INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 13, 2018) – Anthony Pepe, a 29-year-old left-hander from Elmhurst, N.Y., averaged 252 for his first eight games in the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic Tuesday to take the first round lead at Woodland Bowl by 20 pins over fellow lefty Jakob Butturff of Tempe, Ariz.

Pepe, who is trying for his second Professional Bowlers Association Tour title, had a dazzling round, rolling games of 254, 266, 258, 257, 279, 202, 256 and 245 for a 2,017 total to pace the 148-player field.

Pepe, who came into the 2018 season off a solid performance in the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling IX in Reno, Nev., in late November, where he had a runner-up finish in the PBA Chameleon Championship presented by Reno Tahoe, said he had a game plan for playing the lanes at Woodland Bowl based on previous experiences in the center.

“The biggest thing was I had an arsenal of bowling balls I wanted to use, and I was able to make the ball choices and moves on the lanes quickly,” Pepe said. “I also came into the season with a lot of confidence after the World Series. After Matt O’Grady won the PBA Tournament of Champions last week, he said it was proof of what hard work can do, and I couldn’t agree more.”

The same hard-work philosophy applies to Brian Robinson of Morgantown, W.Va., a 28-year-old 10th-year PBA member who had previously advanced to match play twice in 58 tournaments. But after hurting his right wrist about 18 months ago, he switched to a two-handed delivery and averaged 246.5 for his eight games Tuesday, finishing the round in third place with a 1,972 total – 45 pins behind Pepe. Rounding out the top five were Marshall Kent of Yakima, Wash., with 1,945 pins and DJ Archer of Friendswood, Texas, with a 1,930 total.

The Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic is a one-time tournament, commemorating the organization’s birth in 1958 and 60 years of memorable competition. Over the course of the next few weeks, the PBA will unveil its 60 Most Memorable Moments.

This week’s tournament began with 84-year-old PBA Hall of Famer Carmen Salvino of Chicago, a PBA founding member who bowled in the organization’s first PBA tournament in 1959 at age 25, becoming the oldest bowler ever to participate in a PBA Tour event. The weeklong festivities will include the PBA 60th Anniversary Celebration dinner and hall of fame induction ceremonies Saturday along with the 2018 PBA League Draft. The tournament concludes Sunday with the live telecast of the stepladder finals at 1 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Qualifying continues Wednesday with B and A squads bowling another eight games at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Based on 16-game pinfall totals, the top 37 players will advance to an eight-game cashers round Thursday at 9 a.m. After 24 games, the top 24 will bowl eight-game head-to-head match play rounds Thursday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. All preliminary rounds, plus Saturday’s League Draft at 10:30 a.m. and the 60th Anniversary dinner at 6:30 p.m., will be live stream on PBA’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame. To sign up, visit xtraframe.tv.

GO BOWLING! PBA 60TH ANNIVERSARY CLASSIC

Woodland Bowl, Indianapolis, Tuesday

FIRST ROUND STANDINGS (after 8 games)

1, Anthony Pepe, Elmhurst, N.Y., 2,017.
2, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz., 1,997.
3, Brian Robinson, Morgantown, W. Va., 1,972.
4, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 1,945.
5, DJ Archer, Friendswood, Texas, 1,930.
6, Osku Palermaa, Finland, 1,924.
7, Matt Sanders, Evansville, Ind., 1,910.
8, Scott Newell, Deland, Fla., 1,902.
9, Shota Kawazoe, Japan, 1,900.
10, (tie) Andres Gomez, Colombia, and Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, 1,869.
12, Darren Tang, San Francisco, 1,868.
13, (tie) Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, and Aaron Lorincz, Center Line, Mich., 1,855.
15, Gary Faulkner Jr., Memphis, Tenn., 1,853.
16, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 1,839.
17, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1,838.
18, Kristopher Prather, Plainfield, Ill., 1,837.
19, Richie Teece, England, 1,835.
20, Dino Castillo, Highland Village, Texas, 1,833.
21, Gabriel Garcia, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 1,832.
22, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 1,827.
23, Arturo Quintero, Mexico, 1,826.
24, Keven Williams, Springfield, Mo., 1,824.
25, Dom Barrett, England, 1,821.
26, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 1,819.
27, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 1,814.
28, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 1,813.
29, Andrew Anderson, Holly, Mich., 1,810.
30, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 1,802.
31, Richard McCormick, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1,801.
32, Ryan Ciminelli, Clarence, N.Y., 1,797.
33, Stuart Williams, England, 1,796.
34, Pontus Andersson, Sweden, 1,794.
35, Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., 1,792.
36, (tie) Jason Sterner, Rockledge, Fla.; Tannya Roumimper, Indonesia, and Connor Pickford, Charlotte, N.C., 1,791.
39, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 1,788.
40, Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tenn., 1,783.
41, AJ Chapman, Manchester, Iowa, 1,782.
42, Tim Foy Jr., Seaford, Del., 1,781.
43, Charlie Brown Jr, Grandville, Mich., 1,776.
44, Andrew Cain, Phoenix, 1,775.
45, Sam Cooley, Australia, 1,771.
46, (tie) Nick Kruml, Downers Grove, Ill., and Jason Belmonte, Australia, 1,770.
48, (tie) Joe Paluszek, Bensalem, Pa., and Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 1,759.
50, (tie) Thomas Larsen, Denmark and Walter Ray Williams Jr., Oxford, Fla., 1,756.
52, (tie) Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, and Kristian Sieradzki, Seminole, Fla., 1,755.
54, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,754.
55, Dwight Adams, Greensboro, N.C., 1,752.
56, Josh Blanchard, Mesa, Ariz., 1,751.
57, (tie) Brad Miller, Maryland Heights, Mo., and Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 1,750.
59, (tie) Zeke Bayt, Westerville, Ohio, and Kyle Cook, Centerville, Ohio, 1,749.
61, (tie) Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., and Yannaphon Larpapharat, Thailand, 1,748.
63, Matt O'Grady, Rahway, N.J., 1,744.
64, (tie) Trey Ford III, Bartlesville, Okla., and Mitch Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 1,743.
66, Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 1,742.
67, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 1,736.
68, Jean Perez, Puerto Rico, 1,734.
69, (tie) Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., and Anthony Simonsen, Austin, Texas, 1,730.
71, Devin Bidwell, Wichita, Kan., 1,728.
72, Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 1,727.
73, (tie) Ryan Graywacz, Canastota, N.Y., and Andrew Klingler, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1,725.
75, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 1,723.
76, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 1,719.
77, Patrick Girard, Canada, 1,717.
78, (tie) Michael Tang, San Francisco, Calif., and Graham Fach, Canada, 1,716.
80, Christopher Sloan, Ireland, 1,715.
81, Cristian Azcona, Puerto Rico, 1,711.
82, EJ Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 1,710.
83, (tie) Marco Moretti, Costa Rica, and Francois Louw, South Africa, 1,709.
85, Jeff Evans, Supply, N.C., 1,705.
86, Jake Peters, Henderson, Nev., 1,703.
87, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, 1,700.
88, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky., 1,696.
89, (tie) Cameron Weier, Tacoma, Wash., and Ron Mohr, Las Vegas, 1,695.
91, Kim Bolleby, Thailand, 1,689.
92, (tie) AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill., and Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 1,688.
94, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 1,685.
95, (tie) Zachery Tackett, Huntington, Ind.; Beau Peterson, Newton, Kan., and Steven Arehart, Chesapeake, Va., 1,672.
98, Jason Zook, Tampa, Fla., 1,669.
99, (tie) Kyle Bigelow, Troy, Ohio, and Mike Edwards, Tulsa, Okla., 1,668.
101, Brad Angelo, Lockport, N.Y., 1,665.
102, David Krol, Nixa, Mo., 1,664.
103, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 1,662.
104, (tie) Matt Kuba, Chicago Ridge, Ill., and Rhino Page, Orlando, 1,659.
106, (tie) John Furey, Freehold, N.J., and Daniel Fransson, Sweden, 1,654.
108, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 1,653.
109, Carleton Chambers, Detroit, 1,652.
110, (tie) Napatra Buspanikonkul, Thailand, and Brian LeClair, Albany, N.Y., 1,642.
112, Patrick Dombrowski, Parma, Ohio, 1,634.
113, JR Raymond, Clinton Twp., Mich., 1,631.
114, Chris Arcaro, Carolina Beach, N.C., 1,626.
115, (tie) Mitch Hupe, Towanda, Kan., and Markus Jansson, Sweden, 1,621.
117, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 1,619.
118, Johnny Petraglia, Jackson, N.J., 1,617.
119, Kristian Rogers, Salisbury, N.C., 1,614.
120, Christopher O'Neil, Decatur, Ill., 1,611.
121, Chris Loschetter, Avon, Ohio, 1,608.
122, William Tarpein, McDonough, Ga., 1,605.
123, Russ Oviatt, Chandler, Ariz., 1,603.
124, Ray Teece, England, 1,602.
125, Tyler Wilds, Three Rivers, Mich., 1,598.
126, Kyle King, Glendale, Ariz., 1,593.
127, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 1,590.
128, Myles Duty, Modesto, Calif., 1,587.
129, Tony Johnson, Canton, Ohio, 1,583.
130, Chris Hartung, Goshen, Ind., 1,567.
131, Jason Britain, Springfield, Mo., 1,566.
132, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 1,561.
133, Noel Vega, Noblesville, Ind., 1,551.
134, Gary Kammes, Winfield, Ill., 1,548.
135, Justin Wyman, Fairport, N.Y., 1,527.
136, Kenneth Galitsky, Plainfield, Ind., 1,524.
137, Steve Walls, Jr., Canada, 1,499.
138, Tristan Butler, Fort Wayne, Ind., 1,498.
139, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 1,494.
140, Jackson Getting, Portsmouth, N.H., 1,490.
141, Tony Gilbert, Indianapolis, 1,483.
142, Timothy Regan, East Northport, N.Y., 1,452.
143, James Johnson, Waynesville, Mo., 1,443.
144, Patrick Norred, LaPorte, Ind., 1,413.
145, Sandra Gongora, Mexico, 1,403.
146, Carmen Salvino, Schaumburg, Ill., 1,400.
147, Greg Lair, Indianapolis, Ind., 1,284.
148, Matthew Ward, Fort Mohave, Ariz., 1,242.

300 Games: Gary Faulkner Jr., Marshall Kent, Andres Gomez.