The Shark is May Masters champion

Mark “The Shark” Halstead won the battle of southpaws and rallied to beat fellow lefty Ronald Epan in the masters event of the 22nd Annual CNMI May Masters Tournament Sunday at the Saipan Bowling Center.

Triumphing in the women’s masters, meanwhile, was all-events top-notcher Diana Camacho, who knocked down 2,123 pins just 29 ahead of second place Rizza Hensley’s 12-game total of 2,094.

Halstead overcame a hot start by Epan and his own early struggles to win the men’s championship. He rolled a total of 3,155 pinfalls to beat Epan, who was just 43 pins behind at 3,112.

The man they call The Shark finished second to protégé and good friend Jonathan Hensley in the all-events but was hit by a string of bad luck early in the marathon 16-game masters competition.

In fact, Halstead admitted that he contemplated about quitting the masters event altogether after an arm injury flared up, which led to his average dipping from 204 in the first three games to 168 pinfalls in the last four.

In contrast, Epan knocked down in excess of 200 pins in five of his first seven games to take the initiative. He normed more than 210 pinfalls in his first six games and still had a 133-pin lead on Halstead after Game 12.

Then The Shark made his move. He cut the lead of the power-hitting Epan to 99 pins after both registered subpar scores in the 13th game.

But while Halstead quickly bounced back by knocking down 232 pins in the next game, Epan continued to struggle, with what it turned out to be a blister on his left thumb, and could only roll a 169 as his advantage shrunk to 36 pins with only two games to go.

To Halstead’s credit, he would come up with a yet another dazzling performance in the penultimate game. He would go neck-and-neck with Epan in the first five frames of the 15th before rolling three consecutive strikes to take the driver’s seat and he never looked back.

With one game to go, Halstead opened up a 36-pin edge but in a game where not even a 50-pin lead going to the last 12 frames isn’t safe, anything could still happen.

But there was no drama this day as Halstead held on to his lead and Epan barely fought off eventual third placer Jonathan Duenas of Guam, who finished a mere eight pins off second place with 3,104 pinfalls.

Halstead earned a cool $1,000 for his masters win, while Epan and Duenas settled for $600 and $300, respectively. Also making it to the money list was fourth placer Dannie Robles (3,043 pinfalls), and fifth placer Jonathan Hensley (3,043 pinfalls). Robles got $150 and Hensley $100.

During the awards banquet held that evening at the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach, Halstead received his three-foot high masters championship trophy from Saipan Bowling Association president Jerry Tan.

“This is a great victory for me. After feeling bad because of my injuries in the early games I though about quitting. I’m very happy I didn’t take make that decision and I finally got into a rhythm and started hitting my target and the rest is history.”

Camacho, for her part, was a picture of quiet confidence when she received both her all-events and women’s masters trophy. She took home $400 for the masters win to add to her $125 earnings in the all-events.

Runner-up Rizza Hensley pocketed $250 for finishing second to Camacho, while Guam’s Felymar Mandapat and Becky Reyes came in third and fourth and took home $100 and $50, respectively.

In all, the May Masters awarded close to $7,000 in prize money during the three-day tenpin bowling tournament.

The yearly bowling event is organized by the SBA and is sponsored by MARPAC, exclusive distributor of Budweiser; JET Holdings; Saipan Bowling Center; Micronesian Brokers, Inc.; Marianas Visitors Authority; SBA president Jerry Tan; Dai-Ichi Saipan Beach Hotel; and AON Insurance.