JONESBORO, Ark. (Jan. 29, 2020) – Mexico’s Arturo Quintero, a 41-year-old veteran of PBA competition dating back 17 years, averaged 234 for 14 games Wednesday to top the 16 qualifiers who will advance to match play in the PBA Jonesboro Open at HiJinx Family Entertainment Center Thursday.

Quintero, who has bowled in 45 previous PBA Tour events without winning a title, rolled two games in the 190s in Wednesday’s early round and nothing below 212 in the evening round for 3,235 pins and a 24-pin lead over another non-titlist, AJ Johnson of Oswego, Illinois, who had a 3,211 total. Also advancing to Thursday’s round robin match play competition will be Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, South Carolina, winner of the PBA Hall of Fame Classic to kick off the 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour season, and Sean Rash of Montgomery, Illinois, who won Sunday’s Oklahoma Open. Jones qualified fourth and Rash sixth.

After two eight-game match play rounds Thursday, the top five players after 30 games will advance to Saturday’s stepladder finals that will air live on FS1 at 4:30 p.m. EST (3:30 p.m. CST).

Quintero, whose best career finish was sixth in the 2017 PBA Scorpion Championship, was pleased with his performance on the “dual pattern” event, where different oiling patterns are applied to the left and right lanes on every pair.

“I’m really happy right now,” Quintero said. “The dual patterns make it really, really hard. You have to make good shots, keep your timing right, make good decisions. It takes a lot of concentration. It makes you work on every shot, but I’m really enjoying it. I’ve prepared really hard to get here. Now I’m trying to relax and enjoy the game.”

For the third Go Bowling PBA Tour tournament of the 2020 season, competition is being contested on a dual pattern scoring environment, this week featuring the longest of all PBA lane conditioning patterns, the Shark 48 applied to the left lane and the shorter Viper 36 on the right lane throughout the competition. The dramatically different oil patterns not only challenge the PBA players to adapt with different angles of attack and use different bowling balls on each lane, but they also must make additional adjustments as bowling traffic moves the oil around with each game.

“I started playing outside on the right lane, very straight with urethane equipment,” Quintero said. “After two games, I moved left and kept moving left. On the left lane, I started playing an angle around (the 20 board) to start and kept moving left.”

Winning his first title isn’t on his mind.

“I don’t want to think about it,” he said. “I just want to keep making good shots and whatever happens, I’ll be happy with that.”

The Jonesboro Open is the third tournament of the 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour season and is rated a Tier 2 event in the PBA’s competition points structure. The winner will earn 5,000 points with all other players earning points of declining value based upon where they finish.

All 30 games of qualifying and match play are being live streamed by PBA’s online streaming partner, FloBowling. For FloBowling subscription information, visit FloBowling.com. FloBowling also will livestream Saturday’s finals live to its international subscribers. Fans also can follow game by game results in real time by clicking on the PBA.com Live Scoring link.

PBA JONESBORO OPEN

(A 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour Tier 2 event)

HiJinx Family Entertainment Center, Jonesboro, Ark., Wednesday

Final Qualifying Standings (after 14 games)

1, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 3,235.
2, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., 3,211.
3, Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 3,180.
4, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,167.
5, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 3,162.
6, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,156.
7, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 3,152.
8, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 3,092.
9, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, 3,066.
10, Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 3,048.
11, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 3,042.
12, Mitch Hupé, Wichita, Kan., 3,039.
13 (tie), Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., and Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, 3,032.
15, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 3,019.
16, x-Thomas Larsen, Denmark, 3,011.
Failed to Advance (after 14 games):

17, DJ Archer, Spring, Texas, 3,011, $1,900.
18, Greg Young, Viera, Fla., 3,006, $1,850.
19 (tie), Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., and Kris Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 2,986, $900.
21, Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 2,985.
22, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 2,979.
23, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 2,978.
24, AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa, 2,975.
25, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 2,969.
26, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 2,967.
27, Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., 2,945.
28, Dick Allen, Lexington, S.C., 2,937.
29, Sam Cooley, Australia, 2,934.
30, Richard Teece, England, 2,933.
31 (tie), Nick Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., and Ryan Ciminelli, Lancaster, S.C., 2,930.
33, Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 2,927.
34, Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 2,924.
35, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 2,923.
36 (tie), Alex Martin, Kennesaw, Ga., and Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 2,897.
38, Jason Sterner, Rochester, N.Y., 2,888.
39, Mykel Holliman, Collierville, Tenn., 2,881.
40, Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, 2,880.
41, Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 2,867.
42, Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., 2,853.
43, Jim Pratt, Avondale, Ariz., 2,845.
44, Patrick Hanrahan, Wichita, Kan., 2,841.
45, Greg Ostrander, Brick, N.J., 2,818.
46, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 2,802.
47, Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, 2,796.
48, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 2,791.
49, Kyle Duster, Phoenix, Ariz., 2,788.
50, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 2,780.
51, Tom Hess, Granger, Iowa, 2,775.
52, Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., 2,771.
53, Stephen Hahn, Sterling, Va., 2,758.
54, Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 2,734.
55, Matt Sanders, Evansville, Ind., 2,732.
56, Stuart Williams, England, 2,717.
57, Brad Miller, Lee’s Summit, Mo., 2,696.
58, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 2,629.
59, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 2,578.
60, Dino Castillo, Carrollton, Texas, 2,545.

x- Larsen defeated Archer, 212-133, in a one-game roll-off to break a tie for 16th place.

300 Games: none.