St. Ambrose University player Lucas Hersrud cruised to a win in the 2024 GIBA 11thFrame.com Open sweeper on Friday night at Cherry Lanes inside the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa.

Hersrud, who tied for second in the sweeper last year, totaled 1,194 for five games on the challenging pattern designed by famed lane pattern designer Nick Hoagland.

Brody Green was second at 1,150, Darin Bloomquist third with 1,142, Garrett Meadows fourth at 1,138, and Mike Kicmal fifth at 1,111.

The top five prizes were $500, $400, $300, $250 and $200.

Thirteen of the 52 players cashed, and Brenden Sramek was 13^th at 1,067 for $90.

Just 23 of the 52 players averaged 200 or better. This is the third straight year we have used the pattern we are using, last year 20 of the 52 players averaged 200 or better and in 2022 it was 23 of 60.

In total, the sweeper paid out $2,680, while the 52 entries at $50 totaled $2,600. The entry fees were $40 for prize money and $10 for lineage, with the rest coming from the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission and the Greater Iowa Bowling Association. Cherry Lanes takes no lineage fee in the tournament.

Full results and the full prize list are attached to this story as PDFs.

In 2023, Bloomquist won the sweeper with 1,179 and the last cash was 1,026.

In 2022, Shea Bittenbender won the sweeper with 1,315 and the last cash spot was 1,010.

In 2021, Clayton Mohr won the sweeper with 1,153 and the last cash spot was 978.

In 2020, Andrew Anderson won the sweeper with 1,288 and the last cash spot was 1,037.

Hoagland, who designs the patterns for USBC, offered Cherry Lanes director Bob Hochrein his expertise in crafting a shorter pattern than the pattern we used for several years prior to 2022 that was a modification of the 2015 U.S. Open pattern designed by Hoagland for USBC.

I earned Hoagland’s services by making a donation to the Make-A-Wish charity tied to the huge Hoosier Classic college tourney H2M Management runs in Indianapolis. (That was an offer he made to anyone.)

The pattern is 37 feet with 24.63 mL of Connect oil and pattern ratios by volume of 1.11-1 on the left and 1.66-1 on the right. 

Here is what Hoagland said about the pattern before last year's tournament: "I was glad to help the tournament out as Jeff was kind enough to make a donation to Make-A-Wish to help the Columbia 300 Hoosier Classic Bowling Tournament to grant wishes! Jeff, Bob and Joe wanted something different, and shorter, and it is a challenge! The pattern should play out for everyone and I do expect urethane to be in play. I think that the pattern will hold up for 12 games due to the fact that everyone’s ball will be outside of the first arrow at the breakpoint; thus saving the track and middle parts of the lane for later in the block.”

Qualifying for the 11thFrame.com Open is Saturday, the “Flanagan format” semifinals are on Sunday, and the stepladder finals follow about 4 p.m.

Mike Flanagan’s InsideBowling.com is webcasting the tournament.

Engelkes said there will be more than $4,000 in added money from GIBA sponsor Ebonite and returning sponsors the Dubuque Regional Sports Commission, Diamond Jo Casino, Cherry Lanes, IAMBowling, The Steen Team-Stride Bank-Structure Real Estate, and 11thFrame.com. 

My preview of the weekend is here.