Cal defends May Masters title

Ron Cal successfully defended her championship in the women’s division of the 26th CNMI May Masters Bowling Tournament held Saturday night at the Saipan Bowling Center in Oleai.

But unlike her 44-pin victory over runner-up Dianne Camacho last year, Cal showed no mercy last Saturday, literally bowling over the competition with a 118-pin victory over closest pursuer Camacho.

Cal admitted she started slow as evidenced by the pedestrian 149 and 147 pinfalls she rolled in her first two outings. She said after her lackluster start the chances of a repeat was the farthest thing in her mind.

That was the first and last time she would doubt herself though, as the Antipolo, Philippines native followed that up with four strong outings which saw her average close to 177 pinfalls with games of 202, 170, 192, and 204.

After an anemic 154 on her seventh game, Cal put together a string of five games where she averaged a scorching 201.6 pinfalls—192, 166, 214, 243, and 193. She wound up with a total 2,226, good for a 185 average.

Cal said she considers the back-to-back wins in the May Masters as the pinnacle of her bowling career, one that started 10 years ago in the CNMI. She is dedicating her victory to her 76-year-old mother, Constancia.

Camacho, for her part, settled for yet another bridesmaid finish after the veteran kegler finished with 2,108 pinfalls and an average of 175.67. Her 12-game series had her knock down 171, 201, 165, 191, 157, 169, 161, 154, 189, 191, 181, and 178.

Yho Villavicencio wound up third with a pinfall total of 2,024 and a per game average of 168.67. All Events winner Gina Sablan and Elena Soll completed the Top 5 with pinfalls of 2,016 (168 average) and 1,995 (166.25), respectively.

In the men’s team competition, the foursome of Raymond Zapanta, Raymond Angeles, Kitz Barja, and men’s All Events winner Richard Leong nosed out favorites Robert Talavera, Jon Hensley, Paul Pangelinan, and Alex Cacdac (2,453-2,214).

Other winners of the May Masters were Leong (singles event), Zapanta and Angeles (doubles), Rita Palacios (women’s singles), Soll and Villavicencio (women’s doubles), and Cal, Sablan, Gigi Zapanta, and Gloria Omechalang (women’s team).

The three-day May Masters is organized by the Saipan Bowling Association and is sponsored in part by JET Holdings, MARPAC-Budweiser, Saipan Grand Hotel, Club V, the Marianas Visitors Authority, PTI, and Saipan Bowling Center CNMI.