ISLETA FUN CONNECTION

champs Harley Sweigart, Bree Vargas, & Mateo Gonzalez

        Three bowlers made big statements with wins in exciting JBT NM-TX Conference action at Isleta Fun Connection near Albuquerque.

        Previous day's champion Jacob Marquis began an attempt at a weekend sweep with a 250-189 win over Yarelis Alvarez to open the handicap division stepladder finals.  Points leader Mateo Gonzalez, who has Marquis right on his tail, then played a huge match with season-long implications, with Gonzalez coming out on top 238-202.  Mateo then got past fellow Texan Stephen Dunn 218-188 to advance to the title game.

        Top seed Mariana Garcia used a huge game to begin the second round to jump into a lead he never relinquished.  However, he struggled in the title game a bit, and Gonzalez was not in a charitable mood.  Mateo slammed the first six strikes in a big 257-212 win, earning the third title of his JBT career.

        The scratch division used the 'double nervewracker' format, which has proven to be very exciting in its first few iterations, and this time proved no different.  Twelve semifinalists were knocked down to four, and in that round, Harley Sweigart, who earlier blasted the only 300 game of the day, kept on rolling with a 247, while Bree Vargas rolled 216, just squeezing out safety over bottom two scorers Brandon Jaramillo (215) and Brad Harvey (198), who now had to deal with a one-shot rolloff to stay alive.  Brad came up with a 10-8 win in teh nervewracker to advance to the final three.

        Sweigart then left no doubt he'd be the lone safe bowler, blasting 268, while Brad again survived a nervewracker, knocking out Bree in third place, and leaving Harvey and Sweigart to do a best-of-3 "double nervewracker" for the title.  It can be panic-time for a bowler as dominant as Harley was all day to suddenly have his title hopes come down to the variance of just one ball, but Sweigart was more than up to the task, winning 10-8 and 10-7 in two straight rolloffs to win the title, the 12th of his JBT career.

        Bree's excellent day continued in the girls title match, where she defeated Adel Wahner for the day's girls title, officially qualifying her for the Girls TPC this July, while Adel expanded her all-conference girls points lead.

        Thanks as always to Isleta for hosting our Tour.  Want in on all this fun for all ages and all averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down, that's all you have to do!