GLENFAIR LANES

champs Riley Dempsey and Maura Swaim

            Sometimes, it's all about the mohawk.  Riley Dempsey and Maura Swaim (hair)styled their way to JBT victory in exciting Arizona Conference action at Glenfair Lanes.

            Kayla Goad opened the 8-person handicap division stepladder finals with a 220 game that edged fine efforts from Danny Varholdt (216) and Andrew Nicla (213).  Goad improved to 240 next game, but it wasn't enough as Savannah Carr came up with 253 to beat both Kayla and Michael Bonkowske (223).  The semifinal match was even more high-scoring, as Swaim fired a huge 267 and needed all of it to beat Carr (241) and JD Sweet (257), advancing Swaim to her first career title match.

            Top seed James Adams was enjoying his best JBT event, taking over in the semifinals to grab the top seed.  However, Maura has never thrown the ball better than she did today, and remained determined in the title game.  When she spared a 3-pin in the tenth, Swaim locked up a 213-201 win and her first career JBT title.

            The scratch division used our new, wildly popular 'pick your poison' format, where the higher seeded bowlers chose their own matches in the finals, rather than having seeding automatically determining opponents.  Top seeds did fairly well in round one, as #1 Matt Herbert chose #14 Sam Amaral and swept 2-0, while #2 Kyle King struggled against #16 Zach Simon but survived a great game three 247-236.  Dempsey, the #9 seed, began his run of upsets with a 2-0 win over #3 Charlie Goulet that included a 279-279 tie (won by Riley 10-7 in the rolloff).

            In the round of eight, Herbert swept #4 Labriel Leach, Dempsey ousted #7 Nick Lee 2-1, #5 Deven Johnston upset King 2-1, and #6 Chris Varholdt edged #11 Jeff Williams 2-1.  Down to four bowlers, Johnston upset Herbert 203-201, while Dempsey took care of Varholdt 235-188, to set up the title match.

            By now, nobody wanted any part of Dempsey, but Johnston is an underrated bowler with a ton of talent, still looking for his first title.  However, Dempsey was simply not to be denied, and his 233-203 win was good  for his 4th career JBT title.  He'd like to thank Kurtis Pual for the support.

            Anthony Benicki and Justin Givler felt the impact of the Impact Challenge, picking up $25 scholarships each courtesy of Impact Bowling, at 99th and Bell in NW Phoenix.

            Thanks to the great folks at Glenfair for another great job hosting us- they are an extremely generous, accommodating center that really values quality youth bowling.  Over $1,800 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all averages- want in on all the fun?  Check out our schedule and come see us at the next JBT event, it's that simple!