Anthony Meglino, Kyle Bova and Mike Delawder
If you’re a pool player in Florida and happen to notice as you sign in to compete at a tournament that the entrant list includes Anthony Meglino, Mike Delawder, Kyle Bova and Ray Linares, you pretty much know before you’ve finished writing your name that you’re more than likely to have to face one of them, if not all of them, before the weekend is done. Initially, it’s as true for them, of course, as it is for everybody else, up to and including a fifth name, Tommy Kennedy. And after any sort of a trip on the loss side, seeing those four names in the winners’ side final four matches and knowing that two of them are about to be on their way to your side of the ‘street’ has to put something of a furrow in your competitive brow.
They finished this past weekend’s (Oct. 9-10) stop #9 on the Sunshine State Predator Pro Am Tour in the order listed above. The $1,000-added event drew 60 entrants to Brewlands North in Lakeland, FL.
Meglino got himself to the winners’ side final four with an aggregate game score of 28-9, sending Jeff Brown (2), Jay Winters (2), Alec Saputo (4) and Francisco Serrano (1) to the loss side to pick up Delawder. Delawder was the only one who had to face Tommy Kennedy, which he did after downing Ted Westlake (2) and Trenton White (5). He sent Kennedy west 7-3, survived a double hill, winners’ side quarterfinal against Todd Moir and with a 28-16 aggregate score, drew Meglino.
Bova got a forfeit-pass in his opening round and then downed Robert Batson (3) before getting into a double hill fight versus co-tour director Bobby Garza. Bova advanced to defeat Jimmy Antonietta 7-3, completing an aggregate trip to the winners’ side final four at 21-12 to pick up Linares. Linares got by Carlos Gomes (2), James Sandaler (double hill), Wesley Davis (1) and Lee Heuwagen (4) to finish his aggregate scoring at 28-13. face draw Bova.
So, in order, the four of them came to their winners’ side final four matches with game-winning averages that put Meglino first, Linares second and Delawder/Bova in a dead heat for third and fourth.
That order and those game-winning averages changed as Delawder advanced to the hot seat match 7-2 over Meglino and Bova sent Linares over 7-4 to join him. The battle for the hot seat went, as might have been predicted, to double hill before Delawder claimed it.
On the loss side, Meglino picked up Lee Heuwagen, who’d recently defeated Brett Agler, double hill, and Alec Saputo 7-2 to reach him. Linares drew Wesley Davis, who was on a five-match, loss-side winning streak that had just eliminated Todd Moir 7-3 and Julio Estevez, double hill. Meglino moved on to the quarterfinals with a 7-3 victory over Heuwagen. Linares joined him after stopping Davis’ loss-side streak 7-1.
So the Floridian Final Four was set, with only three question marks left to determine the order of finish. The first was answered when Meglino downed Linares 7-3 in the quarterfinals. The second came in the semifinals when Meglino and Bova came within a game of double hill to eventually advance Meglino to a rematch against Delawder in the finals. Meglino completed his three-match, loss-side winning streak with a 9-5 victory over Delawder in those finals to claim the event title.
Tour directors Janene Phillips and Bobby Garza thanked Brewlands’ owner, Larry Wathal and his staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Kamui, Stitch-It-To-Me Embroidery, Central Florida USA Pool League, Skills for Rent & AZ Billiards. They added a ‘shout out’ to Benjie Estor and Niki Cuellar for their assistance in running the event, as well as Jimmy Antonietta and Mike Delawder for their commentating contributions to the live stream.
The next stop on the Sunshine State Predator Pro Am Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 13-14, will be the $2,500-added Amateur 9-Ball Bar Box Championships, to be hosted by Racks in Sanford, FL.
