TRIANGLE BOWL

champs Tanner Spacey & Thomas Nute

        Tanner Spacey and Thomas Nute wrapped up the JBT Pacific Northwest Conference regular season with exciting wins in terrific action at Longview's Triangle Bowl.

        Current points leader Perry Crowell IV opened up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 202-195 squeaker win over Makayla Douglas, who is on a roll in the spring swing.  Spacey then stopped Crowell 226-189, and followed with a 234-207 win over John Jordan to advance to the title game.

        Most of the top players made the Kegel Route 66 pattern seem easy as they carved out hook and hold on the oily pattern, and none better than top seed Marshall Kent, going +403 on the pattern.  Spacey, meanwhile, tried to win his first title just last month in Milwaukie, but had a problem with his thumb slug that erased those hopes.  There was no such bad luck for Tanner here, though, who showed a new confidence in a commanding 234-204 win, good for the first of what could very well be many titles in his JBT career. 

        The handicap division had a weird scoreboard, with the top 5 finishers way ahead of the rest of the field (6th place finisher Khalid Lucas was over 150 pins behind!).  The ultra-high pace of just those five was illustrated by Kara Lieber, who led most of the day, but a 190 game eight effort dropped her all the way from 2nd to 5th.  She righted the ship in game one of the finals though, beating Connor Jackley 264-191, and earning an exemption in the next day's Invitational in the process!  Andre Calipes, returning to form after "ca-lipping" his hair much shorter, then beat Lieber 224-214.  Arizona powerhouse Cortez Schenck then crushed Calipes 269-181 to advance to yet another title match in his amazing 2011.

        Top seed Thomas Nute bowled in the handicap division to consolidate his standing for the TPC, and obviously made the right choice.  He also had the high game of the entire tournament with a 299 (leaving a solid-8) during qualifying, and rode that momentum to the #1 spot.  However, the whole Tour knows by now that "Tez" is a tough customer.  This time, though, Schenck ran into some over-under problems on the changing lane pattern, and Nute was able to just keep it on cruise control, easily winning the game 262-177 to capture the 4th title of the talented lefty's JBT career.

        Thanks as always to the staff at Triangle for a top-notch job hosting our event, which awarded over $1,300 in scholarships.  The field is now set for the Pac NW Invitational, where over $6,000 in scholarships will be earned by the 2010-11 qualifiers.  Be sure to check out the results on this website and youtube!