As expected, the final week of the year at Mt. Hawley Bowl in the Bill Mastronardi’s Masters league was a grind for a lot of the bowlers.

 

We now head to position round for the final third of the season, and Plaza Lanes who has been at the top of the standings for the last five weeks only has only one team that has any chance to catch them and they will bowl each other next week.

 

Plaza led by Bob Baker, Chris Feger, Zach Lantz and Jason Jones currently sit at the top with 323 points won. They lead the team of Landmark by 29 points who consist of captain Rob Johnson, Vince Pollard Sr., Sammy Taylor and Shane Taylor.

 

Landmark does not have much room for error, they need nearly a flawless night to have a shot to overtake them at the top of the standings, but winning 40 points has happened plenty of times this season, and they will need it to catch them and win by one pin.

 

Plaza used another big night on Monday to win 36 more point which gave them a bit of a cushion over Landmark who could only muster 18. 

 

If somehow Landmark can hit that mark, Plaza Lanes would enter the tournament of champions as a “Wild Card” team, that is because they have won the most overall points this season, and would not have won a third.

 

Potters Alley & Striketown won the first two thirds this season, so we will see who joins them next week when position round takes place at Plaza Lanes in Washington.

 

It has been an up and down year for the Masters league as a whole this season, and the scores last night at Mt. Hawley, the lowest house average for the entire year for the Masters showed up once again.

 

The league had more 500 series (10) bowled on Monday night than 700s (9), a rare occurrence for the best bowlers in the Central Illinois area.

 

Gary Strait was one of the few that did not have any issues as he was your Bowler of the Week with games of 277, 279 and 239 for 795.

 

Plaza Lanes was your Team of the Week with 2751.

 

The Strikeout pot has only been broken once this year and for the final time next week it will be at $600 dollars, so if broken, each bowler will get $150 a bowler.  

 

The top 12 bowlers in term of average will be a captain for next years draft. It is a tight race not only for the top spot between Tony DeVita and Travis Anderson who are separated by a grand total of 0.38.

 

The last captain spot is also up for grabs, and maybe even a few others. Currently Chris Feger who is in 10th will not be eligible as he will be 3 games short of the 66 mandatory total of games bowled to earn the spot. That will move all the bowlers below him up one spot and a handful of guys are battling it out to make the top 12.

 

Rob Johnson, Tony Schnack, Josh Barnwell (injured), and Zach Lantz all currently sit at 223 and some change for average, while Brad Moore and Cory Andes are right behind with 222.

 

Even though only two teams can win this third, this is still something to keep an eye on as Tony and Travis battle it out for the high average of the year, while a handful of others are looking to try and claim one of the last few captain spots.

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WEEKLY STATISTICS

 

As noted, for the second week in a row the overall average for the league took a hit. The average on Monday night at Mt. Hawley was 213.15, one of the lowest this season and they all occurred at the same house.

 

30 bowlers found themselves on the wrong side, decreasing their average, while 18 bowlers were able to increase it.

 

With only position round left, the overall average currently sits at 219.40, that is over a pin and half from last week when it was 220.18.

 

The league has 15 300s, and only 7 800s this season.

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TOP 3 TEAM SERIES – MARCH 30TH, 2026

1 – 2751 – PLAZA LANES

2 – 2686 – MORTON INDUSTRIES

3 – 2650 – T&D WINDSHIELD

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TOP 3 TEAM SERIES – MARCH 30TH, 2026

1 – 1035 – PLAZA LANES

2 – 942 – T&D WINDSHIELD

3 – 932 – W. DOWN UNDER

 

CURRENT LEADERS

High Average

1 – 237.41 – Tony DeVita

2 – 237.03 – Travis Anderson

3 – 232.80 – Steve Taylor

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Standings

1 – Plaza Lanes 323 - 177

2 – Landmark 294 - 206

3 – T&D Windshield – 280 - 220

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