PLAZA BOWL

champs Cameron Smith & Taylor King

        Cameron Smith and Taylor King picked up JBT titles in our first visit to Prescott's Plaza Bowl in almost ten years.

        Aaron Foshie, fresh off his 21st birthday, opened the scratch division stepladder finals with a 183-161 win over Deven Johnston, who had the high game of the tournament with a brilliant 298.  Foshie then defeated Nick Lee 204-186.  Labriel Leach then edged Foshie 208-195 to advance to the title match.

        Top seed Cameron Smith struggled in the early games, but really caught fire late in the day, with a 775 semifinal set to roar into the top seed.  Smith was also fighting mental demons, having not won a title since December despite many title match appearances.  This time he was finally able to finish the deal, beating Labriel 234-211, good for the 19th win of his spectacular JBT career.

        Valry Swaim opened up the handicap division stepladder finals with a 187-180 win over Morgan Rapp, who continues to bowl amazingly well despite a foot injury requiring a cast and a boot.   Megan Carlson, improving since a bad knee injury of her own, then beat Swaim 238-205.  Taylor King then edged Carlson 191-190 in a thrilling semifinal that came down to an 11th-frame missed spare from Megan.

        Top seed KJ Martinez mirrored Cameron with a big semifinal set to jump into the lead.  Also like Smith, he's had trouble winning title matches lately despite previous success.  Unfortunately for KJ, unlike Cameron, his string continued, as King came up with a brilliant title game to beat Martinez 254-218, good for the 5th title of her excellent JBT career. 

        Mark Hugelmaier's amazing string of three consecutive titles came to an end, but not without a fight, as he recovered from a dismal first game to make the cut, and almost climb into the finals.  Both titlists threw Ebonite equipment for an extra $100 scholarship each, courtesy of our terrific title sponsor, and also picked up an extra $25 from Bowling Dynamics, a sponsor of all Arizona Conference JBT events.  This helped us award over $1800 in scholarships on the day- want in on all this fun and excitement?  Check out our schedule and come on down to the next JBT event, it's as simple as that!