SURF BOWL

champs Austin Thompson & Gael Egana

        Austin Thompson and Gael Egana each pulled off title match upsets to claim JBT titles in exciting JBT Southern California Conference action at Oceanside's venerable Surf Bowl.

        Wesley Low began the scratch division stepladder finals with a 257-146 win over Joe Grondin.  Thompson then snuck by Low 212-204, and in another thriller snuck by Cortez Schenck 192-189 to advance to the title match.

        Top seed Nick Pollak had rolled 279 in qualifying and then 278 in the semifinals to take over the lead, and appeared to have a good look on the increasingly squirrelly pair.  However, Thompson, who had the highest game of the day with a 299 in qualifying, built a big lead mid-game.  An eleventh frame solid-8 derailed a great comeback effort from Nick, and with the 212-205 final score, Austin claimed the 5th title of his JBT career.

        Egana snuck in as the #5 seed for the stepladder finals, then began a climb to victory with a 222-202 win over Maikayla Villa.  Egana then poured it on in a 256-215 win over Tre Mitchell.  In the semifinal he took on Trevor Thompson, who has had a lot of JBT success at Surf, but this time it was Egana escaping with a 204-198 win, advancing him to the title match.

        Top seed Marguerite Evans has been having a fantastic season, and this looked to be her best chance yet to finally break through for that first JBT title.  A low scoring match came down to the final frame, and when Marguerite missed a 4-pin, it was heartbreak for Evans but relief for Gael, as Egana pulled out the 197-190 win, and the second title of his JBT career.

        Ashley Dunn defeated Randi Speiler in the day's Women's Series match 187-163 to claim the girls' crown and extend her points lead in that category.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Surf for hosting our event.  Want in on all the fun?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!