SPLITS

champs Cameron Weier & Cortez Schenck with Women's Series champ Makayla Douglas

        Cameron Weier avenged the previous day's loss, while Cortez Schenck continued his tour-wide tear, in exciting Pacific Northwest Conference action at Kelso's Splits.

        In our popular 'survivor' format, equal numbers of bowlers are put on a pair after a 5-game qualifying round.  The low score from each pair is eliminated, and the process starts over until only one person remains standing.  In the scratch division, 24 survivors were eventually whittled down to eight.  In that round, Ryan Showalter eliminated Evan Pendergraft 246-225, Catherine Rawsthorne ousted Josh Mullen 211-196, Cameron Weier beat Tanner Spacey 203-160, and Tyler Cruz beat Jordan Ferrer 203-170, still giving the Nevada bowler his sought-after Pac NW top-5. 

        In the ensuing semifinal matches, Weier beat Showalter 259-212, and Cruz stopped Catherine's fine run 248-181 to set up the title match.  Cameron lost to Marshall Kent in the previous day's title match, but this time stayed in control the entire time, defeating Tyler 213-177 for the 9th title of his excellent JBT career.

        18 handicap survivors were carved down to six, and in the round of six, Bri Hemming beat Wesley Tobin 210-178, Schenck ousted Toby Shepherd 246-190, and Brittany Arndt, home from college, eliminated Arizonan Marina Stever 204-191.  This left three bowlers, and in the ensuing three-way round, Schenck's 224 and Hemming's 196 eliminated Arndt, with 181, to set up the championship game.  Hemming, who has come oh-so-close to JBT victory a few times in the past, stayed close with Cortez, but in the end he was too much.  His 219-203 win was good for his third JBT victory in three states in the last three months- wow!

    Makayla Douglas captured his first career JBT Women's Series title with a 204-186 win over Marina Stever in the Women's title match.  Makayla now has a chance to parlay that into a $500 bonus at the JBT Girls' Invitational this summer in Las Vegas.

    Thanks to everyone at Splits for a great job hosting a JBT event for the first time.  Over $1,800 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all ages and averages- if you want in on all this fun, just come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple!