MIRA MESA LANES

champs Harley Sweigart & Taylor Bronson

        Harley Sweigart and Taylor Bronson survived tough matchplay rounds to capture JBT titles in exciting Southern California Conference action at San Diego's Mira Mesa Lanes.

        In the scratch division, Cortez Schenck led the field in qualifying on the challenging Cheetah lane pattern, but ran into trouble against fellow veteran Kirk Chui, who came up with the 389-377 upset in the two-game total pinfall matchplay round.  He shouldn't have felt alone though, as in a statistical anomaly, all top four seeds were eliminated in that round!  In the semifinals, Chui was topped by Harley Sweigart 366-314, and in a thriller, Jacob Camacho (who earlier beat Joe Grondin in a rolloff after a one-pin loss and one-pin win resulted in a tie), won another one pin match, 387-386 over Brandon Wanders (who earlier had the high game of the day with 289), to set up the title match.

        Camacho couldn't keep up the Houdini act in the title game, and Sweigart rolled to a 183-149 win in the finale to claim the seventh title of his JBT career.

        Higher seeds fared much better in the opening round of handicap matchplay, with 7 of the 8 favorites advancing, with #12 Taylor Bronson the only upset.  The tables turned in round two though, as every lower seed advanced to the final four.  In those semifinal games, all involving first-time finalists, Bronson won her third straight in an upset, beating #8 Jacob Bocanegra 227-169, and #7 Zian Sasaki ousted #6 Lindsay Grein 199-193, to set up the title match.

        9 year-old 'old man' Sasaki and 7 year-old Bronson both bowled very well in the title match, but Taylor got on a roll that could not be stopped, winning the final 234-211 to earn her first career JBT title.  At just over 7 years old she becomes the fourth youngest winner of a singles title in JBT history!

        Julia Frias won the previous day's Women's Series title match in a tiebreaker rolloff, and today her margin of victory was just one pin, as she got by Amanda Atkin, who is off to a red-hot all-conference start in regular and girls' points, 137-136, to sweep the girls' events on the weekend/

        Huge thanks to the whole crew at Mira Mesa, and all our incredible sponsors, for helping put together a great opening weekend for So Cal.  You don't need any more proof than this event that JBT is for all ages and all averages!  Want your share of the fun?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!