Shaun Wilkie
Going into the seventh stop on the Action Pool Tour (APT), Brian Deska and Shaun Wilkie were ranked at #1 and #2 on the tour. After Adam Kielar opened the tour season with a victory in the Virginia State 10-Ball Championships in January (with Wilkie as runner-up and Deska finishing third), Wilkie won stops # 2 and #3 on the tour. Deska took the top spot on the 4th, 5th and 6th stops on the tour. On the weekend of September 6-7, they met in the semifinals of an APT stop which drew 67 entrants to Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA. Wilkie, sent to the loss side in the third round of play, won eight on the loss side for the right to face Deska in the semifinals, and then, Jimmy Varias in the finals. Wilkie defeated Varias to claim his third APT title of the year.
Following an opening round bye, Wilkie had a fairly easy time of it against Andrew Park, defeating him 7-1 and moving on to meet Matt Krah. Wilkie and Krah battled to double hill before Krah prevailed and Wilkie began the long march back on the losers' side. Krah won three more, advancing to a winners' side semifinal against Deska. Varias and Tuan Chau met in the other. Deska sent Krah over 7-5 for an almost immediate re-match against Wilkie. Varias survived a double hill battle against Chau and sent him west for an actual immediate match against Wilkie. In the hot seat match, Varias survived a second double hill fight, this time against Deska, who, like Krah and Chau, moved west to meet up with Wilkie.
On the loss side, Wilkie was at work on his nine-match winning streak, in which he would give up, on average, less than two racks per match (races to six). In his fifth loss-side match, Guan Robinson managed three against him. Wilkie got right back to work, allowing Dan Madden to chalk up only a single rack against him, before meeting up with Chau, fresh off the winners' side semifinal. Krah, in the same boat, met up with Alex Travino, who'd defeated Trevor Dentz 6-4 and Rick Miller 6-3 to reach him.
Wilkie downed Chau 6-2, as Krah was busy shutting out Travino. Wilkie took the quarterfinal re-match against Krah 6-2 and then knocked off the tour's #1 ranked player (Deska) in a double hill semifinal match. Wilkie completed his loss side run with a 9-4 victory in the finals over Varias.
Jimmy Varias' second place finish moved him up among the tour's top 10 players. Deska's third place finish allowed him to retain his spot at the top of the tour rankings, though Wilkie's victory cut the point distance between them in half.
