Leisure Bowl

champs Matt Helmick & Joseph Trujillo

    Matt Helmick and Joseph Trujillo captured JBT titles in exciting New Mexico-Texas action at Albuquerque's Leisure Bowl.

    Many bowlers scored well on the Leisure house pattern, and after 5 games, the top 16 bowlers in each division advanced to our 'pick-yer-poison' matchplay portion, where higher seeded bowlers choose their own opponent and play in best 2-of-3 matches.  All 4 handicap division top seeds had the antidote for the poisons they picked, as #1 Robert Sample, #2 Brandon Gill, #3 John Yoder, and #4 Dillon Farfan all won opening matches.

    Sample looked untouchable in round two as well, sweeping #7 Brad Harvey, as did Yoder with a sweep of #8 Robbie Garcia.  #11 Trujillo upset Gill, though, 2 games to 1, and Farfan ousted #8 Kelly McNeil 2-1.  Down to single game semifinal matches, Yoder beat Farfan 247-221, and Trujillo ousted Sample 231-194, setting up the title match.  In that finale, Joseph bowled a solid game to overcome Yoder 238-209, capturing his first career JBT title.

    Top scratch division seed Nick Lee made sure to defend his seed no matter who he chose with a 299 first game of matchplay that helped him beat #13 Jacob Gill in round one.  #2 seed Tim Crites, who dominated the rest of qualifying, was unable to cure the poison of #11 Alex Yoder, who swept him out 2-0.  #16 Jacob Wright also survived, ousting #5 Danny Cobine in two straight.  Wright kept the momentum going in round two, upsetting top seed Lee 2-1 (when we the last time that a 16 seed beat a 1 seed in round TWO of a 16-person bracket??).  Also, #4 Helmick beat #6 Roger Johnson, #3 Paul Carper beat Yoder, and #7 Jacob Smith defeated #12 Ryan Scheer.

      Now down to single game round of four matches, Helmick stopped Wright's run 236-215, while Carper blasted a big 269 to defeat Smith and advance to the title match.  In the finale, Matt, back on Thanksgiving break from Wichita State, was able to stop Carper 214-193, and claim the second title of his JBT career.

    Thanks as always to the crew at Leisure for a great job hosting our Tour, which awarded over $1,300 in scholarships on the day to bowlers of all averages under age 22.  Want in on the fun?  Check out our schedules and come on down to the next JBT event, it's that simple!