MOJAVE DOUBLES

champs David Haynes & Chase Nadeau, and Austin Signoretti & Nathan Hanuscin

        Two Las Vegas-based teams topped large fields to capture JBT titles in the annual JBT Mojave Doubles Classic, hosted by The Orleans.

        Teams warming up for the holiday college tournaments and plenty of adult stars, combined with an extremely challenging lane pattern, produced possibly the toughest regular season scratch field of the year.  Perry Crowell IV and Tyler Cruz, Washington state bowlers who both attend Midland University in Nebraska, opened up the scratch division Baker-format stepladder finals with a 183-159 win over northern California teammates Daniel Barrs and Travis Hewitt.  Perry and Tyler (both on the Pac NW JBT all-star team last season) rolled on with a 196-177 win over 8-time champ Aaron Foshie (from Arizona) and Jordan Plunkett (another former Pac NW conference all-star).  A thriller of a semifinal saw adult star David Haynes get exactly the 9 pins in the tenth he needed for him and youth partner Chase Nadeau to beat Crowell and Cruz 201-200, moving them on to the title game.

        Top seeds Kyle King and Zack Hattori looked like an awfully formidable team on paper, and they lived up to the hype, totally dominating the tournament, both of them among the very few players to average over 200 on the day- an amazing feat given the strength of the field. They looked good at the start of the title game, going spare-triple, but Nadeau and Haynes would not give up, countering with a mid-game five-bagger of their own that proved to be too much for Kyle and Zack to overcome.  Chase and David ended up winning the game 221-204, good for the second title of Chase's JBT career, and a big $400 scholarship payday.

        West Texas A&M bowlers Aaron Johnston and Priscilla Red opened up the handicap division stepladder finals with a 184-160 win over Pahrump's David Lewallen Jr and Zahn Bouder.  Aaron and Priscilla then defeated the father-daughter team of Breana and John Singleton 210-192.  A lower-scoring semifinal match saw the junior-junior team of Marguerite Evans and Shelby Dempsey beat Red and Johnston 159-156 to reach the title match. 

        Incredibly, this is the third title match of the annual 'December Doubles' for Evans and Dempsey, having made the finals at the So Cal doubles two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the Arizona Doubles last week in Phoenix!  Unfortunately for them, those title matches proved to be losses, and the same fate was in store against top seeds Nathan Hanuscin and Austin Signoretti.   The no-thumb Vegas friends led the tournament after all seven rounds, and stayed in control in the title match as well, winning the tournament with their 186-134 victory.  It was the second career JBT win for Signoretti, and first of Nathan's career.

        Over $3,500 in prizes were awarded to bowlers of all ages and averages.  Thanks to all the JBT alumni and other adults who took the time to bowl with today's JBT stars.  Want in on all this fun?  Check out our full 2012 schedule at www.bowljbt.com, and come on out to the next JBT event, that's all there is to it!