The Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour held their second stop of the year in Austin, Texas at Fast Eddie's the weekend of Feb 18-19th. The first stop in January hosted 66 women - but even on the coldest weekend of the season, the freezing rain and iced bridges couldn't stop 72 women from trekking to the second stop of the year to the middle of the state of Texas to play 9-ball (good thing Fast Eddie's in Austin had 23 tables for the ladies to play on).
On Sunday morning, only 16 women made it out of the 72 players - 8 on the winner's side and 8 on the one-loss side. On the winner's side, Leslie Anne Rogers defeated Terry Petrosino 7-5, Kyu Yi defeated Tina Lehrmann7-2, Belinda Lee won 7-2 against Jennifer Kraber, and Lisa Brannen defeated Xiaoting Pan 7-6. At hill-hill in the Pan/Brannen match, only three balls were left on the table and after a miss by Lisa on the 5 ball, the only place for the 5 ball for Pan was to try a tricky combo to pocket the 9-ball into the side pocket, as no other makable shot was available with the 6-ball in the way. Pan missed it and left Lisa a tough shot on the 5-ball, but Lisa made the 5-ball and then the 6 and the 9 for the win. Xiaoting Pan was the only player get over 4 games against Brannen - her record in the tournament was 7-0, 7-0, 7-1 then 7-6 over Pan. Then Brannen defeated Belinda Lee 7-4 and Leslie Anne Rogers 7-3 for a place in the finals. On the one loss side, Cristina Dela Garza lost 7-4 to Deanna Henson, newcomer and sharp shooter Shirstie Schmidgal lost to Laura Bendikas who was visiting from Chicago, Kim Pierce lost 7-2 at the hands of Amanda Lampert and Lisa Henderson-Major from Arkansas defeated Elexia Lowe 7-6. Elexia and Lehrmann posted their highest finish yet!
Xiaoting from Shanghai, China then had to play Amanda Lampert - one of the best female pool players in Texas. Amanda and Xiaoting missed out on a bye in the first round on Saturday and instead had to play each other. Centered in front of the audience, Xiaoting Pan won 7-2. Well, this meeting was the same outcome, same score - Xiaoting winning again 7-2. Xiaoting didn't stop there. She then defeated Lisa Henderson-Major 7-0, Kyu Yi 7-2, Deanna Henson 7-3 (who placed 4th), and then Leslie Anne Rogers 7-4 (who placed 3rd). Leslie and Xiaoting were tied 4-4 but Xiaoting won the next three games to capture a spot in the finals with Brannen.
Xiaoting Pan paid the extra $20 to be eligible to win the WPBA Qualifier and Brannen did not, so Xiaoting Pan already won the coveted WPBA spot. But, she proceeded to defeat Brannen two sets 7-3, 7-1 to also take first place. Xiaoting Pan won a paid entry into the April 19-23 WPBA San Diego event in Alpine, CA and $750 for first place. Brannen won $640 for her second place finish. Xiaoting Pan will be at the WPBA event next week in North Carolina, from a previous qualifier win on the Hunter Classics Tour last month.
Wes Hunter of Hunter Classics Custom Cues
has been
sponsoring the Hunter Classics Tour for 13 years - thank you, Wes!
Also, a big thank you to all the ladies, to Fast Eddie's for hosting the
tournament, and to Royce Bunnell of the OB-1 Cue Shaft
who added an additional $250 to the prize
fund. $2,250 total was added to this event!
Visit the Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour next month at Magoo's in Tulsa, Oklahoma March 18-19 to see the ladies fight for a Qualifier for the BCA Pro Championships in Vegas in May!
Complete Payouts:
1st Xiaoting Pan $750 + WPBA Qualifier
2nd Lisa Brannen $640
3rd Leslie Anne Rogers $460
4th Deanne Henson $360
5th/6th Belinda Lee and Kyu Yi $220
7th/8th Lisa Henderson Major and Terry Petrosino $160
9th-12th Laura Bendikas, Tina Lehrmann, Jennifer Kraber and Amanda
Lampert $100
13-16th Kim Pierce, Elexia Lowe, Cristina Dela Garza and Shirstie
Schmidgal $60
17th-24th Holly Gilbert, Heather Lloyd, Michelle Ram, Nicole Menitz,
Shayla Neris, Brandi Booth, Rebecca Goodnight, Helen Hayes $35
25th-32nd Susan Petty, Monica Anderson, Alicia Teskey, Tara McCracken,
Snowy Belt, Stephanie Reyes, Lori Dacio, Sharon Townsend $20
