PACIFIC NORTHWEST INVITATIONAL

champs Perry Crowell IV and Zoe Mahn

        Perry Crowell IV and Zoe Mahn each earned $1,000 scholarships as champions of the 2011 JBT Pacific Northwest Conference Invitational, hosted by Longview's Triangle Bowl.

        Jared McNeal led all five games of the qualifying round on a very demanding lane condition to earn the top seed for the 16-bowler, triple elimination finals.  He struggled early in matchplay with two straight losses, but rebounded long enough to get the round five bye.  Crowell, the #5 seed, did anything but struggle, cruising through six rounds undefeated.  Eventually only five bowlers remained, and in that round #2 Eddy Smith had the bye, while #8 Cameron Weier eliminated McNeal, and Perry kept rolling, this time handing Anthony Douglas loss #2. 

        In round eight,  Weier eliminated Douglas, and Crowell eliminated Smith, setting up an unenviable situation for Cameron where he'd have to beat Crowell three straight times to win the title.  What happened next was nothing short of spectacular.  After an opening split, Crowell started stringing, and he needed to since Cameron opened up perfect through seven frames.  Weier finally missed in the next frame, sparing in the eighth and ninth.  Meanwhile, Crowell extended to an eight bagger of his own- all this on a condition where 200 was plenty to win most matches.  Cameron

doubled in the tenth, meaning Crowell needed a strike and good count to swipe away the game and the title.  Perry calmly regrouped and shredded the rack, resulting in a 268-264 win (the two highest games of the whole tournament), a 9-0 sweep through matchplay, and his third title of the season.  He also locked up the points lead over Weier, but Cameron has the edge in titles 5-3, so it will be very interesting to see how Bowler of the year shakes out.  What an amazing finale by these two talented bowlers!

        Mahn qualified 12th for matchplay, and then caught fire, going undefeated through the first six rounds.  With six bowlers left in round seven, #10 Kelsey Abrahamsen eliminated #8 Thomas Nute, #6 Kolby Crowell eliminated top seed Vince Bachteler, who dominated qualifying, and #2 Becky Davidson stayed alive by finally handing Zoe her first loss.  In round eight, Mahn eliminated Abrahamsen, and Davidson eliminated Crowell, setting up a title match scenario where Becky had to beat Zoe twice to win the title.

        Davidson was up to the task, throwing a 200 scratch game to easily beat Mahn in the first game.  However, the deciding game went the other way, with 12 year-old Zoe hanging tough in a 224-193 win, earning the championship and the $1,000 scholarship windfall, increased another $100 since she won throwing Ebonite equipment.  She advanced to second in points with the win, which puts her right in the thick of the Bowler of the year hunt with points champion Bri Hemming.

        In all, just shy of $7,000 was earned by the 70 qualifiers for this prestigious event, an unequalled amount in youth bowling in the Pacific Northwest.  Thanks as always to the fantastic crew at Triangle for hosting us!  If you're age 21 and under, no matter what you average, you need to be in on this next season!  We start 2011-12 in late August, check out our schedules on our website, and be there!