MAHONEY'S SILVER NUGGET

champs Brandon Donnelly and Ray Griffith

The Junior Bowlers Tour Southwest conducted it's 10th Mojave tournament of the season recently at Mahoney's Silver Nugget Lanes in North Las Vegas.  Brandon Donnelly topped the large field of 37 scratch bowlers and Ray Griffith made a great switch to the handicap division as both bowlers earned their first career JBTSW titles.

The finals of the high scoring event were done using a different format than the normal "top 5" stepladder.  The top 8 bowlers after eight games of qualifying were seeded into a single game elimination style bracket.  This format added some more excitement and was well liked by the bowlers.

The high scoring started right out of the gate as Donnelly scored a 266 to take an early lead while Griffith rolled 275 to lead the handicap division.  Donnelly would not lead again as Philip Schwartz strung the front 10 for a big 289 in game two.  This would turn out to be Schwartz' SECOND highest game of the afternoon as just two games later he improved on that by shooting a 297 leaving the 3-6-10 on his bid for perfection.  Philip would end qualifying with a 1232 for five games for a 246+ average.  In the meantime, Griffith kept toppling pins at an astounding rate shooting 1156 for his qualifying round (231 average), well above the 180 average he keeps at the Nellis AFB.  Before beginning the tournament, Griffith, who had previously bowled in the scratch division, decided to use the pins he would get in the handicap division.

In the scratch division elimination finals, Theo Douthit beat John Ailstock 187-173 and Raoul Saiz took care of Steven Archer 170-159 in round one.  Both bowlers would take advantage of their wins by upsetting the #3 and #4 seeds.  Douthit ousted first time finalist Matt Cossey 226-183 and Saiz won 200-187 when his opponent Steven Clemence split in the tenth frame.  In semifinal matches, Schwartz, the #1 seed, needed a mark in the tenth frame to slide by Douthit's late 5 bagger 230-217 while #2 seed Donnelly had an easy time against a tiring Saiz, winning 232-170.  The championship match between Donnelly and Schwartz turned into a lopsided affair, however, as Donnelly strung 7 strikes to upset the veteran Schwartz 246-194.

In the first round of the handicap division finals, Chris Price would take care of Sasha Black 186-156 while Jenna Graydon snuck by Sonny Szilard 208-189.  In round two Price would upset #3 seed Matt Raagas 187-153.  At the same time, Logan Kennedy, making his return to bowling after a broken wrist during the summer, upended Graydon 229-186.  Matches became very tight in the semifinals.  After leading all day, Griffith needed a mark in the tenth frame to take care of Price 198-189 while Kennedy eeked out a win over #2 seed Steven Slivka 223-221 when he failed to strike on his fill ball.  Both Kennedy and Griffith performed well in the championship match, Griffith getting the edge 226-213.

In the point standings, it was a good day to move closer to the leaders for many bowlers.  The top 3 bowlers in the scratch division and the top 9 (!) bowlers in the handicap division failed to make the finals.  The tight handicap race became even closer as dozens of bowlers can easily reach the coveted fifth place position with a good performance or two.

Special thanks to Michael Ashley at Bowlers Discount Pro Shop inside Silver Nugget Lanes for donating a double ball roller won by Brandon Ramirez.  The Storm bowling-ball-of-your-choice raffle was won by Bryce Hackney.  Many thanks also to manager Anthony Primm for hosting another successful JBTSW event at Silver Nugget Lanes.

The JBTSW Mojave Conference will be conducting back-to-back events at Suncoast Bowling Center on February 6 and Sam's Town February 13.  For all the details or to receive information on how you can get involved with the best junior tour in the west, check out the Junior Bowlers Tour Southwest website at www.JBTSW.com or call director Mark Feiner at 702-375-9285.

 

Silver Nugget- final results and optional scholarship winners
1/23/2005
Mojave Conference
	Scratch Division
rank	name	city, state	score	prize
1	Brandon Donnelly	Lake Havasu City, AZ	p 169	$215
2	Philip Schwartz	Oro Valley, AZ	p 169	$210
3	Theo Douthit	San Diego, CA	p 100	$70
4	Raoul Saiz	Las Vegas, NV	p 73	$50
5	Matt Cossey	Henderson, NV	p 152	$80
6	Steven Clemence	Las Vegas, NV	p 112	$30
7	Steven Archer	Las Vegas, NV	p 64	$20
8	John Ailstock	Laughlin, NV	p 64	$20
9	DJ Sloan	Las Vegas, NV	p 60
10	Nathan Panaligan	N. Las Vegas, NV	p 53	$15
11	Emily Ornelas	Phoenix, AZ	p 46	$35
12	Nick Lindsey	Las Vegas, NV	p 44	$45
13	Christian Jensen	Chandler, AZ	p 28	$15
14	Brandon Watts	Lake Havasu City, AZ	p 10	$15
15	Heather Brown	Las Vegas, NV	m 39
16	Adam Reynoso	Las Vegas, NV	m 64
17	Bobby Sherman	Las Vegas, NV	m 77	$15
18	Carl Winder	Las Vegas, NV	m 91
19	Cayson Coyle	Las Vegas, NV	m 20	$30
20	Tiffany Chi	Prescott, AZ	m 70
21	Jerad Faulkenborg	Las Vegas, NV	m 76
22	Chris Ingram	Phoenix, AZ	m 76
23	Jessica Hetkowski	Las Vegas, NV	m 81
24	Tom Anderson	Chandler, AZ	m 92
25	Justin Spurrier	Las Vegas, NV	m 92
26	Brandon Faulkenborg	Las Vegas, NV	m 94
27	Tony Martinez	Las Vegas, NV	m 117
28	Andy Reynoso	Las Vegas, NV	m 126
29	Bobby Majdanski	Las Vegas, NV	m 129
30	Chris Kagawa	Las Vegas, NV	m 140
31	Jerimiah Wiltfang	Lake Havasu City, AZ	m 141
32	Brandon Davis	Las Vegas, NV	m 151
33	Brandon Allred	Las Vegas, NV	m 152
34	Angelica Tanate	Las Vegas, NV	m 164
35	Eddie Schaub	Las Vegas, NV	m 192
36	Ryan Johnson	Las Vegas, NV	m 194	$15
37	Chris McCloskey	Las Vegas, NV	inc card
	Handicap Division
rank	name	city, state	score	prize
1	Ray Griffith	Las Vegas, NV	p 275	$265
2	Logan Kennedy	Las Vegas, NV	p 110	$100
3	Steven Slivka	Las Vegas, NV	p 131	$60
4	Chris Price	Las Vegas, NV	p 81	$50
5	Matt Raagas	Las Vegas, NV	p 128	$40
6	Jenna Graydon	Las Vegas, NV	p 110	$45
7	Sasha Black	Fort Mohave, AZ	p 110	$35
8	Sonny Szilard	Fort Mohave, AZ	p 98	$50
9	Casey Bybee	Las Vegas, NV	p 93	$15
10	Felicita Hernandez	Las Vegas, NV	p 74
11	Steven Ashley	Las Vegas, NV	p 68	$30
12	Jeremy Bellflower	Las Vegas, NV	p 66
13	Hannah Chipman	Las Vegas, NV	p 52	$15
14	Taylor McKenrick	Henderson, NV	p 52	$30
15	Walker Newman	Las Vegas, NV	p 36
16	Alesha Pannier	Lake Havasu City, AZ	p 29
17	Nick Seghetti	Las Vegas, NV	p 22
18	Bryce Hackney	Las Vegas, NV	p 15
19	Jordan Ferrer	Las Vegas, NV	p 14	$15
20	Troy Graydon	Las Vegas, NV	m 10
21	Erika Mox	Las Vegas, NV	p 15
22	Nick Lamek	Las Vegas, NV	p 14
23	Jason Majdanski	Las Vegas, NV	p 14
24	Zack Newman	Las Vegas, NV	p 13
25	Merrill Hill	Las Vegas, NV	m 20	$10
26	Brandon Dauphinais	Las Vegas, NV	m 22	$15
27	Krysta Nadeau	Las Vegas, NV	m 41	$15
28	Garrett Lowery	Las Vegas, NV	m 42
29	Shane Peck	Riverside, CA	m 51
30	Zach Hattori	Las Vegas, NV	m 54
31	Brandon Ramirez	Las Vegas, NV	m 57
32	Allie Ijams	Mission Viejo, CA	m 64
33	Sean Stephens	Las Vegas, NV	m 64
34	Melanie Griffith	Las Vegas, NV	m 66
35	Andrew Gottlieb	Las Vegas, NV	m 66
36	Breezy Sharma	Lake Havasu City, AZ	m 80
37	Maddie Pellegrino	Henderson, NV	m 80
38	Samson DuPaul	Las Vegas, NV	m 101
39	Darcie Staggs	Bullhead City, AZ	m 135
40	Danielle Guidone	Las Vegas, NV	inc card
Cuts: scratch -40, handicap +16
Storm Ball Winner: Bryce Hackney
2-ball bag winner, courtesy Bowlers' Discount Pro Shop: Brandon Ramirez
TOTAL AWARDED THIS EVENT: $1,667.