John Gabriel went undefeated on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour's $3,500-added 9-ball event on the weekend of February 23-26, working his way through a field of 150 entrants at Shooter's in Olathe, KS. Melissa Little also went undefeated in the $500-added Ladies event, which had attracted 20 entrants.
From among the winners' side final four, Gabriel sent Chuck Raulston west 9-5, as Dustin Gunia was busy sending Mike Banks, Jr. over 9-4. Gabriel then took the hot seat match over Gunia 9-5, and waited for his return.
First up for Banks, Jr. on the loss-side was the winner of the concurrently-run One-Pocket event, Mark Haddad, who'd defeated James Baraks 9-6, and Anthony Garcia 9-3 to reach him. Chuck Raulston, in the meantime, squared off against Joey Gray (second in the One-Pocket event), who'd downed Gary Lutman 9-3, and Gordy Vanderveer 9-6. Haddad defeated Banks, Jr. 9-4, but a re-match of the One-Pocket semifinals was avoided when Raulston dropped Gray into the tie for fifth place 9-5.
Raulston took it a step further, dropping Haddad into fourth place 9-5, and turning to face Gunia in the semifinals. Gunia ended Raulston's bid 9-2 for a second chance versus Gabriel in a potential, true double elimination final. Gabriel took the first and only set 9-5 to secure the event title.
Melissa Little and Nicole Keeney battled twice to crown the Ladies champion. They met first in the hot seat match, and fought back and forth to double hill before Little prevailed. Keeney moved over to the semifinals to face Kathleen Morast, who'd just defeated Carrie Williams in the quarterfinals 7-5. Keeney then shut out Morast for her second chance against Little. Little, though, came out strong in the opening set of what would have been a true double elimination final, and defeated Keeney a second time 7-2.
9-Ball
1st John Gabriel $2,400
2nd Dustin Gunia $1,750
3rd Chuck Raulston $1,000
4th Mark Haddad $750
5th Joey Gray $500
Mike Banks, Jr.
7th Gordon Vanderveer $350
Anthony Garcia
9th Jordan Davis $250
Gary Lutman
James Baraks
13th Shane McMinn $200
Manny Chau
17th Tom Jarboe $125
Patrick Brown
25th Dave Hathman $75
Mike Banks, Sr.
K. C. Massey
Ladies
1st Melissa Little $500
2nd Nicole Keeney $300
3rd Kathleen Morast $160
4th Carrie Williams $100
5th Angela Vallair $70