Rusch and Tobey went undefeated through match play as they took home the first place prize of $500. The champions advanced to the title match with a 480-384 win over Steve Kocos and Dave Wightman.
The tournament runner-ups advanced to the championship match by defeating Kocos and Wightman, 440-407, in a match that went down to the wire.
Bard and Barker took home the second place prize of $375 while Kocos and Wightman finished in third and received $275 for their effort. Nettie Schmitz and Janis Birschbach finished in fourth place.
The tournament champions, seeded second in match play, where never really threatened as they won their four matches by an average of 79 pins.
“We really bowled well,” said Tobey. “The whole day we stayed out of trouble. It always seemed that if someone made a bad shot, the other one picked the team up with a strike the next frame. It was definitely a team effort the entire tournament.”
The tournament runner-ups got knocked into the loser’s bracket early, but came up with some clutch shots when needed as they rolled all the way back to the title match. “We just ran into a hotter team,” Barker said. “We lost earlier in the match play to them also. We battled our way back to the final match but we just ran into a better team. Their anchor bowler (Rusch) struck on every shot in the championship match.”
The tournament used Baker system play, where teammates switched off bowling every other frame. Baker play was used for both qualifying and match play. The top sixteen teams advanced to a double elimination match play bracket. Match play consisted of a two-game team total with the highest score being declared the winner.
Rusch and Tobey became the fourth different team to win the Holiday Classic. Tournament Directors, Tony Demos and Tim Pickart won the inaugural tournament in 2005. Mark Clinton and Scott Dietrich won the title in 2006.
Last season, Team Somewhere won the title, 501-445, over Bob Hopp Jr. and Tony Jagdfeld.
The cut line was 1,300 to advance to match play competition.
Jesse Parentau and Craig Hull led the six-game qualifying block with a score of 1,438. Rusch and Tobey qualified second with a 1,410, while Norb Wetzel and Beth Blanck rounded out the top three qualifiers with a 1,396.
The tournament was a success this year as a record 48 participated in the event. The tournament directors thanked those involved with the annual event held each year at Parkway Lanes.
“We felt it was a good tournament,” Demos said. “All we are looking for is that it was a fun-based tournament and everybody from the scratch bowlers to the handicap bowlers will have fun doing it.
“I would like to thank Holiday Automotive for being the major sponsor of this tournament for the third consecutive year,” Pickart said. “I would also like to thank all the other fine businesses in the Fond du Lac area for making our tournament a huge success each year. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to offer the amount of prize money we do for this tournament.”