ARIZONA INVITATIONAL

champs Riley Dempsey and Ashley Lamb

        Riley Dempsey and Ashley Lamb each earned $1,000 scholarships as champions of the 2012 JBT Arizona Invitational, hosted and sponsored by Cactus Bowl in Tucson.

        After five qualifying games on a very demanding pattern, Curtis Lindeman grabbed the top seed for the sixteen-bowler triple elimination matchplay finals, and then cruised through five rounds with a 4-1 record.  Jakob Butturff stayed undefeated the longest, starting 5-0 and surviving through to round seven, where he gave Tim Jacob his second loss.  Also in that round, Lindeman stayed alive by eliminating Nick Lee, and Dempsey ousted Bryan Van Sickle in possibly the best match of the day, with both doubling in the tenth for a 243-236 final score.

        In round eight, Jakob eliminated Curtis, while Riley eliminated Tim, setting up a situation where Dempsey would have to beat Butturff twice to win the title.  Despite a tenth frame open in game one, Riley squeezed through with a 192-185 win, and that seemed to turn all the momentum towards him.  Dempsey won the second game easily to claim the title, the 15th of his outstanding JBT career.

       Gillian Coyle bowled great all day en route to the top handicap seed, and like Curtis backed it up with early round wins.  However, Lamb was lurking, knocking off opponent after opponent, staying undefeated through a round eight bye while Kristen Lee eliminated Coyle in third place.

        Lee, who has been like a big sister to the Lamb sisters (but beat Stacey for a title earlier this year) now had the unenviable task of having to beat Ashley three times for the title.  Like almost every other opponent Lamb faced, Lee picked a bad time to come up with one of her lower games, and Lamb cruised in the first game to sweep matchplay and win the tournament. She also break's sister Stacey's record as youngest JBT champion by just three days, at all of five years old.  We don't just say that any age can do well with us- we mean it!

        Kristen's runner-up performance was way more than enough to wrap up AZ JBT Bowler of the Year honors, however, her first B.O.Y. crown.  Meanwhile, Cameron Smith had an uncatchable lead going into the Invite to earn scratch Bowler of the Year, having already earned the same honor in Mojave and NM-TX this season- wow!

        Courtney Dutton defeated Jory Koizumi 212-183 to win the AZ Girls Invitational, and a $200 bonus from Women's Series sponsor Impact Bowling.  Both girls also made the finals in the regular scratch division.  It was Jory who dominated the conference all season long, however, earning AZ Girl Bowler of the Year.

        Thanks as always to Dale Schnell and everyone at Cactus, big supporters of JBT since season one, for another great job hosting us.  Thanks also to Bowling Dynamics and Advantage Bowling fort their season-long support of Arizona Conference JBT events.  Over $6,800 in scholarships were awarded to the field.  The top 20 point scorers now advance to the Touring Players Championship, and we start it all over again with season 17 September 1-3 at Cliff Castle!