Dias Wins First PBA Title in Florida

After four seasons competing on the Professional Bowlers Association Senior Tour, 
Mike Dias of Lafayette, CO, captured his first title by winning the PBA Senior Don 
Carter Open Thursday at Carter Family Bowl.

Dias defeated Tom Howison of Chillicothe, Ohio, 215-176, in the championship 
match after winning five previous matches Thursday to get to the final. Two of 
those matches were against PBA Hall of Famers Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, 
FL, and Mark Williams of Beaumont, Texas.

“The toughest part of the whole day was definitely having to beat two Hall of 
Famers in back-to-back matches,” said the 54-year-old Dias who works as a 
software engineer for the Boeing Co. “You could say it was a dream match against 
Walter Ray having to throw two strikes to beat him.”

In the Round of 8, Dias defeated PBA Hall of Famer and two-time Senior Tour 
winner Mark Williams 2-1 in a best-of-three-game match, and then in a semifinal 
match defeated Williams Jr. who was also last season’s Senior Rookie of the 
Year, 222-213, to advance to the championship match.

“I had a feeling the scores would be low in the final match,” said Dias who has 
one PBA regional tournament title to his credit. “It was going to be a matter of 
which one of us adjusted the quickest.  After the previous two matches I was 
actually pretty relaxed for the final so I just made the best shots I could and 
whatever happens, happens.”

In the other semifinal match, Howison, a third-year Senior Tour Player also 
looking for his first win, defeated 2009 Senior Player of the Year Ron Mohr of 
Eagle River, Alaska, 173-138.

The next stop on the PBA Senior Tour will be the Sun Bowl In The Villages at 
Spanish Springs Lanes April 23-26 in The Villages, Fla. Final-day coverage of 
the Sun Bowl In The Villages will be available on pba.com’s Xtra Frame video 
service. Additional information can be found by visiting the pba.com homepage 
and clicking on the Xtra Frame logo.