TEXAS STAR LANES

champs Brendan Thomas & Garrett Thompson, with runner-up Cole Telford

        After a very exciting day of action, Utah bowlers Brendan Thomas and Garrett Thompson came out on top at the JBT Mojave Conference season opening event at Texas Star Lanes.

        TPC champion Dallas Leong opened the scratch division stepladder finals with a 249-221 win over Joe Gerencser, who made a successful switch to the scratch division.  Leong then raised his score even higher, getting by KJ Martinez 251-172.  Thomas stopped Leong in the semifinals 225-181 to move on to his second career title match.

        Top seed Russ Oviatt rolled the first 300 game of the season (followed just a few minutes later by KJ's perfect game)  en route to the #1 spot.  He struggled early in the title match though, while Thomas came out red-hot with a five bagger.  A great ball change got Russ back in contention, but when he didn't strike in the tenth, Brendan had the margin he needed for a 246-212 win, earning the first title of his JBT career.

        9 year-old Cole Telford made a very impressive run up the handicap division stepladder, beginning with a 219-185 win over Crystalene Pineda.  The next match was a thriller, as Brendan Lindsey got the first strike in the tenth but not the second, giving Telford the 246-243 win.  Round three was just as tense, and again Cole escaped, this time with a 206-199 win over Paul Colyer, to advance to the title match.

        Top seed Garrett Thompson and Telford, both Utah bowlers, ensured it would be a Utah sweep on the day, but which bowler would complete the sweep wasn't determined until the final shot.  After Cole finished the title match at 217, Thompson needed a 20-fill in his tenth to tie.  Instead, he got up and calmly flushed two strikes, earning a 226-217 victory, and his first career JBT title.

        The women's series saw two new faces, as top seed Crystalene Pineda beat Veronica Schleicher 179-154 for the title, the first of three women's wins she needs to qualify for the 2015 Girls TPC next summer.

        If all that wasn't enough, Dante Rohe correctly called 10-7-5 to win PowerBowl's $500 jackpot, making him the second PowerBowl big winner in two weeks, after Randi Speiler's $1,000 win in San Diego.  Come get PowerBowl while it's hot!

        Thanks as always to Jerry Francomano and the crew at Texas for their usual stellar hosting job.  If you don't like this, you don't like bowling!  To get in on the fun, just check out our schedule and come down, that's all there is to it!