SO CAL INVITATIONAL

champs Oscar Chan & Dustin Yauney; Girls champ Renee Gentry

        Oscar Chan and Dustin Yauney each earned $1,000 scholarships, while Renee Gentry pocketed the ladies' $200 top prize, as champions of the JBT Southern California Conference Invitational Tournament, hosted by Lakewood's Cal Bowl.

        After five games of qualifying on a tough pattern, the top 11 bowlers in each division, plus the top five season-long point scorers, advanced to exciting triple-elimination matchplay.  In the scratch division, red-hot Kyle Duster grabbed the top seed, but struggled early in matchplay.    He recovered to survive to the final six, though, and that round proved to be pivotal.  Kyle eliminated #12 Cortez Schenck, #2 Eric Hatchett ousted #10 Steven Acuff, and #7 Chan kept on rolling, eliminating #3 KJ Martinez to stay undefeated and get himself in excellent position to take it all.

        Now with three remaining, Hatchett earned a bye, while Oscar made a late-game comeback to eliminate Duster in third place, leaving Eric in the unenviable position of having to beat Chan three straight times to take away the title.  Game one was looking good for Hatchett until a late-game solid-10 and subsequent miss, allowing Oscar to win that match 212-188 and go a perfect 8-0 in matchplay for the win, $1,000 top prize, sixth career JBT title, and second career major to go with his 2013 Main Event title.

       Jozef Corwin cruised to the #1 seed for the handicap division finals, and survived until the final six, where he eliminated #7 Austin Gilbert.  Also in that round, #9 Yauney handed #15 Kyle Reed his second loss, and #16 Andrew Chan eliminated #13 Zack Long, whose sixth place finish was enough to lock up So Cal Bowler of the Year honors.

        With four bowlers remaining, Yauney dealt Corwin his third loss in a low scoring match, while Chan ousted Reed in a dramatic finish, leaving two-loss Andrew now having to beat one-loss Dustin twice to capture the title.  The first game between the two animated bowlers came down to the tenth frame, and Yauney threw another great shot to lock up the match and the tournament.  What a great time for Dustin's first career title, as he earns a $1,000 scholarship prize and a major JBT win.

        Correen Lieber snuck into the Girls Invitational with a win the previous day, and earned the top seed for the title match.  She stayed clean all game but couldn't catch a double, and second seed Rene Gentry took advantage, doubling in the tenth to seal a 210-188 win, the Girls Invitational title, and a $200 scholarship bonus courtesy of our great JBT sponsors.

        Thanks to Leonard, Juan, and the team at Cal Bowl for a great job hosting an exciting JBT weekend.  A terrific total of over $5,700 in scholarships were earned by the 87 qualifier field.  Want in on all the excitement?  Just check out our schedule at www.bowljbt.com and come on down to the next JBT event, that's all there is to it!