41st Annual NYS Queens Championship -- RESULTS

Tournament Dates: Saturday, April 21, 2012

QUEENS OPEN DIVISION FINALISTS:  Holly Filarecki of Cheektowaga (Greater Buffalo USBC), second from left, won the NYS Queens Open Division championship Saturday at Sunset Lanes in Kirkwood (outside Binghamton). The victory was worth $1,000. From left are Mike Pettinella, NYS USBC Association Manager; Filarecki, runner-up Rebecca O'Donnell of Auburn (Auburn USBC WBA), and Pat Zonneville, NYS USBC President.

QUEENS CLASSIFIED DIVISION FINALISTS: Cathy Oakes, center, of Stormville (Westchester County USBC) captured the NYS USBC Queens Classified Division crown Saturday at Sunset Lanes in Kirkwood, earning $650. From left are Pat Zonneville, NYS USBC President; Oakes, and runner-up Saramarie Bukas of Blasdell (Greater Buffalo USBC).

Filarecki, Oakes Capture
NYS USBC Queens Titles

APRIL 26, 2012 – Holly Filarecki of the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga and Cathy Oakes of the Hudson Valley community of Stormville captured NYS USBC Queens Championship crowns Saturday in the Open and Classified Divisions, respectively.

Filarecki defeated Rebecca O’Donnell of Auburn, 203-178, in the title match of the Open Division to claim the $1,000 top prize, while Oakes upended Saramarie Bukas of Blasdell, 213-156, in the Classified (194-and-Under) title match to win the $650 first prize. Both are first-time Queens champions.

“I am still absolutely ecstatic,” said Filarecki, a 29-year-old right-hander who bowled on her high school team and at Erie Community College. “I started bowling in the local and state Queens tournaments about five years ago and have always wanted to win my first tiara.”

Filarecki was the No. 2 qualifier out of 85 entrants in the Open Division with 1,053 for five games, joining only high qualifier Judy Koester of Rochester on the "plus side" on the difficult 2011 USBC Queens oil pattern on the wood lanes at Sunset Lanes in Kirkwood, which is located a few minutes from downtown Binghamton.  She rallied in games four and five of the qualifying round with 280 and 245.

“I made a move right before the fourth game, and concentrated on keeping my feet slow and not muscle the ball,” said Filarecki, who has come back from a ruptured disk in her lower back that kept her out of action for the last half of the 2010-11 season. “On the lane condition out there, I knew that if I got fast, the ball was going nowhere.”

In match play (two games, total pins), she defeated Jodi Musto of Schenectady, 421-317, and Dianna Molenko of Bellmore, 359-354, to earn the No. 1 seed for the four-bowler stepladder finals. O’Donnell defeated Jenean Bailey of Albany, 232-146, and Robin Fredenburgh of Burnt Hills, 181-180, before facing Filarecki for the title.

Filarecki credited her boyfriend, Rich, and parents, Dave and Lynda, for their support and the late Kerm Helmer, longtime coach at Erie CC, for her success. She is employed as a licensed optician for Eye Care Professionals of Western New York.

O’Donnell won $600 for placing second while Fredenburgh earned $400 and Bailey $300.

Oakes Makes Up for Lost Time

Oakes started bowling at the age of 40, but has come a long way over the past dozen years – raising her league average to 190 and competing in local, state and national tournaments.

She said that capturing a Queens crown is “unbelievable.”

“I don't think it hit me until the next day when I started getting phone calls from family and friends,” she said. “I called my Mom Saturday night as I was leaving to head home to let her know how I did and apparently she starting making calls to everyone in my family at 9:30 at night!  Then I go to my local Dunkin Donuts Sunday morning and my Dad had told all the workers So, I was being congratulated from everyone there.  Someone posted it on Facebook and more calls and messages came in. That's when it really hit me!”

She qualified in the eighth (and final) position in the Classified Division, which had 40 entrants. From there, she defeated high qualifier Katie Dains of Blaisdell, 411-366, in match play, before facing Bukas for the title. Bukas had defeated Heather Kime of Caledonia, 194-146, and Lori Pientka of Baldwinsville, 200-166, in the first two games of the stepladder finals.

Oakes said the key for her was “keeping my head in it, not looking up at the scores and taking a lot of deep breaths in and out before I threw the ball.”  She and her husband own their own business, and they have one son who, according to Oakes, “likes to bowl just for fun.”