2006 Main Event Handicap Division

champ Kyle Karpovich and runner-up Haley Rubin

Kyle Karpovich, a JBT regular, picked a great week to come up with his best bowling ever, capturing the handicap division of the 2006 Las Vegas Main Event, presented by Ebonite International and the Junior Bowlers Tour.

After three days of qualifying, the field was cut to 66 for six tough matchplay games, after which the top 16 advanced to a unique finals.  Round one consisted of two four-way matches, with the high score from each match advancing.  In one match, #9 Jordan Harrington rolled a 234, enough to eliminate Mark Trudel, James Hawkins Jr, and Jeremy Throne.  In the other match, #16 seed Shayne Huntley, who snuck into the finals by one pin, kept the good luck going with a 226 that beat out Douglas Lai, Andrae Lara, and Zach Hattori to advance.

Round two consisted of two three-way battles.  In the top bracket, #6 seed Haley Rubin blasted a big 278 (with handicap) to eliminate Harrington (231) and #5 Christina Fraijo (201).  The other match saw a whole lot of strikes, and again it was Huntley who came up biggest, rolling a 263 to edge Evan Hayashi (239) and Julie Kawaye (224).

Down to conventional head to head matches in round three, Rubin defeated #4 seed and 2005 Main Event runner-up Logan Kennedy 234-181, while #3 Scott Englehart finally ousted Huntley 227-202.  However, Shayne's jump from 16th to 6th earned him an extra $580 in scholarships for a $700 payday.  

Round 4, the semifinals, saw Rubin get by top seed Spencer Dukes 215-203, while #2 Karpovich defeated Englehart 211-186.  

The finale saw a great battle between Rubin, a 7th grader on her town's high school bowling team, looking to avenge her big sister's semifinal loss in the Girls Scratch division, and Karpovich, whose high finish on tour was a 2nd place finish in the 2006 PBA Pro-Am.  Both bowlers were locked in the whole match, and in the end, Kyle's first strike in the tenth was enough for a thrilling 262-259 win, his first JBT title, and a whopping $2,200 scholarship bonanza, $200 of that coming from the Ebonite bonus for winning with an Ebonite bowling ball.   

Thanks again to Ebonite, as well as to Texas Station for a first-class hosting job.  In all, a tremendous $53,589 in scholarships was awarded to a 1,000+ entrant field.  Find all the Main Event results and learn more about the Junior Bowlers Tour at www.bowljbt.com, and we'll see you at Texas Station in 2007 for the next Main Event! 

For more info, feel free to write us at jbtsouthwest@aol.com.