HARLEY'S SIMI BOWL

champs Brandon Wanders & Trevor Thompson

            Brandon Wanders and Trevor Thompson made the right adjustments to their high-rev games, capturing JBT titles in exciting JBT Southern California Conference action at Harley's Simi Bowl in beautiful Simi Valley.

            Bobby Hornacek led all five games of the qualifying round and had little trouble in matchplay as well, impressively beating both current Junior Gold champs: 420-376 over Cortez Schenck and 237-192 over Wesley Low, to reach the title game.  In the other half of the bracket, Wanders, the #2 seed, also rolled past two tough opponents: 455-419 over Derek Acuff, and 195-157 over Brittany Kolatzny, to reach his first JBT title match.

        Wanders, a two-handed player, used a plastic ball all day to stay in the zone the Cheetah lane pattern requires, and he had the better look for much of the title match as well.  However, Hornacek finished strong, forcing the non-winner to strike in the tenth.  Brandon pured the strike to win and thus he was a non-winner no more, with the 223-209 final earning him his first career JBT title.

        Mandy Arriolla earned the top seed for the handicap matchplay bracket, but she was upset in round one by #16 Megan Ober 361-358.  #8 Thompson then stopped Ober, and followed with a win over Michaela Buhain to reach the title game.  #7 Dawson Reese emerged from the bottom half of the bracket with wins over Ethan Wolfe, Samantha Lorenz, and 7-year old Ashley Soto, ironically (for those of you who followed college basketball's March Madness) making it a 7 seed versus an 8 seed for the handicap title.

        Reese struggled early in the title game, but Thompson, another high-rev player who switched down to urethane to combat the Cheetah pattern, was unable to put Dawson away by the time he finished his game.  With the daunting task of needing all three strikes to win, Reese did get the first strike, but when he couldn't get the next one, Trevor escaped with a 197-182 win, good for the 5th title of his JBT career.

        Kolatzny and Buhain's excellent days continued by making the Women's Series title match, and in that game, a strong finish from Brittany earned her the 212-196 win, and her second Women's Series title of the season.

        Thanks to the terrific crew at Simi for hosting out Tour for the first time.  Want in on all this fun for all ages and averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!