NM-TX INVITATIONAL

champs Cortez Schenck, Correen Lieber, and Jarred Starr-Moncayo

    Two Arizona bowlers and a Washingtonian earned JBT major titles, capturing their divisions of the NM-TX Invitational Tournament, hosted by Skidmore's Holiday Bowl.

    Schenck put an exclamation point on an already amazing season by capturing his first career major title to go with his previous 34 JBT victories.  After Jacob Gill led the qualifying round as the only bowler to average over 200 on the extremely demanding two-pattern test, Cortez took over, going 6-0 before earning a bye in round seven.  While he had the bye, Correen Lieber eliminated Danny Cobine by handing him his third loss, while Bree Vargas did the same to Ryan Gose.  Schenck then eliminated Vargas, leaving the one-loss Lieber and undefeated Schenck to play each other until someone lost for the third time.  It took the minimum, as just like everyone else, Correen had no answers against Cortez, who won two straight games to finish off a 9-0 sweep of the talented field and the Invitational title.  Correen's runner-up finish is still the highest by a female in Invitational history (with Bree's now second highest!).

    Andrea Griego continued her excellent weekend by leading the handicap division qualifying round.  She fell quickly in triple-elimination matchplay, but still jumped from 33rd at the start of the weekend into the TPC cut line at 17th place!   The 12 girl and 4 boy finalists were whittled down to two of each by round eight, and in that round Isziah Zuni eliminated Skylar Maldonando, and Jarred Starr-Moncayo ousted Morgan Ellis, setting up a title match situation where Jarred had to win two straight from Isziah to capture the title.  Whether it was nerves, exhaustion, or the brutal two-pattern setup, the ensuing matches were mistake-filled on both sides.  Starr-Moncayo squeezed out the first game with a mark, and again needing just a spare in the tenth frame of the second game to win it all, converted a 2-pin by about the width of the coat of paint on the pin, but it fell, and he claimed his second Invitational title in eight days, having also won the Arizona Invitational last weekend!  Zuni's runner-up finish was enough to capture Bowler of the Year honors however, holding off charges from both Ellis and Jonah Seawright.

    Since Correen and Bree did so well in the main tournament, the Girls Invitational title game was held after everything else was over, but lots of people stayed around to watch two very good storylines play out: Bree needed to win to pass her sister Sara for NM-TX Girls Bowler of the Year, while Correen needed to win to pass Alexis Atkin for the all-conference points lead.  Despite a big split conversion late in the game from Vargas, Lieber was able to escape with the win, a $200 bonus from Impact Bowling to go with her $500 runner-up prize in the main tournament, and her third consecutive Girls Invitational tournament win this season- wow!

    Thanks as always to the crew at Holiday for a great job hosting our Tour!  Over $5,000 in scholarships was awarded to the talented field of all ages and averages.  Want in on all the fun and excitement?  Just check out our schedule and come on down, that's all there is to it!