MIRA MESA LANES

champs Cortez Schenck & Kyle Gilbert

        Cortez Schenck and Kyle Gilbert opened up the 2014-15 season of JBT Southern California Conference action with exciting wins at San Diego's Mira Mesa Lanes.

        Two Arizona bowlers began the scratch division stepladder finals, with Bryan Van Sickle getting past KJ Martinez 214-178.  San Diegan Austin Thompson then turned the tables on Van Sickle with a 244-214 win in round two.  Anthony Cando then stopped Thompson with a 248-215 semifinal win to move on to the title match.

        Top seed Schenck took over the tournament lead from Cando with a solid semifinal set, but Cando, making a guest appearance at JBT despite his excellent talent, made a match of it all the way to the tenth frame.  In the end, Schenck's tenth frame double sealed an eventual 225-217 win.  The title is the 38th of Schenck's career, tying the great Cameron Smith for 3rd place on the all-time JBT titles list!

        Zack Long opened the handicap division stepladder finals with  a225-184 victory over Julian Zavala.  Brandon Loss then defeated Long 222-194 in round two.  In the semifinals, Gilbert stepped in with a 248-204 win over Loss to advance to his first career title match.

        Mira Mesa bowler Dante Villa nabbed the top seed after the eight qualifying games, but Gilbert was too much to handle in the title match.  Kyle won the finale 215-194 to earn the first title of his JBT career.

        Ashley Dunn, the defending Girls TPC champ, continued her dominant ways against the ladies with a 179-159 win over Megan Carpenter to win the day's Women's Series event.

        The highlight of the day didn't involve any of the above, though, as JBT veteran Randi Speiler went a very unlikely 7-7-5 on her three shots to capture the PowerBowl jackpot, and a $1,000 scholarship prize (and a sticker!!!), the first PowerBowl win since Harley Sweigart back in December 2013- way to go Randi!!

        Thanks as always to the terrific staff at Mira Mesa for another great job hosting our Tour.  Want in on all this fun and excitement for all ages and averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down, it's as simple as that!