GOLD COAST LANES

champs Joe Gerencser & Abby Franklin, with girls' winner Randi Speiler

        Joe Gerencser and Abby Franklin added additional titles to their collections, capturing the scratch and handicap titles of the JBT Mojave Conference event at Las Vegas' Cold Coast Lanes.

        Brandon Russom grabbed the top seed in the scratch division, then saw a solid-9 and a solid-8 in successive tenth frames end his day as #8 Talon Hendrickson took advantage for the 2-0 matchplay sweep.  #2 Dallas Leong was upset as well, as #7 Ben Canfield came up with a 2-0 sweep.  In the semifinal matches that followed, #4 Gerencser stopped Hendrickson, while Canfield stayed on a roll with a win over #3 Eric Hatchett to play Joe for a chance at the sweep of the weekend.

        Gerencser's only previous JBT win was a handicap title in 2011, but it was only a matter of when, not if, he'd break through for a scratch win.  The 'when' turned into 'now' when Canfield couldn't strike in the tenth frame of the title match, giving Gerencser the 193-184 win, and first career scratch JBT win.

        Handicap top seeds fared better in matchplay, as #1 Michael Owens and #2 Abby Franklin won their first two best-of-3 matches.  They rolled on in the semifinals as well, with Michael beating #4 Bella Flowers 215-179, and Abby stopping #11 Zach Rapp with a big 261-196 win, to set up a somewhat rare 1 vs 2 title match.

        The championship game was a roller coaster, as Abby appeared to have it locked up before a missed spare paired with an Owens double put Michael in the lead.  Michael then opened in the tenth, giving Franklin a second chance, which she took full advantage of with a perfect strike, locking up a 208-201 win, and the fourth title of her JBT career.

        Abby was also featured in the day's women's series title match, but top seed Randi Speiler was too much for her this time.  Speiler won the game 212-171 for another girls' title for Randi.

       Thanks to Gold Coast for again hosting the southwest's best.   Want in on all this fun for all ages and averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down, that's all there is to it!