AE Leagues - Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout

Congratulations 2026 Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout Top Finishers.

So many great performances, I couldn't dare call them all out.

Hill/Hill, Tie-Breakers, Come Backs, and more.....

In the Main Events, the Top Finishers are as follows:

Women's Teams:
1st - Hot Pockets
Jody Fritzinger, Leslie Williams, Sandy Travis, Stacy Shubert
2nd - American Hustler
Jessica Frideres, Jody Peckham, Kalli Lee, Mackenzie Cuda

Open Teams:
1st - Norfolk Shooters
Brody Kelley, Dorian Oberqfell, Joe Kepford, Travis Hanson
2nd - 3 Young & 1 Old
Anthony Asher, Kyle Loehnig, Jimmy McClellan, John Hipes

Singles Winners:
Open Master - Dustin Gunia
Women's Master - Mackenzie Cuda
Open Intermediate - Zerek Price
Open Advance - Matt Heitman
Open Regular - Brandon Coble
Women's Regular - Leslie Williams

*** SINGLES BRACKETS HAVE BEEN MADE PUBLIC ***

ALL Divisions begin at 9am. Even if you do not have a match at 9am, we recommend you're there and available to play. There's always some No Shows that will result in the next matches being called right away.

The brackets will run on continuous play, so always be ready for your next match.

I look forward to seeing you all out there.

Shoot Well, and Good Luck

We are excited to see this year's players for the 2026 Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout. Join us at the Sandhills Global Event Center located at 4100 N 84th Street, Lincoln, NE.

Please search your name on Compusport to verify you are registered. Players will see the start time of their registered event. Singles brackets will be made public on Wednesday but please make your plans based on the scheduled start times.

Team brackets will be made public after teams check in on Friday.

Find the bracket here or through the Compusport App to recieve notifications as brackets go live.

CompuSport - 2026 Great Plains 8 Ball Shootout Tournaments and leagues manager / Gestionnaire de tournois et de ligues sportives

🎱22nd Annual Great Plains 8 Ball Shootout🎱

Where: Sandhills Global Event Center Lincoln, NE
When: January 23-25, 2026
Contact your Operator for sign up information

What a weekend we had at the Sandhills Global Event Center with the AE Leagues - Great Plains 8 Ball Shootout.

Over 600 players, adults and junior alike, showed up to compete. There was drama abound every step of the way while the Open Teams division whittled it's way from 127 Teams down to the Final 2 Teams shooting in the Finals Sunday afternoon.

The Gash Hounds captured the Hot Seat, then waited for the Outlaws to come back from the B Side for one EPIC Finals match. The Outlaws forced a second set, and held a lead through the first three rounds, but the Gash Hounds didn't quit, forcing a Final Game, providing Mike Dempsey the chance he needed. Mike delivered in the clutch, including a kill shot on the One Ball that left the onlookers in awe. Mike finished the game, delivering the victory over to the Gash Hounds in an incredible come-back fashion(47-21 over the final 5 games).

The Ladies bracket delivered drama of a different variety. That which was one of domination. The Pooh Bears finished undefeated, rarely needing to even play the final game of the match.

Congratulations to all the players, and thank you for your part in an absolutely amazing event.

Team Finishers:
Open Teams:
1st - Gash Hounds/NTS
Chris Manning / Mike Dempsey / Kodey Lee / Austin Donaldson
2nd - Outlaws/AE Leagues-NE
Jim King / Perry King / Randy Reid / Jeff Hudson
3rd - IIWII/Gams RR Biz
4th - American Hustler Gotta Have It/NTS

Womens Teams:
1st - Pooh Bears/NTS
Jessica Frideres / Mackenzie Cuda / Trish Vermule / Jodi Peckham
2nd - Hot Mess/NTS
Mandy Hatfield / Carrie Diemer / Donelle Heirs / Mariah Budlong
3rd - FUBAR/NTS
4th - Hot Flashes/AE Leagues-NE

Singles Finishers
8 Ball:
Open Masters: 1st - Jay Gall / 2nd - Dustin Gunia
Womens Masters: 1st - Jessica Frideres / 2nd - Mackenzie Cuda
Open Intermediate: 1st - Matt Tillman / 2nd - Austin Donaldson
Open Advanced: 1st - Travis Hanson / 2nd - Mike Calhoun
Open Regular: 1st - Chris Stapleton / 2nd - Richard 'Chip' Thomas
Womens Regular: 1st - Jodi Peckham / 2nd - Donelle Hiers
9 Ball:
Open/Rated: 1st - Jay Gall / 2nd - Rylan Yoder
Womens/Rated: 1st - Valerie Dukich / 2nd - Becky Albright

LOD 8 Ball Scotch Doubles(37 teams)
1st - Cory Lang / Jamin Walters
2nd - Shara Cutler / Jordan Lammerts

The 21st Annual AE League Great Plains 8 Ball Shootout is upon us, and all the singles match times & match ups have been made public.

Friday, the doors open at 8am, the Tournament starts at 9am. Even if you don't have a match time scheduled for 9am, make sure you are there by 9am. No Shows can always result in additional matches moving into the 9am time slot. If you have a match time of 9:45am, your match will not be called at 9am due to a no-show. It will be 9:45am, depending on table availability.

As a reminder, if you have a TBA as your opponent, you need to plan on showing up at that time. You could potentially have an opponent, or it could end up being a bye.

We look forward to seeing everyone there. I know we're in for some great competition.

Great Event News x2.

1. Sandhills Global and AE Leagues have worked together to help with the cost of the event for the players. Pricing overall is being reduced, in addition to drink and food specials that will be offered throughout the event. We don't have the exact specifics, but we're very pleased they have listened and are making changes in food and drink pricing.

2. Payouts have increased and are higher than ever. This is in thanks to Accel Entertainment Nebraska and AE Leagues support.

On Saturday, doors open at 7:30am, matches begin at 8:30am.

To the Winners of each Singles Division, we have an announcement.

You will receive a FREE ENTRY for singles, at the 2025 AE Leagues - Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout

Open Master - Tom Bender
Womens Master - Valerie Dukich
Open Intermediate - Jake Stollar
Open Advance - Todd Sisco
Open Regular - Aaron Bell
Womens Regular - Mackenzie Cuda

The Top finishers in each singles division will also be moving up a division for your Great Plains Singles rating. This will not move up your Midwest rating, it only effects Great Plains.

Top 3 in OIS will be rated OMS, for Great Plains.
Top 6 in OAS will be rated OIS, for Great Plains.
Top 16 in ORS will be rated OAS, for Great Plains.
Top 6 in WRS will be rated for WMS, for Great Plains.

This does not effect your current rating for Midwest.

The Future Looks Bright, thanks to these great playing Juniors. We were excited to see so many young players come out and compete in the game we love.

Great job kids, we look forward to watching your game grow, and watching you each grow as a person as well. The game can teach us much about patience, competitiveness, compassion, sportsmanship, handling adversity, humility, work ethic, and so much more.

Here's to our Top Finishers:

Majors: 16yrs - 20yrs
1st - Zerek Price
2nd - Devon Straum
3rd - Kyren Koch
7th/8th - Jadyn Yoder - Top Female Finisher

Minors: 12yrs - 15yrs
1st - Perry King
2nd - Alex Spry
3rd - Caden Koopmans

Youth: 7rs - 11yrs
1st - Logan Albright
2nd - Joel Smith
3rd - Bryson Vanek

Junior families, if you have any pics you'd like added to this collage, please FB message them to AE Leagues FB Messenger.

As the 2024 AE Leagues - Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout comes to a close, we want to highlight the weekends winners.

We were treated to some amazing play, and dramatic finishes. Including the young team, Dream Crushers, winning the final 8 games of match, erasing a 40+ point defecit, and securing the win with a B & R.

Congratulation to all placers, it was a tough field, and required great play along with endurance.

Team Play:
Open Teams:
1st - Gotta Have It
2nd - All the Smoke
3rd - IIWII
4th - Crushers

Womens Teams:
1st - Shenanigans
2nd - Steve O's Shark Bait
3rd - Luna Chicks

Singles:
Open Master:
1st - Tom Bender
2nd - Bob Andrews
3rd - Cale Coffey

Women's Master:
1st - Valerie Dukich
2nd - Janelle Melohn
3rd - Julie Nielson

Open Int: (picture not found😕)
1st - Jake Stollar
2nd - Matt Helms
3rd - Travis Mayo

Open Adv:
1st - Todd Sisco
2nd - Kirk Spearman
3rd - Derrick Scoular

Womens Reg:
1st - Mackenzie Cuda
2nd - Sherri Cuda
3rd - Molly McGuire

Open Reg:
1st - Aaron Bell
2nd - Steve Hinders
3rd - Chris Harper

LOD Scotch Dbls:
1st - Joe Brown / Andrew Leppert
2nd - Bronson Kidwell / Shawn Strahan
3rd - Clayton Jones / Leah Goldberg

9 Ball Mens:
1st - Shawn Cepurnieks
2nd - Jeremy Albright
3rd - David Belitz

Ladies 9 Ball:
1st - Sherri Cuda
2nd - Nancy Lacarbo
3rd - Becky Albright

Lot's of planning, drawing, unloading, pushing, pulling, bolting, washing, tipping, dropping, distributing, aligning, levelling, and whole lot more goes into getting things set up and ready for The AE Leagues - Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout.

A huge thank you to all that contributed along the way.

I'd say it was a HUGE success, and we're looking forward to the next one.

We are excited for the 2024 AE Leagues - Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout. The brackets are now live on Compusport. Please remember that all players must have the Compusport App on their phones to keep score and advance matches during team events. Players must also have Compusport to advance their matches and keep score during singles. The Great Plains Tournament is 100% paperless including all team score sheets.

Please note that we expect minimal changes at this point. However, we will continue to work through any unexpected changes throughout the week. Singles events start at 9am Friday morning. If you have a time scheduled within your match you should expect to have a table assignment. All other matches will be scheduled as tables are available, but please be present at 9am for Open Regular, Open Advanced, Open Intermediate, and Women's Regular singles. Women's Masters will start at 9:45am and Men's Masters will start at 11am.

You can check out the brackets through the app or online by following this link:

CompuSport - 2024 AE-Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout Tournaments and leagues manager / Gestionnaire de tournois et de ligues sportives

The 2023 19th Great Plains 8-Ball Shootout made history with almost 700 of the best players in the Midwest region. Thanks to the Midwest Association and Accel Entertainment for helping this year's event make history by adding more than $4,000 to the event. A big thank you to all of the players that continue to support this event and made the travel arrangements to join us. So many faces we get to see a few times throughout the year and it is truly a pleasure.

Thanks to the tournament directors, refs, setup and tear down crew for all of your long hours. The job doesn't pay well but I really appreciate your willingness to help make this happen. Please join us in Sioux City for the Midwest 8-ball Championships in April. Join the Midwest Association page to keep in the loop.

Cheers all!