CENTER CITY LANES

champs Cortez Schenck & Krista Casaus

        Cortez Schenck reached a career milestone, while the Casaus kids kept in it the family, in exciting JBT NM-TX action at Roswell's Center City Lanes.

        In our 'rising tide' format, after the usual five-game qualifier, more and more bowlers are eliminated each round as the 'tide' rises higher and higher.  With a short turnout in scratch, that put a premium on getting out to a good start, and Cortez Schenck rose to that challenge, going +219 in qualifying to build a 147 pin lead with only three rounds coming up.  That lead could easily evaporate in three games if Tez got tight, but he cruised along with 600 for his next three games, more than enough to hold off second place finisher Braxton Williams (+136) and win the title.  It's the tenth of his JBT career, becoming the 28th, and youngest by far, bowler to reach that lofty milestone!

        In the handicap division, 17 bowlers made the cut, meaning one bowler would be 'caught' by the rising tide after game one, then two more, then three, until only the winner hasn't been swept away.  In round five, seven bowlers remained, but five would be swept away, leading to a dramatic round of bowlers clawing to get into the final two.  Krista (+192) and Tyler Thames (+185) claimed those spots, while Manny Rivera (+175), Sophie Diaz (+172), and qualifying leader Josh Demick (+161) rounded out the top five.

        This created essentially a title match with Krista getting seven pins, and she needed almost all of them, as Tyler came up with a 231 handicap game to get to +216, but Krista blasted a 231 of her own, boosting her to +223, maintaining the seven pin margin of victory for the title.  It's the first of her JBT career, joining sisters Kyla and Kara as JBT champs, leaving only 3261783458 more Casuas kids to try to win a JBT event.