MOJAVE INVITATIONAL

champs DJ Sloan & Jeremy Cardines

            DJ Sloan won his third consecutive Invite, while Jeremy Cardines looked like he could win 30 consecutive matches, each capturing $1,000 scholarships as champions of the 2011 JBT Mojave Invitational tournament, hosted by Gold Coast Bowling Center.

            A very long pattern from the 2008 Team USA Trials was meant to challenge the bowlers, but the talented field completely ate them up, with it taking over a 220 average to make the 16-bowler, triple elimination finals field in scratch.  Ryan Howard destroyed qualifying by averaging over 240 to earn the #1 seed, but struggled in matchplay, eventually finishing in 12th place. 

            By round six, only eight bowlers remained, and in that round, Jakob Butturff (one of 3 bowlers to toss 299 games at the event) eliminated Cameron Weier, Dan Hansen eliminated Curtis Lindeman, Jordan Katz beat Brad Hansen, and Dallas Leong handed Sloan his second loss.  In round seven, Sloan and Butturff eliminated the Hansen brothers, while Katz beat Leong.  Sloan then gave Katz loss #2 (with ahis 299 game- Zack Hattori had the third)  and Leong eliminated Butturff, and in round nine Katz eliminated Leong, setting up the title match with Sloan.

            Katz must have had a bad sense of deja-vu by the middle of the title match, as DJ started with the front six against him.  A 7th frame open gave Jordan momentary life, but DJ recovered with another string, eventually winning the match 248-201, and earning the $1,000 top prize.  Wininng one Invitational is impressive enough, but this triumph marks the THIRD consecutive Mojave Invitational win for the now 7-time JBT champion.  He is only the third bowler in JBT history to win three Invitationals, and the first one ever to win three consecutive- congratulations DJ!

        The handicap division triple-elimination bracket was as topsy-turvy as it gets, with the top four seeds all going 0-2 in their first two matches, an unprecedented circumstance that gave #5 Steven Acuff the first bye in round five.  Eventually eight bowlers remained by round six, and in that round Cardines beat Acuff, KJ Martinez eliminated Brittany Kolatzny, Paul Huether eliminated Jhared Gonzalez, and Luke Jordan eliminated James Gabour.  In round seven, Martinez eliminated Acuff and Jordan eliminated Huether while Cardines had a bye.  Cardines then eliminated Jordan two rounds later, setting up a title situation where KJ had to beat Jeremy three straight times to win.

            As good as KJ has been in major tournaments (not to mention all season long), he, like everyone else, had no answer for Cardines, who had by far the best day of his JBT career in steamrolling past the field.  His 237-213 win over KJ in the first game completed the 9-0 matchplay sweep, giving Cardines the well-earned first title of his JBT career and the $1,000 windfall.

            Thanks as always to Gold Coast for a great job hosting out Tour.  Over $6,000 in scholarships were earned by the 69 Invitational qualifiers.  The top 20 in Mojave points now advance to the 2011 JBT Touring Players Championship, August 5-7 at Strike ZOne.  The 2011-12 JBT Mojave Conference season begins in September.  If you'll be age 21 and under, check out our schedule, spread the word, and come on out to the most exciting tournaments around!