DEER VALLEY LANES (1500th event!)

champs Derek Acuff & Alex Seng with Joshua Molloy, Kyle Reed, & Kevin Van Gordon; Stefanny Toala; 22 winner Seng

        In a celebration of 1500 tournaments of JBT excitement, Derek Acuff reminded today's bowlers why he is one of our best ever, while Alex Seng might start to beg us to put out 'Bourbon Street', highlighting a terrific day of action at AMF Deer Valley.

        Open to any bowler who ever competed in a JBT event, some of the best in the world came back to honor their roots, and one of the hottest on the planet, Jakob Butturff, began the scratch finals with a 245 game that edged Kyle Gilbert (237) and Harley Sweigart (226).  Kyle King, owner of second all-time 63 JBT titles, then blasted 265 to oust 32-time JBT champ Butturff (224) and 9-time winner (and now one-handed) James Hawkins (235).  Current JBT bowler Kyle Reed then won one for the kids, as his 224 beat King (186) and the most successful female JBT bowler ever, 10-time champ Bryanna Cote (203), to advance to the title match.

        Acuff led after game one, regained the lead in matchplay, and showed no mercy in the title match, puring shot after shot with the textbook form that made him another one of our best all-time.  The 235-183 win was good for his landmark 30th career JBT title, as he continues a great second JBT career since aging out!

        It was all current JBT bowlers in the handicap stepladder, beginning with Josh Williams defeating AJ Imperial 227-218 in a well bowled match.  Kevin VanGordon then poured on the strikes in a 238-179 win over Williams, followed by a 271-218 thrashing of Christian Caron, to advance to the title game.

        Top seed Alex Seng owns two previous JBT titles, at two other centers but both on the 'Bourbon Street' pattern.  He found it perfect for his game again, leading the event and cruising to a 259-208 win over Van Gordon and JBT title #3.  The win may not even have been his biggest highlight of the day, where, working on 21, he slow-rolled into the 10-pin for the '22' jackpot and $500 bonus windfall, for a $700+ scholarship payday.

        Big thanks to Deer Valley for a great job hosting us, as well as all the JBT alumni from 22 years of fun for coming back and bowling with today's stars all weekend.  Want in on all this fun for all ages and averages/  Check out our schedule and come on down to the next JBT event, that's all you have to do!