HOLIDAY BOWL

champs Cortez Schenck, Adel Wahner, & Elizabeth Romero

        Three champions were crowned in exciting JBT NM-TX Conference action at Gary Skidmore's Holiday Bowl in Albuquerque.

        Chris Ortega grabbed the scratch division top seed after qualifying and advanced to the final four in matchplay, but Cortez Schenck stopped him in that semifinal game 207-187.  On the other side of the bracket, #2 Nick Devlin was upended by #10 Zach Wojciechowski, who in turn looked to be out the door against #10 Ross Scroggins, but Ross' tenth frame split let Zach escape 198-185 and advance to the title match.

    "Wojo" couldn't get comfortable on the championship pair, and Schenck gave him no time to do so, as he cruised to a 225-188 win, and the 68th title of his career, constantly extending his all-time record.

       Kevin Kuper grabbed the handicap division top seed with a huge performance on a high scoring day, but his high school teammate Jake Helmick halted his run in the quarterfinals.  Helmick's next opponent was Elizabeth Romero, and in an all time classic, Romero beat Helmick 257-256 to advance to the title match.  #6 seed Dale Case emerged from the other side of the matchplay bracket, beating #2 Ben Hindes 227-181 in the semifinal to move on against Romero for the title.

        Romero was getting stronger throughout the day, and the title match was no exception, as she stayed in control for a 247-212 win over Case, finally capturing her first JBT title after nearly ten years on tour.  She is also the third Romero sibling to win a title, one of the very few families that can boast three JBT champs.

        Bree Vargas was the top seed in the day's girls title match, but Adel Wahner came up with the title game upset to earn her 5th NM-TX girls title of the season (not to mention also winning the day's Ebonite ball raffle!)

        PowerBowl tried its best to give out the jackpot, with all three bowlers getting to the final shot, but not could convert, with Brad Harvey capping off the heartbreak by calling 4 and getting 5. 

        Thanks as always to the team at Holiday for hosting our Tour.  Want in on all this fun for all ages and averages?  Don't miss the next event on the JBT calendar!