CHRISTOWN LANES

champs Cortez Schenck & Axel Barajas (center) with runners-up Tyler Hedges & Aaron Yamamoto

        Cortez Schenck added another title to his massive collection, while Axel Barajas tasted JBT victory for the first time, in exciting Arizona Conference action at Christown Lanes in Phoenix.

        Schenck climbed the ladder in the 'tennis' format stepladder finals, where matches are decided by a series of one-shot rolloffs that are scored exactly like tennis games, making every shot extremely important.   He began with a win over first time finalist Sean Trzasakowski.  He then got past Kyle Duster after one deuce, and followed with another tough win over Jakob Butturff to reach the title match.

        Top qualifier Aaron Yamamoto had a dream weekend, shooting the only 300 of the weekend to start matchplay, after winning the doubles event the day before, en route to the #1 position here.  However, he struggled a little bit in the finals, and whenever he did strike Schenck came back with a strike of his own to extend the rally.  In the end, Cortez won two straight games in the 2-of-3 title match to earn the 47th championship of his JBT career.

        Handicap bowlers used the conventional scoring system in their stepladder finals, which began with Aaron Coleman's round one win over first-time finalist Marco Flores.  Joseph Metzer then stopped Coleman, but the tables were turned in the semifinals as 9 year-old Tyler Hedges beat Metzer to move on to the title match.

        Hedges has been on a roll lately, making his second title match in a month.  However, top seed Axel Barajas was not in the mood to let him get his first win.  A leadoff turkey was all he needed to cruise the rest of the way, and Barajas claimed the first title of his career, and first for the traveling group from Mexico (which includes Flores, Alberto Bernal, and Miguel Meraz), with the championship game victory.

        San Diego's Brittany Kolatzny, on break from freshman year at Robert Morris, won her first Women's Series event of the season with a title match victory over Adel Wahner.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Christown for hosting our Tour.  Want in on all this fun for all ages and averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!