Van Boening comes back from hot seat loss to claim 2nd Annual Don Weir Memorial

Shane Van Boening

While noting that Shane Van Boening had won the 2nd Annual Don Weir Memorial Invitational Supporting Cancer Research in Everett, WA this past weekend (Aug. 26-27), we happened to also notice that in so doing, Van Boening found himself in the same city as one of the world’s premier aircraft manufacturers. So, Van Boening was in Boeing’s neighborhood over the weekend. The Boeing facility in Everett is apparently the largest building (square footage) in the world, all 472,370,319 cubic feet of it. The $15,000-added Don Weir Memorial drew a full field of 64 entrants to a much smaller room, Golden Fleece Billiards in Everett.

The South Dakota Kid was not the only notable competitor at this memorial tournament. He was joined by, among others, Spencer Ladin (runner-up), Canada’s Stan Tourangeau (3rd), Robb Saez (4th), Chris Reinhold (7th/8th), Canada’s John Morra (9th/12th), Oscar Dominguez (13th/16th), Corey Deuel (13th/16th) and Tyler Styer (13th/16th). Not to leave the ladies out, Margaret Fefilova Styer and Loree Jon Brown Ogonowski were among a handful of ladies who competed, as well.

Coming off his win at the 5th Annual Brendan Crockett Memorial the weekend before (August 19-20), at which he bested Tyler Styer in the finals, Van Boening see-sawed his way through his first few opponents, giving up only a single rack to Mike Silvius before defeating Daniel Sardoncillo 7-5. Gave up none at all to Glenn Beckworth before surviving a double-hill, winners’ side quarterfinal over Steve Lingelbach, drawing Dan Louie in one of the winners’ side semifinals.

Spencer Ladin, in the meantime, winner of three stops on the LA 9-Ball Series this year and 5th at the Brendan Crockett Memorial, got by J.D. Doherty (2), Blake Baker (double hill), Tim Tweedell (5) and Steven Weakly (4) to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Robb Saez.

Van Boening sent Louie loss-side packing 7-1, as Ladin dispatched Saez 7-5. Ladin took the first of what would eventually be three sets against Boening 7-4 and settled in to the hot seat for about a three-and-a-half hour wait.

Waiting on the loss side, as Louie and Saez arrived to meet them, were two competitors who, between them, had chalked up 15 loss-side wins. Stan Tourangeau had lost his opening-round match to Tyler Styer and embarked on a nine-match winning streak that would take him all the way to a semifinal versus Van Boening. Victories over Steven Weakly 7-4 and Damian Pongpanik 7-2 set him up against Louie. Daniel Sardoncillo lost a second-round match to Van Boening and headed out on six-match, loss-side winning streak that culminated with a double-hill win over Oscar Dominguez, a 7-1 win over John Morra and a 7-3 win over Chris Reinhold that brought Robb Saez to the table.

Saez put a stop to Sardoncillo’s run 7-5, as Tourangeau continued his by eliminating Louie 7-2. The double-hill quarterfinal that followed sent Saez home and Tourangeau up against Van Boening in the semifinals. Van Boening earned his spot in the finals by defeating Tourangeau 7-2.

Were the pool industry to have latched on to the benefits of maintaining match statistics the way other major sports have done (admittedly, a more difficult task without the ‘army’ of folks monitoring world-wide matches), we’d be able to tell you how many times Van Boening had entered a final having to win two matches against the hot seat occupant. And how many of those times he’d won. All we can say with any degree of surety is that it wasn’t the South Dakota Kid’s first rodeo, probably not his last and that he has probably won more times than he has lost.

We do know that he did it this time and it’s now enshrined in statistics that will be available in the future, although not with any comprehensive ability to cross-reference the material. Van Boening took the opening set of the final 7-2 and though Ladin seemed to have swiped at the ‘cobwebs’ that had gathered during his wait, it wasn’t enough to alter the outcome. Van Boening claimed the second set 7-3 to claim the Don Weir Memorial title.

Event representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Golden Fleece for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Cuetec, LUXE, and D. Real Pool Promotions.

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