AMF TEMPE VILLAGE

champs Jakob Butturff & Kristen Lee

        Jakob Butturff and Kristen Lee provided an appropriate bookend to the 2011-12 Arizona Conference regular season, earning JBT titles in exciting action at AMF Tempe Village Lanes.

        Tim Jacob, having an excellent spring, opened up the scratch division finals with a 257-164 win over Joe Lewandowski.  Jacob stayed hot in match two, defeating previous day's champ Derek Acuff 256-187.  All-time titles leader Kyle King then lofted his way to a 243-222 win over Tim to reach the title match.

        Top seed Butturff took over the event in game three and never looked back.  He has had a knack in his young career at beating some of our top veteran stars, and he showed no fear here either, beating King 227-214 for the win, the fourth of his JBT career.

        Jake Hilton opened the handicap division stepladder finals with a 210-194 win over Kyle Bunce.  Jake then got by Ryan Rhoades 217-169, and followed with a 224-222 thriller over his cousin KJ Martinez to climb the ladder to the title match.

        Top seed Kristen Lee, already the points leader coming into the weekend, took an enormous step towards Bowler of the Year by leading the event here, and solidified that claim with a powerful 244-203 win over Hilton for the third title of her JBT career.  Jakob and Kristen both won at Cliff Castle to start the year, and amazingly pulled off the double-win here again to finish the year.

        Lee also won the day's Impact Bowling Women's Series event with a 210-192 win over Jory Koizumi, her fourth Women's Series win of the season.

        As exciting as those wins all were, they were just part of the fun on the day, as Dominic Luna broke the nearly nine-month PowerBowl dry spell by correctly predicting 10-7-5 on his three shots, capturing the $1,000 PowerBowl jackpot!  The backup jackpot was already at $1,000, so you can still win a grand just for showing up at JBT events!       

        Ninety-eight bowlers now advance to the Arizona Invitational, featuring a $1,000 top prize in each division.  Thanks to the whole crew at Tempe Village for hosting us for the first time in four years.  Nearly $5,000 in scholarships were earned over the weekend!