HUNTER CLASSICS AMATEUR WOMEN'S TOUR
First
Hunter Classics Stop of 2002 at Fast Freddy's in Arlington, Texas
With the first tournament
of the 2002 Year in January, who knew how many players would show up?
Well, 53 of them to be exact! What a great start to the 2002 Season...
Wes Hunter's Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour keeps going and going!
14 of the ladies paid the qualifying money to vie for a chance at the WPBA
Qualifier and in the end, it would be Sherri Hudson of Houston to win the
Qualifying spot and the tournament!
Fast Freddy's was a wonderful
host with upstairs and downstairs to play pool, very helpful and gracious
staff and a great atmosphere. Carlos Randol took care of the ladies
and welcomed us back again.
Texas, Colorado, Arkansas,
Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota and Florida were represented at the tournament
and the 53 ladies were dwindled down to 12 by Sunday morning. On
the winner's side Sunday, Sherri Hudson defeated Linda Lujan of Dallas
7-2 and Orietta Strickland from Dallas defeated Austin's Heather Pulford
7-6. On the one-loss side, Leslie Anne Rogers (2001 Tour Champion)
played Juanita Hase of Missouri, Mindy Williams (2001 Most Improved Player)
defeated Gail Lave (frequent Hunter Classics winner also from Missouri),
Susan Wilbur (new member from Arizona) defeated Hunter Classics Board Member
Melinda Bailey and Melanie Koger (frequent Hunter Classics winner and 1999
Tour Champion) defeated Fort Worth resident Melissa Norton.
Leslie Anne Rogers went on
to defeat Mindy Williams, teammates Linda Lujan and Melanie Koger before
losing to Sherri Hudson. Melanie defeated Susan and Heather before meeting
up with Leslie.
Melanie placed 4th and won
$270, Leslie placed 3rd and won $420 with Linda and Heather placing 5th/6th
winning $160.
Sherri had to fight her way
through Tara McCracken (7-5), Christine Ramos (7-3), Lisa Marr (7-5), Susan
Wilbur (7-5) and Linda Lujan (7-2) before losing to Orietta Strickland
in the hot seat. Orietta's fight to the finals was with wins over
Alesia Teskey (7-2), Jennifer Kraber (7-3), Sherry Pouncey (7-5), Juanita
Hase (7-4) and Heather Pulford (7-6) before meeting up with Sherri again.
Carlos Randol, Leslie Anne Rogers, Orietta Strickland
and Sherri Hudson
Last year the tournament
format was voted on and this was the first year the Hunter Tour's tournament
was a true double elimination tournament - and at the very first
stop it was put to the test!
Sherri defeated Orietta
7-6 in the first set and then they had to play one more set to 7.
Sherri defeated Orietta 7-0 the next set for tournament win. Along
with the WPBA qualifying spot, Sherri also took home $750. Orietta
won $575 for her 2nd place finish.
Congratulations to all the
women! All of the ladies played great, were well-mannered, dressed
professional and had a lot of fun. There were many newcomers this
time and it was a great first event! A big thank you to Wes Hunter who
keeps this tour alive and who makes it the best in the country.
Thank you to Randy Cole who
ran a very smooth tournament for us again and we appreciate the awesome
hard work he puts into our weekends - including refereeing!
Fort Worth resident and frequent
Hunter Classics player Monica Roznovsky won the beautiful Hunter Classics
cue valued at $1,650. She placed 5th/6th in the second chance tournament
and invested that $10 into raffle tickets and then won the cue!
The second chance tournament,
with $100 added, was being run downstairs as 21 ladies came back to play.
In the end, it was Deanna Kniola (from the Austin area) defeating Julie
Stephenson (Hunter Classics Board Member) 5-3 in the finals. Deanna
won $130 and Julie won $85. Tara McCracken of Lewisville, TX placed
3rd and won $50.
Don't forget to visit us
at our next stop in Albuquerque, NM February 23-24!
Visit us on the web for all
information: www.hunterclassics.com.
PLAYER Sherri Hudson
Orietta Strickland
Leslie Rogers
Melanie Koger
Heather Pulford
Linda Lujan
Mindy Williams
Susan Wilbur
Juanita Hase
Melissa Norton
Gail Lave
Melinda Bailey
Deanna Kniola
Michelle Cortez
Lisa Marr
Jacqueline Broadhurst
Sharon Townsend
Sherry Pouncey
Sarah Ellerby
Stephanie Tuinstra
Teresa Murphy
Kim Pierce
Celeste Torres
Lucy Robinson
Yvette Johnson
Julie Stephenson
Jennifer Kraber
Becky Rouse
Beth Shriver
Monica Anderson
Kim White
Andrea Wardell