JONESBORO, Ark. (Feb. 27, 2019) – Kris Prather, a 27-year-old fifth-year PBA member from Plainfield, Ill., averaged 230 Wednesday to take the opening round lead in the PBA Jonesboro Open at Hijinx Family Entertainment in his bid for his first Go Bowling! PBA Tour title.

Prather, a former Wichita State University star, rolled games of 214, 192, 246, 258, 214, 249 and 227 for a seven-game total of 1,610 pins and a 13-pin lead over Japan’s Shota Kawazoe.

“I’m just trying to make it to match play,” said Prather, who is trying to remain patient in his quest for his first title.

“On the left lane, I was just trying to throw the ball toward the 3-pin. On the right lane, it was a polar opposite,” he said of the mixed lane condition event. “I was throwing it at the gutter at 30 feet and trying to get my ball to change direction. The game plan was to take advantage of the easy pairs and not hurt myself on the tough ones. I got lucky with that tonight.”

Another non-titlist, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W.Va., was in third place with 1,584 pins followed by Jakob Butturff of Tempe, Ariz., at 1,565 and PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla., rounding out the top five with 1,563 pins.

It took Duke seven years to win his most recent singles title, but if his performance Wednesday was any indication, he’d like to make the gap between winning another seven days instead of years.

Duke, who defeated Australia’s Jason Belmonte to win his 39th PBA Tour title last Sunday in the Go Bowling! PBA Indianapolis Open at Woodland Bowl, averaged 223.29 Wednesday to lead the early squad.

“After all of the emotion of last week, you have to put it behind you and come up with a game plan. I had three, and the one I picked wasn’t it,” Duke said, referring to his 155 first game. “Once I figured out how to play the lanes, I was able to settle down and bowl. It’s just a left and right lane. They were very different, but that’s what mixed patterns are and that’s to my advantage over time.”

If Duke is able to win in Jonesboro on Sunday, he’ll become the third player in PBA history to win 40 career titles, joining all-time leader Walter Ray Williams Jr. with 47 and Earl Anthony with 43.

All rounds of the Jonesboro Open, a Tier 3 event in the 2019 PBA Playoffs points competition, will be contested on a mixed lane conditioning environment where the 45-foot Shark oiling pattern will be applied to the left lane and the 36-foot Viper pattern to the right lane.

FloBowling will live-stream the second round of qualifying Thursday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST. The top 16 after 14 games will advance to eight-game match play rounds Friday at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. (visit FloBowling.com for subscription information). For results as they happen, visit Live Scoring on PBA.com.

The Jonesboro finals will air live on FS1 on Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern.

PBA JONESBORO OPEN

Hijinx Family Entertainment Center, Jonesboro, Ark., Wednesday

First Round Standings (after seven games)

1, Kris Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 1,610.
2, Shota Kawazoe, Japan, 1,597.
3, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W.Va., 1,584.
4, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 1,565.
5, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 1,563.
6, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 1,547.
7, Richie Teece, England, 1,526.
8, Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 1,522.
9, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 1,513.
10, Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 1,511.
11, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,508.
12, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,504.
13, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,503.
14 (tie), Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., and Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,498.
16 (tie), Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., and Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, 1,495.
18, Cristian Azcona, Puerto Rico, 1,489.
19, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,484.
20 (tie), Brad Miller, Lees Summit, Mo.; Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., and Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 1,483.
23 (tie), Christopher Sloan, Ireland, and Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,479.
25, Stuart Williams, England, 1,478.
26 (tie), Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn.; DJ Archer, Spring, Texas, and Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 1,477.
29, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 1,473.
30 (tie), Rhino Page, Orlando, and Martin Larsen, Sweden, 1,472.
32 (tie), Matt Sanders, Indianapolis, and Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 1,471.
34, Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 1,470.
35, Andrew Suscreba, Clifton, N.J., 1,469.
36, Jason Sterner, Fayetteville, Ga., 1,467.
37 (tie), Andres Gomez, Colombia, and Patrick Hanrahan, Wichita, Kan., 1,457.
39, Mitch Hupe, Canada, 1,454.
40, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, Nev., 1,452.
41, Dick Allen, Lexington, S.C., 1,448.
42, Billy Rogers, Mesquite, Texas, 1,440.
43 (tie), Thomas Larsen, Denmark, and Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,438.
45 (tie), Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, and Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,437.
47, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 1,434.
48, Zach Doty, Campbellsville, Ky., 1,430.
49, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., 1,429.
50, Dom Barrett, England, 1,428.
51, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,423.
52, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 1,409.
53 (tie), Jake Rollins, Glen Rock, N.J., and Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,406.
55, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 1,403.
56, Greg Ostrander, Brick, N.J., 1,395.
57, Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 1,394.
58 (tie), Pontus Andersson, Sweden, and Brandon Robertson, Venice, Fla., 1,392.
60, Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., 1,387.
61, Jim Pratt, Avondale, Ariz., 1,385.
62, Gaetan Mouveroux, France, 1,382.
63, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 1,378.
64, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,374.
65, Mike Coffey, Melbourne, Fla., 1,364.
66, Kenneth Ryan, Farmingdale, NJ, 1,356.
67, Mykel Holliman, Collierville, Tenn., 1,353.
68, Geoffrey Young, Roanoke, Texas, 1,351.
69, Blake Demore, Springfield, Mo., 1,349.
70 (tie), Rafiq Ismail, Malaysia, and Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,346.
72, Nathan Bohr, Austin, Texas, 1,341.
73, Justin Wyman, Fairport, N.Y., 1,329.
74, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 1,328.
75, Eduardo Astiazaran, Mexico, 1,321.
76, David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,314.
77, Michael Davidson, Versailles, Ohio, 1,310.
78, Greg Young, Viera, Fla., 1,300.
79, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,290.
80, Elijah Felling, Norman, Okla., 1,265.
81, Andrew Marks, Conway, Ark., 1,239.
82, Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo.,, 1,180.
83, JT Jackson, Sherman Oaks, Calif., 1,108.

300 Game: EJ Tackett