Shane Van Boening
The story at the Turning Stone Classic for the past couple events has been whether (and when) Jayson Shaw will match Johnny Archer’s record six wins. After the Turning Stone Classic XXX, the story can shift to whether Shane Van Boening will catch up with Shaw’s five wins.
Day four dawned with just eight players left with hopes of winning the title. Van Boening was one of the four unbeaten players and he started Sunday with a 9-5 win over Canada’s Erik Hjorleifson. At the same time, Archer was squeaking by Turning Stone regular Hunter Lombardo 9-8.
On the one loss side, Finland’s Olli Turkulainen eliminated Zion Zvi and Jayson Shaw eliminated another Turning Stone regular, Bucky Souvanthong.
Both players coming over from the winner’s side then eliminated Turkulainen (lost to Lombardo) and Shaw (lost to Hjorleifson). Hjorleifson and Lombardo had both been playing great all week, but one of them would have to settle for 4th place. That player would be Hjorleifson after a 9-3 loss to Lombardo.
The semifinal gave Lombardo a chance to avenge his earlier loss to Archer, but Archer took an early lead and Lombardo would be unable to catch up in a 9-7 match.
Between them, the finalists had almost 1/3 of the Turning Stone Classic titles in existence (9 of 30). Even though Archer had the larger number of titles (six), Van Boening appears to be in his usual late year form, and that was more than Archer could handle. Archer struggled with his break for most of the match, while Van Boening was controlling the break (and the table) like only he can. Archer made a couple short runs, but they were always stopped by a dry break. The final score was 13-7 Van Boening, in a match that wasn’t even really that close.
For Van Boening, it was his fourth Turning Stone title and his third straight tournament win, following his US Open 8-Ball and US Open 10-Ball wins last month.
