CACTUS BOWL

champs Russ Oviatt & Chad Alexander, with runner-up Daryus Alo

        Russ Oviatt and Chad Alexander claimed JBT titles in exciting Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl in Tucson.   

        El Paso bowler Andrew Esparza began the scratch division stepladder finals with a 216-172 win over Aaron Yamamoto.  Ben Canfield then blasted a big game to defeat Esparza 154-192.  Russ Oviatt then came up with a rare Dutch 200 in a 200-184 win over Canfield to advance to the title match.

        Jakob Butturff used a 278 closing game in the semifinals to leap into the tournament lead, and managed to save two 'mulligans' for the title match.  However, Oviatt had been ultra conservative and had all four do-overs he earned in the unique format throughout the day.  He must have figured Jakob would put up a big number because he used his first mulligan on an 8-count first frame.  That played a big part in the end, because the game got very bizarre at the end.  On four in a row, Russ left a bucket and used muligan #3 only to get worse with a 6-7-10, which he again mulliganed, and ended up with an even worse 2-8-10, which he missed to open the door for Butturff.  As he almost always does, Jakob took advantage with a double, but an 11th frame bucket of his own, with only two on the fill, gave Russ a chance to fill 20 in the tenth to tie- but he'd have to do it on the lane he completely lost last time.  Somehow, Oviatt dug deep and struck on the first ball, ensuring a 219-211 win, and a hard earned fifth career JBT title.

        Elijah Melchor, already a winner this season at Tri City, began the quest for another handicap title with a 193-190 win over Jarred Starr-Moncayo.  Melchor then got past Celeste Valdez 249-211, but fell in a tight seminal match to Chad Alexander 207-201, and Chad moved on to the title match.

        Top seed Daryus Alo again proved any age can do well with us, as the talented 8 year-old stayed steady all day and grabbed the tournament lead after game eight.  However, he struggled a bit in the title match, and the veteran Alexander was able to take advantage, winning the match 218-181 for a long awaited first career JBT title.

        Valdez avenged her stepladder loss with a 177-152 win over Abby Franklin to capture the day's Women's Series title, the first of the season for Celeste.

        Thanks as always to Dale and the crew at Cactus for a great job hosting us.  Want in on all the excitement?  Just come on out to the next JBT event, that's all you have to do!

Cactus Bowl- final results and scholarship winners
10/25/2014    
     
  Scratch Division  
rank bowler prize
1 Russ Oviatt $200
2 Jakob Butturff $110
3 Ben Canfield $60
4 Andrew Esparza $40
5 Aaron Yamamoto $20
6 Matt Zweig $60
7 Anthony Inzetta  
8 Dallas Leong  
9 Ricardo Mendoza  
10 Josh Franz  
11 Bryan Van Sickle $5
12 Nick Pollak  
13 Wesley Low  
14 Cam Lamson   
15 Matthew Redmon  
16 Josh Demick  
17 Max Polhill  
18 Patt Intarakamhang  
19 Keith Fung  
20 Robert Douglas  
21 Ken Chruschinski  
22 Anton Ebenal  
23 Josh Fearing  
24 Tim Jacob  
     
  Handicap Division  
1 Chad Alexander $200
2 Daryus Alo $100
3 Elijah Melchor $60
4 Celeste Valdez $50
5 Jarred Starr-Moncayo $40
6 Rashaad Jordan $90
7 Abby Franklin $100
8 Kendra Edgett $15
9 Dante Rohe  
10 Bex Boyko $29
11 Rachael Berg $15
12 Nikolas Hoganson  
13 Samantha Sellers  
14 Phillp Sauve $15
15 Kyle Ponzo $15
16 Paul Colyer $15
17 Joshua Beckett  
18 Trishelle Leal  
19 Keith Ylvisaker  
20 Gillian Coyle  
21 Aaron Coleman  
22 Sebastian Polhill  
23 David Rohe  
24 Brenden Hoganson  
25 Destiny Johnson  
26 John Newton  
27 James Burke  
28 Tony Edgett  
29 Ryan Zent  
30 Cassie Collins  
31 Phillip Romero  
32 Matthew Adragna  
33 Rob McClelon $10
34 Ace Ebenal  
35 Vanessa Romero  
36 Sarah Halligan  
37 Zach Rapp  
     
  High Games  
  Scratch Handicap
1 Butturff 278 Moncayo 278
2 Yamamoto 277 Boyko 257
3 Esparza 257 Valdez 253
4 Canfield 257 Melchor 249
5 Canfield 254 Melchor 249
  Leong 254  
     
  High Female  
1 Franklin -152  
2 Valdez -157*  
3 Coyle -175  
4 Boyko -186  
5 Berg -193  
     
  Round Leaders  
  Scratch Handicap
1 Yamamoto Valdez
2 Yamamoto Alo
3 Butturff Alo
4 Yamamoto Alo
5 Oviatt Franklin
6 Oviatt Moncayo
7 Oviatt Valdez
8 Butturff Alo
     
  Total Awarded This Event: $1,249