TRIANGLE BOWL

champs John Jordan & Kyle Hays

        John Jordan and Kyle Hays took two different routes to avoid the 'rising tide' and capture JBT titles to wrap up 2012 in the Pacific Northwest Conference at Triangle Bowl.

        In the rising tide format, after the qualifying round, one game is bowled with the lowest overall total eliminated, then another game with two eliminated, and so on until the 'tide' carries all the bowlers away.  Jordan easily qualified first after qualifying, and didn't let anyone catch up as his next five games were all over 220.  With a 107 pin lead going into the final game, John tried to make it interesting with a shaky title game, but the only one of the other three survivors to string in the final game was 4th-place Josh Mullen, whose 265 game jumped him into second, but couldn't catch Jordan, who earned the 3rd title of his JBT career with the win.  Tyler Porter finished third, Connor Jackley finished fourth, and Makayla Douglas, who also won the day's Women's Series event with a 245-236 win over Courtney Couch in a terrific match, finished fifth.

        The handicap division was a different story, as Sebastian Polhill used a 211 scratch game to lead the qualifying round, but he slowed down a bit in the semifinals, getting caught by the rising tide in round four.  Meanwhile, Nick Bruketta snuck in as the last bowler in the cut, then exploded in the rising tide rounds to jump all the way into the lead heading into the last game. 

        Nick, Kyle Hays, and Josh Alvarez were all within 33 pins of each other going into the final, and Josh's 210 was solid, but not enough to catch up to the others, and he settled for third.  The winner was determined by the final frame, as Nick doubled for a 196 finish, but could only watch as Hays struck in his tenth frame for a big 237 which was just enough to leap over Bruketta and win the title, the fourth of his JBT career.

        Ebonite balls were offered to anyone who could bowl 279 or over, but even though there were 13 games of 250+, nobody could break through for the ball winning score- thanks as always to Ebonite for the support and the offer!

        Thanks as always to Beau and the great staff at Triangle for hosting our Tour?  Want in on the unequalled fun and excitement?  Come on our to our next event, it's that simple!

the "rising tide"!