Junior Billiards Champs Crowned in Tucson

Junior Billiards Champs Crowned in Tucson
BEF Junior Nationals / Tucson, AZ
by Skip Maloney
The Billiard Education Foundation (BEF) awarded four $1,000 scholarships to winners in four separate divisions of their juniors’ tournament, held the weekend of July 11-13. A total of 104 players gathered over the weekend in the Student Union Games Room of the University of Arizona in Tucson, where Brunswick had added 6 tables to complement the room’s original 16.
In the 19-and-under boys’ division, which hosted 66 players, it was Austin Murphy winning the $1,000 scholarship with a hill-hill 11-10 victory over Nick Tafoya, who received a $500 scholarship for his second-place finish. Murphy, who came from the one-loss side of the tournament, battled back through five opponents to reach the finals.
Tafoya was among the final four in the division, defeating Chuckie Holyoke and then, in the hot seat, Richard Barney (last year’s champion), for his spot in the finals. Both matches leading to the hot seat match were hill-hill contests, unlike the hot seat match itself, which Tofoya dominated 9-1.
On the one-loss side, Murphy worked his way through Devon Cataldi, Christopher Futrell, and Adam Davis before meeting and defeating Holyoke in the quarterfinals and Barney in the semifinals to meet Tafoya and capture the first-place prize.
In the 19-and-under girls’ division, with 10 entrants, a single family will be sharing the first and second place total of $1,500 in scholarship money because two sisters battled it out in the finals. The older sister, Allison Hardwick, prevailed over the younger sister, Chelsea (by two and a half years) 9-4 in the final match-up, although earlier in the day, Chelsea had sent Alison to the one-loss side with a 7-4 win in a final four winners’-side match. Chelsea went on to defeat Nicole Hernandez 7-3 in the hot seat match and waited around, watching her sister and Hernandez in the semifinals, won by the sister 7-4.
In the 14-and-under boys’ division, with 23 entrants, it was Landon Shuffett bringing home the $1,000 scholarship, with a 9-6 victory over Billy Thorpe. Thorpe had defeated Landon Cason in a winners’-side final four match-up and then, Chad Denke to reach the hot seat. Shuffett, on the one-loss side, worked through Tyler Adolini, Ronnie Kidd in the quarterfinals and Denke in the semifinals to get to Thorpe and ultimately win it.
The five girls who signed on for the 14-and-under girls’ division played a round robin tournament that concluded with a finals match between Brianna Miller and Taylor Reynolds. Miller prevailed to capture the $1,000 scholarship prize.

Results
19-and-under Boys
1st Austin Murphy
2nd Nick Tafoya
3rd Richard Barney
4th Chuckie Holyoke
5th Adam Davis
Joshua Newman
7th Christopher Futrell
Mac Harrell
9th Devon Cataldi
Ryan Dunn
Schuyler Woodward
DJ Outlaw
19-and-under Girls
1st Alison Hardwick
2nd Chelsea Hardwick
3rd Nicole Hernandez
4th Heather Torpin
5th Taylor Satterwhite
Amber Yniguez
14-and-under Boys
1st Landon Shuffett
2nd Billy Thorpe
3rd Chad Denke
4th Ronnie Kidd
5th Landon Cason
Tyler Adolini
14-and-under Girls
1st Brianna Miller
2nd Taylor Reynolds
3rd Macy Bullard
4th Courtney Frank

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