STARLIGHT LANES

champs Cortez Schenck & Kallista Fritts

        Cortez Scheck and Kallisa Fritts had dream days en route to capturing JBT titles in exciting New Mexico-Texas Conference action at Santa Ana Casino's Starlight Lanes.

        Tyler Masterson opened up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 217, eight pins behind Braxton Williams' 225, but he still had a chance to win because it was 'endless tenth' format- because Masterson struck on his fill ball, he had the chance to keep going, thus needing one strike for the win.  He couldn't get the hit, though, and Williams advanced.  Derek Acuff then beat Williams, 208-188.  Ahkeen Williams then defeated Acuff in a thriller, 235-231, to set up the title match. 

        Top seed Cortez Schenck had already had a landmark day, rolling 300-802 the first three games to open up a huge lead that nobody could catch up to.  The 800 ties James Hawkins for our youngest ever, at age 13, to shoot the huge number.  He started off just as strongly in the title game, running the first five before eventually finishing at 248.  That left Williams in the unenviable position of needing to strike on his fill ball to trigger the endless tenth, where he'd need a daunting seven strikes to catch up to Tez.   The 9-count on the fill ball made it all academic, as Ahkeen could only finish with 187, giving Schenck the 11th title of his JBT career.

        Dontae Ruiz opened the handicap division stepladder finals with a 234-185 win over Morgan Ellis, a finalist two weeks ago in Roswell.  In a terrific second game, Alex Benavides edged Ruiz 237-235.  In the semifinal, Alex stopped Steven Acuff 242-220 to move on to the title game and leave the Acuff brothers with dual third place finishes on the day.

        Top seed Fritts had gotten to the #1 spot thanks in large part to her career high game of 230 scratch in game seven.  Amazingly, she had enough left to follow it up with another 200 game in the title match, beating Benavidez 281-235 for the title, the first of her JBT career.

        Adel Wahner claimed her first Women's Series win of the season with a 211-172 win over Sophie Diaz.  She needs two more to guarantee a spot into the 2013 Girls TPC this summer.

         Thanks as always to the great crew at Starlight for hosting our Tour.  Want in on the fun?  Come on down to our next event!