TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

champs Russ Oviatt & Shauna Schultz

Oviatt, Schultz Capture JBT T-of-C Titles

        Russ Oviatt and Shauna Schultz topped large fields to capture titles at the JBT Tournament of All-Time Champions, hosted by Phoenix's Let It Roll.

        The event had perhaps the toughest lane condition challenge of the year, with the ultra-long Badger on the left lanes, and the ultra-short Wolf on the right lanes.  The current JBT champs, used to challenges like this every week on Tour, fared better overall than their adult alumni, with only 8 of 20 adult entrants making the first cut, and recent JBT graduate Lanndyn Carnate the only adult to make the finals.

        The rest of the stepladder finals consisted entirely of ASU bowlers, as teammates Jakob Butturff and Russ Oviatt squared off in round one, with Russ coming away with the 204-183 win.  Oviatt then took on Carnate, who won his last 3 JBT events as a 'junior', then won the Alumni event in December for a four-peat.  Gunning for his unprecedented fifth consecutive win, Oviatt was determined to not let that happen, and he successfully stopped Lanndyn's historic run with a 236-176 win to advance to the title match.

        Top seed Ben Canfield has been stellar in Arizona events this season, and showed once again that two-handers can be both versatile and accurate by topping the immensely talented field here.  The match started well for Ben with an early triple, but a 4-7-9-10 conversion from Oviatt seemed to flip the momentum completely around, as Russ started striking from there, eventually winning the title 234-197.  It's Oviatt's first JBT major win, and 4th career JBT title overall.

         So Cal's Shauna Schultz began the handicap division stepladder finals with a 204-183 win over Jopfel Gafate of Las Vegas.  Arizona's Stacey Lamb again showed that younger bowlers have no problem holding their own at our events by qualifying second, but Schultz just barely snuck by her 198-190 to reach the final game.

        Top seed Alexis Atkin has already had another excellent season, and was very impressive here- she would have easily been in the scratch cut, but was just as happy to grab the handicap lead in round five and not look back.  However, she struggled a bit in the title game, while Schultz just ground out mark after mark.  Shauna won the match 209-190 for the title.  It's the fifth win of her career, with three of those wins coming in majors (2013 TPC and 2011 So Cal Invite)! 

        Big thanks to all the adult JBT alumni who came out to bowl with today's JBT stars, as well as to Let It Roll for their usual fantastic hosting job.  Want in on all this fun?  Just check out our schedule and come on down- YOU can be a JBT champion too!