that’s why I like bowling here because I can put it on cruise control.”
Graham-Vanderhoef beat Dave Guindon and Brad Angelo 401-358 in the next match. In the championship “Mulligan Match,” Graham-Vanderfhoef beat Angelo Guindon again to become Men’s Doubles champions and give top seeds Angelo and Guindon $2,500 for second. If the top seeds lose their match, then a bonus match is required to determine the ultimate winner, according to Cream of the Crop rules.
Paula Aguirre beat mixed doubles champion Michelle Frank in the title match of the Women’s Singles 279-267 for $3,000. Aguirre kept Frank from winning both events by a single mark, but Frank won a bonus $500 for bowling the best overall in all events.
“She’s very, very tough,” Aguirre said about Frank. “She’s one of the best. I’m from Bradenton, Fla., and I was Lisa Wagner’s neighbor, and I know her well. She taught me so much about my game, and when you bowl Michelle you have to use most of your knowledge against her to win.”
Lucy Sandelin won the opening match in the battle of the local talent 226-186 over Sharri Johnson and Sandelin also beat PWBA pro Barbara Batt 234-184 before losing to Frank in the semifinal 202-182 for third place.
Frank knew she needed to bowl her best to beat Sandelin.
“I’ve bowled against Lucy before and I respect her immensely and I wanted to make good shots because if I missed, she would take full advantage of it so I bowled her aggressively,” Frank said. “I stayed focused and threw good shots.”
Former Penn State fullback Tim Mack scored a title, winning 224 to Jason Couch’s 203 to win the Men’s Singles championship and $6,000.
The top-seeded Mack cooled off Couch, who is the hottest bowler on the PBA Tour by using a tip Jason gave him in a previous match to his advantage.
“To beat Jason is extra special because he’s a good friend of mine. It makes it sweet because he’s the best player on the PBA Tour, winning at the Villages and finishing well in the other tournaments. I consider him one of the best bowlers in the world, and it’s nice to win like that,” Mack beamed. “I put pressure on him, and it’s what two great bowlers had to do, and I hope the fans enjoyed it. I bowled with Jason qualifying in doubles and singles, and he gave me one tip that propelled me to victory, and I thank him for it. The tip was that my first step in my approach was getting too long; it was throwing my timing off, and I was getting off-balance. I shortened my first step, and that made all the difference in my victory. It takes a guy with a lot of class to do that because he could have kept it to himself and he might have won, but he told me, and I appreciate what he did for me. That tells you what a great guy he is. With the new PBA out there, I might consider joining it now with all of its guarantees. I’m like the mirror image of Jason since I’m right-handed and Jason is left-handed.”
Mack, who lives in Garfield, N.J., was a teammate with several players at Penn State who star in the NFL, including O.J. McDuffie, Ki-Jana Carter, Tyoka Jackson, Sam Gash, Kerry Collins, Joe Jurevicius, and Kim Herring. “Ki-Jana is my best friend and was my roommate at Penn State. He and O.J. were going to watch me at the Cream of the Crop, but they didn’t make it,” Mack said.
“Coach Joe Paterno taught me so much at Penn State, and I use it in my bowling and life. I played with six guys who were later in the Super Bowl, and I’m proud of them. I saw them when I was in Ft. Lauderdale for the WIBC Queens tournament, and they all love to bowl, as most NFL players do.”
His next stop is the ABC Masters tournament where he will bowl with his father. His girlfriend, Brenda Norman, actively competes on the PWBA Tour.
Couch won $3,000 for second and climbed the stepladder to take on Mack in the title match by beating Mike Mullin ($900) in the opener 247-163, Larry Barwick 247-237 ($1,000), and Michael Tagareillo 232-200 ($1,500). Mullin shot the only 300 game in the entire Cream of the Crop.
Tagareillo and Barwick needed to bowl a third-place tie-breaker match before bowling Couch and Tagareillo won 243-193.
Couch said the Cream of the Crop is a good warm-up for returning to the PBA Tour this fall.
“Tim is a phenomenal bowler,” Couch said about Mack. “You know you need a big score against him to win, but I didn’t get it today. You can only go to the well so many times, and I had a strike or a mark in all three matches. But I’m happy with my performance. I told him last night when I bowled on the doubles pair that on his first shot he was getting a little quick, and his first step was too long, which is a big symptom for a power player. He has a similar game to mine, and I know that. So then, he went around the corner with it and won, but we’re good friends and he deserved to win because he bowled better today. I look forward to returning to the PBA Tour this fall and bowling the Masters next week. I’ve been making some equipment changes and working hard with Coach [Richard] Shockley before I go to Japan for the Cup.”
Couch in the ABC Masters had a similar finish to the Cream of the Crop. As the top seed in both, he lost the title match to Parker Bohn III 248-237. Couch had a chance to bowl against Chris Hayden, Mack's doubles partner from the Cream of the Crop, in the ESPN finals, but Hayden lost the opening TV match to Shannon Buchan 201-170 to finish fifth.