Springfield pool team wins Inaugural Ultimate Pool League National Championship

SPRINGFIELD–Back in November, the “8 Runners Southbound” 8-ball team, from Southbound Billiards, in Springfield, Missouri headed to Cherokee, North Carolina hoping to do their best against roughly 50 teams, from around the country, in the Inaugural Ultimate Pool League 8-ball National Championship.

Turns out, their best, was THE best of all the teams, and they won the title and $100,000 prize money.

Kyle Burne, Toney Kemp, Gene Wineland, Robert Conrad, Ronnie Jones, and Travis Whaley each split the money and received individual trophies to commemorate their incredible accomplishment.

“Other than my kids being born, this has to be up there, man,” said 8 Runners Southbound member, Travis Whaley. “I mean it truly is amazing. The money was great, but being able to be the inaugural champions you couldn’t ask for anything more. Bringing home that trophy was the best thing.”

The entire event took roughly a week, with the team first having to beat out other teams in their group stage. Once they qualified for the main field, they put their skills into overdrive and advanced all the way to the championship match, which pitted them against a team from St. Louis. Thus, making it a true, Show-Me State showdown.

“Ultimately, going into it as amateurs, you never expect to win a national championship,” said Gene Wineland. “So it was exciting all the way.”

“To have an all-Missouri final I think it puts Missouri on the map and it shows we have true pool players and competitors in the sport,” Whaley said. “And I think the world knows that now.”

For Kyle Burne, the thrill of winning the first-of-its-kind tournament was sureal, but so was being able to watch and learn from the sport’s top players.

“There were tons of pros there,” said Kyle Burne. “That was really exciting for me. Getting to see my idol, Shane Van Boening. A lot of the pros that were there, they were taking a lot of the amateur players, like myself, under their wing.”

While each member of 8 Runners Southbound played their part to contribute to the win, Robert Conrad walked away with extra bragging rights, over his teammates, since he also won a singles national championship at the event.

“I didn’t go into this thinking it was ever going to happen,” said Robert Conrad. “I was gonna be happy just to participate. But being a two-time national champion, the funnest thing for me is being able to put my name into Google, do an AI search and find out about myself.”

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