CACTUS BOWL

champs Harley Sweigart and Mathew Adragna

        Two veteran lefties denied two veteran righties their first titles in high scoring JBT Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl in Tucson.

        Bryan Van Sickle began a climb up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 247-244 thriller over Vanessa Romero, who was making her second scratch finals in as many weeks.  Bryan then ousted Dallas Leong 214-202, and followed with a 258-236 strike-fest over Nick Devlin to advance to the title match.

        Van Sickle is very high on our unofficial list of  'best bowlers without a title', and top seed Harley Sweigart was in no mood to erase that anomaly from Bryan's record.  Sweigart roared to +485 for eight games of qualifying and matchplay, and in the title match opened with two spares and then went off the sheet for a 277-248 win, and the ninth title of his JBT career in impressive fashion.

        Every score in the handicap title match also started with a 2, beginning with Joshua Grissom's 243-223 win over Bex Boyko.  Scores were even higher in the next game, as Grissom topped Wild Friday Nights champ Keith Ylvisaker 273-237.  Josh "fell apart" next game to "only" a 269 game, but the kicker was that wasn't enough, as Justin Lawrence countered with a massive 294 to reach the title match.

        Lawrence, like Van Sickle, has been oh-so-close to JBT victory before, but unfortunately for him he was also like Bryan in running into an unstoppable force in his division's top seed, Mathew Adragna.  Mathew racked up a +404 eightgame total, and stayed in control the entire strike-filled title match, winning by a 277-248 final score for his fourth career JBT title.

        Vanessa Romero was also an unstoppable force, gaining the day's Women's Series top seed by over 100 pins and then blasting 268 in the final game for a 268-220 win over a fine effort from Stefanny Toala for the day's girls crown.

        Thanks as always to Dale and the crew at Cactus for being terrific supporters of JBT for all 20 seasons.  Want in on the most fun and competitive bowling around?  Just check out our schedule and come on down, that's all there is to it!