Skyler Woodward (Photo courtesy of Ricky Bryant)
Skyler Woodward has been solidifying a reputation as one of this nation's top pool competitors. Since arriving on the scene, four or five years ago, at the age of 21, he has consistently proved that his name is up there among the sports' elite players. In January of 2014, he defeated Francisco Bustamante in a Bank Pool Ring game. Seven months later, he defeated Shane Van Boening in a Smokin' Aces Bar Box tournament in Missouri. In February of this year, he was runner-up to Jeffrey Ignacio in the US Bar Box 10-Ball Championship in Vegas, in which Van Boening finished fourth.
On the weekend of April 25-26, he added another notch to his reputation belt with a double dip victory over Van Boening in the Coles' Carom Room Spring Classic 8-Ball tournament. Co-sponsored by Behnke Enterprises, and streamed live by Ray Hansen, via PoolAction TV, the event was hosted by The Carom Room in Beloit, WI.
Lest one think that the young Woodward managed his come-from-the-loss-side victory by virtue of an easy path on either side of the bracket, it should be noted at the outset that he opened the tournament by sending Dennis Orcollo to the loss side. He then downed Jesse Bowman, before running into Corey Deuel in a winners' side semifinal. Van Boening, in the meantime, had defeated Larry Nevel, and Justin Bergman to draw Darren Appleton in the other winners' side semifinal.
Van Boening got by Appleton and in the hot seat match, faced Deuel, who'd sent Woodward west. Van Boening claimed the hot seat, and, as it turned out, his last win with a victory over Deuel.
After being sent to the loss side by Van Boening in the second roun, Bergman had moved over and defeated Johnny Archer, and Orcollo before running into Woodward. Appleton moved over and picked up Bowman. Woodward eliminated Bergman, and Appleton finished Bowman.
Woodward didn't have to play a quarterfinal match against Appleton, because Appleton failed to show up for it. Woodward moved on and defeated Deuel in the semifinals.
With Scott Frost and Chris Gentile commentating on the PoolAction TV stream, in a tightly contested opening set, Woodward prevailed in the last few racks 15-13. In the second set, they fought tooth and nail again, until the point when Van Boening pulled ahead by a single rack at 8-7. At that point, Skyler chalked up five in a row to take what proved to be an insurmountable 12-8 lead. Van Boening would win racks #21 and #22, but they proved to be his last. Showing signs of being a little over-hyped as the finish line came into view, Skyler won the next three. They included a more-difficult-than-strictly-necessary pattern in the 24th rack he worked out to put him on the hill, and a fairly mundane break-and-run to claim the event title.
