Sam Henderson (file photo)
Eight boys in two divisions qualify for Predator World Junior Championships in Austria
South Carolina’s Landon Hollingsworth traveled to Quincy, IL, about five hours south of Chicago last week (June 24-30), in pursuit of what was not exactly, but actually his fifth straight BEF Junior National Championship title. It’s complicated.
Hollingsworth had won the 18U and 16U Boys 9-ball divisions in 2021 and last year, though aged out of the 16U Boys division, he won his second 18U Boys 9-ball title and laid claim to the Junior Nationals’ first 10-ball title. In that sense, he was looking for his fifth. But along the way, he and others had established an unofficial sense that the title that ‘counted’ (of course, they all count) was the one that was a qualifier for the World Junior Championships that generally follows the US event by a few months. In 2021 and last year, that title was awarded to Landon as winner of the 18U Boys 9-Ball event. This year, applying a European standard that’s been set for the 2023 Predator World Junior Championships, scheduled for October 19-22 in Klagenfurt, Austria, the World Qualifier in the USA became the 18U Boys 10-Ball event.
In that sense, Hollingsworth was after his third straight ‘qualifier’ title, or in common sports jargon, looking to three-peat. Though he had three chances at a fifth Junior National title this year, he had only one shot at winning the Junior Nationals’ World qualifying event for the third time. He’d been awarded his previous two titles in 9-ball. This year, he was going to have to win it playing 10-ball.
The junior competitor who spoiled Hollingsworth’s three-peat party, and as it turned out, his last shot at a fifth Junior National title, was Iowa’s Sam ‘Ryno’ Henderson, who defeated him twice in the World qualifying 18U Boys 10-ball event; once in the final round of the event’s double-elimination phase (8-5), which advanced eight to single-elimination and again, in the finals 8-4. And that (on Saturday night) was after he’d defeated Hollingsworth in the fourth round of the 22U 14:1 tournament (Wednesday) and Brent Worth had subsequently eliminated him (Hollingsworth) in one of the tightest matches (50-48) in the entire 14:1 competition. Henderson advanced to win the 14:1 tournament, downing Joey Tate 75-29 in the finals and collecting the first of his two titles in one week.
Henderson did not face Hollingsworth in the mostly-Tuesday 22U Boys 8-ball event, which drew the Junior Nationals’ largest field (48). Hollingsworth was eliminated from that event by Dakota’s Rylan Yoder. Henderson, who’d lost his opening round match in the 8-ball event to Brent Worth, was later eliminated by North Carolina’s 14-year-old Jas Makhani, who’d go on to win the 14U Boys 9-ball event (more on him in a bit).
The 22U Boys 8-ball title went to North Carolina’s Joey Tate. He’d go undefeated through the field, defeating (along the way) Hank Leinen, Garrett Vaughn, Adrian Prasad, Payne McBride (double hill in the hot seat match) and in the finals, shutting out Rylan Yoder.
Henderson had seen the 18U Boys 10-Ball showdown against Hollingsworth coming. Pretty much everyone involved with the qualifying event knew about Hollingsworth’s desire for that third title-qualification to the Predator Junior World Championships. While the event title eluded him, his runner-up finish assured him of a spot among the eight who qualified for the World event.
“Yeah,” said Henderson, in a Facebook reel posted by Window’s Open, after he’d claimed the title, “it definitely seemed like he really wanted to get that three-peat and I was like. . well yeah, here we go.”
“I ended up playing OK,” he added.
Just OK?
“In the semifinals (against Hank Leinen and at) the beginning of the (final) match, I was just off,” he said. “It feels good. Better now. I’ve been working on dealing with the pressure and I guess it worked today.”
The new, now-twice Junior National Champion has a nickname. His middle name is ‘Ryne,’ like former Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who was known as ‘Ryno.’ Now, so is Sam Henderson. On his sponsor’s (McDermott Cues) Web site, his player profile notes that “when Sam is in a match and his opponent misses, Sam charges the table like a “rhino.”
“We get excited when we see the Ryno Charge,” it goes on to say, “because usually, it means he has a plan.”
He has a few, actually. A high school sophomore with a 9 ft. Diamond table at home, Henderson maintains a schedule for pool competition by taking advantage of his Pleasant Valley High School’s Online Homeschooling Program, where he maintains status as an all-A/B student. His goal when interviewed for the McDermott Cues sponsorship was “to be a professional pool player by the time he graduates from high school.”
On to a word about the ‘other guys’ . . .
The eight competitors who qualified for the World Juniors event (the top four finishers in both the 18U and 16U 10-Ball tournaments) were all recognizable competitors on the Junior ‘circuit’ that embraces the numerous qualifiers and one annual BEF Junior Nationals event and the ongoing Junior International Championship series of eight multi-division events. The two 10-Ball events produced eight qualified candidates for the World event though Hank Leinen, who finished among the final four in both qualifying events, will be unable to compete in both.
Notably absent among the qualifying eight was North Carolina’s Joey Tate, who has certainly been in the upper tier of junior competitors over the past few years and though he did not qualify for the World 10-Ball event (in his last year of eligibility), he did, with his win in the Junior National’s 22U 8-ball competition, qualify for that World 8-Ball event, happening at the same time that his two sisters will be competing in the World 10-Ball event. Tate was sent to the loss side by Hollingsworth in the 10-ball event and eliminated on the loss side by Garrett Vaughan, who would go on to be among the seven who qualified for the World 10-Ball competition. Tate had already won the 8-ball competition and finished as runner-up to Henderson in the 14:1 tournament.
Adrian Prasad
California’s Adrian Prasad, who followed up his 5th–8th place finish in the 18U 10-ball event, claimed the top spot in the qualifying 16U 10-ball event, downing Kentucky’s Hayden Ernst 6-1 in the finals. Ernst had defeated Hank Leinen 6-4 in the semifinals, while Prasad was working on a 6-1 victory over Jas Makhani.
“Overall,” wrote Prasad in a post-event Facebook post, “I am proud of the way I played and can only get better from there.”
“There is still a lot of work to get done and I will be working hard on my game for the next couple months to prepare for the Junior Worlds in Klagenfurt, Austria,” he added. “I am excited to be representing the USA at the Junior Worlds, alongside the most talented juniors in United States.”
Earlier in the week (Thursday), eventual 18U 10-Ball semifinalist, Jas Makhani, had been defeated by Ernst in the second round of the 14U Boys 9-Ball tournament. After completing a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that culminated in a 6-1, semifinal victory over D’Angelo “Jawz” Spain, Makhani turned for a rematch against Ernst, waiting for him in the hot seat. Makhani won the rematch 7-4 to claim the 14U Boys 9-Ball title.
Other events ‘filling the cup’ of the 2023 Junior Nationals yielded the following winners:
10U Boys/Girls 8-Ball (7 entrants) – 1st Dalton Nelson (WI), 2nd Donovan Seymour (CA), 3rd Addyson Ruiz (TX), and 4th Stephen Bao (MA)
14U 10-Ball Mini (6 entrants) – 1st Hayden Ernst (KY), 2nd Kaden Hillman (WI)
22U 10-Ball Mini (5 entrants) – Jordan Witkin and Ryan Stejskal (both IL)
15U 8-Ball Scotch Doubles (8 teams) – 1st Wyatt Andrist (MN) & Noel Montano (CO), 2nd Jas Makhani (NC) and Ezra Seymour (CA)
Billiard Congress of American CEO, Shane Tyree gave a big ‘shout out’ of thanks and appreciation to Chris Landwehr and his team with the Oakley Lindsay Civic Center in Quincy, IL for their hospitality, along with Tournament Director Cecil Messe, JulieAnn and Walt Wesley at the tournament desks, National Event Coordinator Carol LaRatta, the Billiards Education Foundation’s Board of Directors, referees Justin Ballou, Keith Hargrave, Scott Manuel and Dave Pierson, Tournament volunteer Myriah Pierson, and Live Streaming/Podcasting by Collins Newley (with PostUp) and Molina Mike (with Doggin’ It).
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