STARLIGHT LANES

champs William Entsminger & Tylor MacPhee

        Two bowlers at the opposite ends of their JBT careers picked up titles in exciting NM-TX Conference action at Starlight Lanes.

        The two Crites brothers have been enjoying JBT success, so they figured they'd bring in a third, and Danny Crites joined the party with a 241-203 win over Matt Helmick to open up the scratch division stepladder finals.  Crites rolled on in round two with a 247-209 win over Nick Lee, who had dominated the qualifying round.  Entsminger then stopped Crites 237-178 to reach the title match.

        Top seed Jess Gagliardi had taken over when Lee slowed down, and has had great title match success against Entsminger in the past.  It looked like it may continue here, as William missed an easy spare in the first.  Entsminger responded in a big way, stringing strikes from there.  Jess's 9th frame solid-8 ended any suspense, and in the end Entsminger won the game 203-184 for his 3rd career JBT title.  When William does win, he tends to do it in a big way, and the win, plus throwing an Ebonite ball, plus a big bracket haul, resulted in a $400-plus payday in a relatively small tournament.

        Andrea Jaramillo opened up the handicap division stepladder finals with a 219-197 win over fellow Santa Fe bowler Sophie Diaz.  Andrea then got past Tanya Paris 229-199, and followed with a 224-193 win over Brandon Hamm to reach the title match.

        Top seed Tylor MacPhee, at just 7 years old, had a chance to become one of our youngest winners ever, and led 6 of the 8 rounds en route to the top seed.  However, the 21 year-old Jaramillo was looking to cap off a good JBT career with a long awaited first JBT title.  It was a close match, but two marks in the final three frames sealed the deal for MacPhee, who won the game 218-203 for the win.  The joy of handicap is 'any age, any average', and this match may be the best illustration ever of that, and that such parity can be fun, fair, sportsmanlike, and exciting for all!

        Thanks as always to the crew at Starlight for a wonderful job hosting our event, which awarded over $1,300 in scholarships.  Want in on the fun?  Check out the schedule and come see us at a JBT event soon, it's that simple!