Cactus Bowl

champs Kyle King & Travis Johnson, with a pyschedelic pickle

    Kyle King finally won his first title of the season, while Travis Johnson picked up win #3, in exciting JBT Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl.

    Strikes were the name of the game today, as the house conditions resulted in three 300 games on the day, tossed by Riley Dempsey, Aaron Foshie (in a triumphant return to JBT action) and Hydeia Pennington, who joins a rare group of handicap division bowlers to fire a perfect game.   After winning a tiebreaker for the 5th seed over Chris Varholdt, Matt Herbert opened up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 235-189 win over Tim Ursillo.  Herbert then rolled past Dempsey 236-207, before King stopped Matt 206-162  to advance to the title match.

    Top seed Chris McHenry had retaken the lead from King with a big final game to lead a JBT event for the first time.  Both bowlers found the right lane of the title pair to be tricky, and after Chris finished with an even 200, Kyle needed spare-strike to tie, and a strike on the first shot to win.  After making a change in the 8th frame, King zeroed in in the tenth and threw the strike for a 209-200 victory, and his 32nd career JBT title.

    A high scoring handicap stepladder finals began with Cassie Collins edging Kyle Smith 249-243.  Cassie then cranked it up even higher for a 259-200 win over Rane Lacona in round two.  Johnson then stopped Collins 244-207 to reach the title game for the first time this season.

    The handicap division had been all about Marina Stever all day long, who had not only the best day of her JBT career, but one of the best starts in JBT history, as her +298 5-game total was the third-best all time, and the highest we've had since 1999- wow!  She slowed down a little bit in the semifinals but still easily nabbed the top seed, however she had her hands full with Johnson, who was coming on strong.  After a struggle early, both bowlers started stringing strikes late in the game, but it was Johnson who kept the string going, throwing the back six strikes for a 254-227 win.  It was Travis' third JBT title, having won one in each season of his career so far.

    Foshie and Pennington felt the impact of the Impact Challenge, picking up $25 scholarships each as winners of that contest- visit Impact at 99th Ave & Bell in Phoenix for a great pro shop experience!   

    Thanks to Dale Schnell and the team at Cactus for another great job hosting us.  Over $1,400 in scholarships were awarded- want in on the fun?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple!