WESTERN BOWL

champs Marshal Morrison & Jeremiah Martin

        Marshal Morrison and Jeremiah Martin each scored their first JBT victories in emphatic fashion, in exciting New Mexico - Texas Conference action at Amarillo's Western Bowl.

        Tom Crites, who had one of the many high games of the day with a 296 effort in qualifying, opened up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 209-204 squeaker against points leader Nick Lee.  Mason Edmondson, the previous day's champion in Lubbock, then defeated Crites 213-202.  Morrison then struck in the tenth frame to oust Mason in a thriller 256-249 to advance to the title match.

        Top seed Aaron Johnston fought fellow West Texas A&M teammate Morrison most of the day for the lead, but it was Marshal with the slightly better look in the title match, and the end result was a 223-202 win for Morrison, good for the first title of his JBT career.  That was only part of the day's highlights for Morrison, as he tossed a perfect 300 game in the fifth game of qualifying as well- what a day for him!  Ahkeen Williams scored the other perfecto of the surprisingly high scoring day.

        Zachary Wojociechowski, fighting for an Invitational bye, began a climb up the handicap division stepladder finals with a 223-184 win over Steven Acuff, who extended his record for career handicap top-5 finishes.  'Wojo' then defeated Cerra Strickland 245-226, and followed with a 246-218 win over previous day's champ Nick Lloyd to move on to the title match.

        It was a 'circle of life' title game, as top seed Jeremiah Martin, who lost to Lloyd (who had two previous second place finishes) the day before in Lubbock, now had a chance as a two-time runner-up himself  to beat one-time runner up Zachary for his first win.  It was quickly apparent that Martin would do just that, as he eventually strung the last eight strikes for a big 275-183 win over Wojociechowski for the first title of his JBT career. 

        Courtney Dutton ended a losing streak of her own, defeating top qualifier Christa Harvey 245-213 to captured the day's Impact Bowling Women's Series title.  It's her third win, officially qualifying her for the 2012 Girls TPC this July in Las Vegas.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Western for a wonderful job hosting our Tour.  Over $1,400 in scholarships were earned by bowlers of all ages and averages- want in on the fun?  Check out our schedule and come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple!