Grand Finals: Cousins wins last match of marathon week in Cherokee
The final ball of the week dropped at 1:16 a.m. — closing a festival that made Margaret Fefilova-Styer a three-time champion and paid out league pool's biggest-ever cheque.
CHEROKEE, N.C. — Tom Cousins beat Tyler Styer 6-5 in a hill-hill final to close the 512-player National Open — the last match standing at the 2026 Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals, wrapping a week that repeatedly ran past midnight at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort.
The National Open title match finished at 1:16 a.m. ET on the official DigitalPool bracket — more than three hours after it broke off. It was Cousins' second final of the week after a 5-4 loss to Oscar Dominguez in the National Shootout, and it denied Styer the last piece of a family sweep: a little over three hours earlier, his wife Margaret Fefilova-Styer had closed the women's programme with a 6-1 Women's Open final win over Skylar Hess.
The week's champions
Fefilova-Styer leaves as the festival's standout — three titles across the week: the Women's Shootout on Monday, the National Pairs alongside her husband on Friday, and the Women's Open on Sunday. Nobody else at Cherokee won more than once.
The biggest cheque went to Rack Of Ages, who beat Amigos 25-17 in an 8-Ball Teams final that ran nearly 12 hours overnight for $112,000 — the largest top prize in league pool history, from a $282,000 purse. Armstrong All-Stars took the 10-Ball Teams title 23-7 over In The Stroke Of Time, closing a night that turned on the comeback of the week: 9-3 down to Syndicate in the semifinal, through 16-15.
Dominguez won the National Shootout 5-4 over Cousins; Joven Bustamante took the 10-Ball Showdown 5-3 over Shane Van Boening; Ashley Benoit and Chris Melling claimed the Mixed Pairs 6-2 over Avah Weems and Dominguez; Cohen Bradford won the Junior Open.
The moments that made the week
- The marathon. The 8-Ball Teams final broke off at 8:13 p.m. Saturday and finished on Sunday morning — the richest match league pool has staged.
- The comeback. Armstrong All-Stars trailed Syndicate 9-3 in the 10-Ball Teams semifinal and won 16-15 — the hinge of their $35,000 title.
- The family double that almost was. Fefilova-Styer won three titles; Tyler Styer stood one rack from a fourth, beaten 6-5 in the week's very last match.
- The near-misses. Van Boening was runner-up in both the 10-Ball Showdown and the National Pairs; Benoit lost Monday's Shootout final and left with the Mixed Pairs title; Cousins lost a Wednesday final and won the last one of the week.
Why it matters: The Grand Finals remain the richest week in league pool — but beyond the $112,000 headline, Cherokee produced a dominant individual week from Fefilova-Styer and a flagship open that needed a hill-hill decider past 1 a.m. to find its champion.
Results via the official DigitalPool bracket, confirmed by BilliardNews and Ncue Media.
