ARIZONA INVITATIONAL

champs Lanndyn Carnate, Samantha Sellers, and Kayla Goad

        Lanndyn Carnate ended a nearly nine-year JBT victory drought, while Samantha Sellers tasted JBT victory for the first time ever, each earning $1,000 scholarships as champions of the 2013 JBT Arizona Invitational, hosted by Phoenix's Let It Roll Bowl.

        Qualifiers were tested by two different patterns, the tricky Mexico City on the left lane, and the more scoreable Bourbon Street on the right lane, providing a great test of versatility.  Unsurprisingly, Kyle King grabbed the lead heading into the triple-elimination matchplay finals.  He did well, but eventually suffered his third loss in round seven, eliminated by Curtis Lindeman.  Also in that round, Oscar Chan gave Carnate his second loss, while Marina Stever, enjoying her best event of the season, eliminated Jakob Butturff.   Now down to four bowlers remaining, Carnate eliminated Stever, and Chan eliminated Lindeman, setting up a finale where Lanndyn would have to beat Oscar twice to win the title.

        Carnate won the first game from Oscar, and as often happens, that seemed to change the momentum squarely in Lanndyn's favor.  However, the title match went back and forth until the end, and after Chan finished, Carnate needed the first hit in the tenth to win it all.  Lanndyn stepped up and got a light hit to carry, earning the 203-181 win and the title.  Amazingly, Lanndyn's last JBT singles win was in September of 2004, thus ending a victory drought of pretty epic proportions.

        Kayla Goad led a large crowd of female bowlers who performed well at the event (10 of the 16 handicap finalists were female), but was up and down a bit in matchplay, eventually eliminated in round eight by Anthony Dang.  In simultaneous action, Sellers eliminated Dominic Luna, and Zach Rapp came up with the high game of the whole tournament, a brilliant 288, to give Keith Fung his second loss.

        In the next round, Sellers stayed alive by beating Rapp, while Dang eliminated Fung, but the gutsy fourth place finish was enough to pass Alexis Atkin for the season-long points lead, and thus the Bowler of the Year award.   Samantha earned a bye with her win, and she stood by as Anthony eliminated Zach in what amounted to the semifinal match.  Now facing Anthony for the title, a determined Sellers was able to beat Dang 223-207, earning her first career JBT title and the $1,000 windfall.

        Goad got her revenge in the Girls Invitational title match, defeating Alexis Atkin (who along with Kayla averaged over 200 in qualifying), earning the Girls' Invite title, and a $200 scholarship bonus courtesy of Impact Bowling, the title sponsor of the JBT Women's Series.

         Thanks as always to the terrific crew at Let It Roll for hosting our events.  Nearly $6,000 was awarded to bowlers of all averages and ages!  Want in on the most fun (and lucrative!) youth bowling events anywhere?  Get over to the schedule page of our website, www.bowljbt.com, and come on out to the next JBT event, that's all there is to it!