Matt O’Grady of Matawan, N.J., representing the PBA East Region, and Dick Allen of Columbia, S.C., representing the South Region, have earned return trips to the PBA Regional Challenge in Reno where O’Grady is the defending champion and Allen was runner-up in 2016.

The PBA Regional and PBA50 Tour Challenge events will kick off the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling IX, presented by Eldorado Reno Properties, at the National Bowling Stadium, on Tuesday, Nov. 7. WSOB IX kicks off the Go Bowling! PBA Tour series for 2017-18.

In 2016, Allen and O’Grady emerged from the eight-game head-to-head match play preliminary round as the one-two qualifiers for the title match which was live streamed on Xtra Frame. O’Grady won the showdown match, 225-217.

O’Grady earned his return trip to Reno as the 2017 East Region points race with 126,853 points, easily beating runner-up Alex Cavagnaro of Massapequa, N.Y., who had 78,858 points. Likewise, Allen repeated as South Region champ with 140,915 points, out-distancing Cristian Azcona of Puerto Rico (112,210).

The other regional qualifiers O’Grady and Allen will face this year include:

● Central Region �C Graham Fach of Guelph, Ontario (183,896 points) over Kyle Mayberry of Mt. Vernon, Ohio (142,939);

● Midwest Region �C AJ Johnson of Oswego, Ill. (142,414) over veteran Tom Hess of Urbandale, Iowa (111,916);

● Southwest Region �C 2016 PBA Rookie of the Year Francois Lavoie of Quebec City, Quebec (175,775) over Anthony Lavery-Spahr of Pasadena, Texas (116,796);

● West Region - Darren Tang of San Francisco (198,309) over Jakob Butturff of Phoenix (195,631);

● Northwest Region �C Tang also won the Northwest points title (199,194) over Cameron Weier of Tacoma, Wash. (191,577), but Tang will represent the region where he lives, meaning Weier gets the Northwest Region berth in Reno.

The PBA50 Tour Challenge also will be held on Nov. 7 in Reno, featuring the top eight players in 2017 competition points: PBA50 Player of the Year Brian LeClair, Norm Duke, Parker Bohn III, Bob Learn Jr., Walter Ray Williams Jr., PBA50 Rookie of the Year Michael Haugen Jr., Amleto Monacelli and Ron Mohr.

Both Challenge events will be covered live in their entirety by PBA’s Xtra Frame video streaming channel. For subscription information, visit xtraframe.tv.