Chris Pounders and Jeff Richgels defeated Nathan Michalowski and Tony Oliva 536-526 to win the MAST Doubles event at Schwoegler’s Entertainment Center in Madison Sunday. Richgels followed up his 920 qualifying set with the day’s only honor score with 800 (276-246-278) in match play, including several clutch shots late both in the final and in their semifinal 460-459 win over Joe Janz and Tim Damerow.
The victory marked the 12th career MAST title for Pounders and the 26th for Richgels. Michalowski and Oliva had each been seeking their third career titles and second this season, with Michalowski having won Dream Lanes and Oliva teaming with Andy Mills to win the doubles event at Cambridge back in October.
Pounders and Richgels took home $938 for first, with Michalowski and Oliva earning $538 for second. The other match play payouts Sunday were $360 for 3rd-4th and $244 for 5th-8th. MAST also paid out a ninth cash spot of $138 to Troy Cox and Kevin Thompson.
38 doubles teams competed on the 35-foot Kegel Boardwalk oil pattern. The cut after eight total games of qualifying was 1737. Andy Bunkoske and Tim Janz led qualifying at 1891; Janz was high individual qualifier for the day at 986 and will receive an additional 25 points in the M & J Truck and Auto Points Race.
Our next event is Sunday, January 21st at Spartan Bowl in McFarland. That is a Survivor finals event and will be contested on Spartan’s house pattern. Tour co-sponsor M & J Truck and Auto will be adding $300 to the prize fund for that event. We hope to see you all there.