20TH CENTURY LANES

champs Josh Mullen & Haylee Kriss

        Josh Mullen and Haylee Kriss each survived a tough lane condition to grind out JBT titles in fun and challenging action at 20th Century Lanes in Pacific Northwest Conference action.

        After five games of qualifying on the difficult 32-foot Wolf lane pattern, the two division split into different formats.  Scratch bowlers used our 'Battle Bag' format, where bowlers played best of 5 matches, with the winner of each game removing one of their opponent's three balls from their arsenal.  No round one match went more than four games, with top seed Josh Mullen, #2 Thomas Nute, #3 Wylicia Faley, and #4 Nick Devlin all among the advancers.

        The top seeds remained in control in the round of 8 as well, setting up a top-4 final four.  In those single-game, one ball matches, Mullen defeated Devlin 167-138, and Nute beat Faley 160-123, to set up a 1-vs-2 title game.

        200 games were hard to come by on the day, and both Josh and Thomas struggled early in the title game.  However, Mullen, who was the only bowler who averaged over 200 in qualifying, finished with a flourish, throwing a late four-bagger to seal a 209-170 win over Nute, good for the fourth title of his JBT career.

        Handicap semifinalists competed in the 'survivor' format, where the lowest score on each pair was eliminated, game by game, until only one survivor stood.  Twenty-four semifinalists were eventually whittled down to six, and in those matches Elizabeth Tuholski ousted Bri Hemming, Nikita Benton beat Jerry Jennings, and in the match of the day, Alexa Lanning threw a fill-ball strike to tie Haylee Kriss at 214, but Kriss rebounded to win the rolloff 38-34 to advance.

        With three players left, a three-way game was played with Nikita (197) and Kriss (192) advancing, while Tuholski ended a great rookie performance in third place.  In the title game, Benton, who was looking for her second consecutive win on her birthday, having won here last year the day she turned 11, played a close match with Kriss, but in the end it was Haylee earning her first career JBT title with a 204-188 win over Nikita.

        Wylicia Faley continued an impressive JBT debut weekend as well.  In addition to her third place finish in the regular scratch event, she swept the Women's Series, beating Kara Lieber 187-166, for the second of three wins she needs to qualify for the Girls TPC next July.

        Thanks as always to the great crew at 20th Century for being wonderful hosts.  Want in on the challenge, the fun, and the excitement?  Check out our schedule and come on down, it's that simple!