A week before Christmas in 2019, Ryan Fossum finished as runner-up to Hank Powell at a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. It was only the second time, according to our records, that Fossum had cashed in any tournament. The year before, he’d finished 4th; same tour, same location (Borderline Billiards, Bristol, TN). On Saturday, April 10, Fossum broke through to chalk up his first tournament win; same tour, same state, different location – Jac’s All-American Billiards in Newport, TN. Fossum went undefeated through a relatively short field of 26 entrants and won almost three out of every four games he played (30-11; 73%).
Fossum and Dustin Lackey worked their way through three opponents to arrive at their respective winners’ side semifinal matches; Fossum, facing Montez Lloyd and Lackey meeting up with Rodney Huskey. Fossum downed Lloyd 5-1 and in the hot seat match, faced Lackey, who’d sent Huskey to the loss side 7-2. Fossum claimed the hot seat 5-3 over Lackey.
On the loss side, Huskey picked up Matt Marrisett, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal match to Fossum and then won all but one of the subsequent matches he played on the loss side, double hill. He began by defeating Reid Vance (5-6) and Corey Morphew (5-8). Lloyd drew Tony Miller, who’d lost to Huskey in a winners’ side quarterfinal and defeated Ricky Bingham and Yoshiaki Kanamura, both 6-4.
Miller and Marrisett handed Lloyd and Huskey their second straight loss; Miller, double hill over Lloyd and Marrisett defeating Huskey (not double hill) 5-3. Marrisett stopped Miller’s run in the quarterfinals with his third straight double hill win (5-5).
Marrisett chalked up his fourth straight double hill win, downing Lackey in the semifinals (5-6). Fossum put a stop to Marrisett’s run with a 5-2 win in the finals to claim the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Jac’s All-American Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, AZBilliards, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and Dirty South Grind Apparel Co. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (April 17-18), will be hosted by Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.
In all, a total of 391 players participated, individually, in the Midwestern Pool Association/Minnesota ACS Pool Championships on the weekend of April 5-8. Hosted by the Treasure Island Casino in Red Wing, MN, the 8-ball event featured five divisional tournaments, from Master to C-class, and an equal number of divisional team tournaments, offering total prize payouts of over $40,000.
Felix Beardy was the $1,500, first-prize winner in the 23-entrant Master division, besting Jesse Engel 6-4 in the finals. Engel, after moving to the loss-bracket in the second round, won four straight to meet the man who sent him there, Danny Olson, in the semifinals. He prevailed there 6-5 to earn his shot versus Beardy.
In the 39-entrant double-A division, Josh Raines and Terry Miller battled it out in the finals. Raines dropped one match of three, overall, against Miller to claim the top prize of $900. The A division of the tournament drew 86 entrants and yielded Luvern Hanson as the winner. He defeated Randy DeGarmo 5-2 to claim the top $850 prize.
The largest field of the event was in the B division tournament, which saw 122 entrants and was won by Nye Vang, over Duane Olson in the finals. The C division, with one less entrant than the B division, was won by Nick Elwell, over Mick Westeng in the finals.
The five teams taking home top divisional prize money were The Leftovers (with Felix Beardy) in the Master/AA division (15 teams), Shars in the A division (34 teams), Just Out of Luck in the B division (46 teams) and Fantom Cue Kids and Dads in the C Division (35 entries).
