SUNCOAST BOWLING CENTER

champions Nathan Panaligan & Cameron Peck

Nathan Panaligan and Cameron Peck added JBT SW titles to their collections in the Mojave Conference's season-opening event, hosted by Suncoast Bowling Center.

Scratch division scoring was highlighted by Steven Black's 299 game during qualifying, as well as Nathan Panaligan's 289 semifinal effort.  It was fitting, then, that those two bowlers would meet for the title.

Before that, however, were three exciting stepladder matches.  In round one, Eddie Schaub survived a tough round by grinding out a 178 game that was good enough to defeat Brandon Watts (167) and last-female-standing Megan Withey (160).  Round two was also a struggle for all involved, with Shane Peck's 177 enough to defeat Kevin Houck (171) and Schaub (163).  The scoring pace finally picked up for two of the bowlers in the semifinal.  Peck struggled to a 166, but Panaligan and #3 seed Bobby Sherman had a good battle going.  Two missed 3-6 spares got Sherman in trouble, but when Nathan finished with 199, Bobby could still tie the match with all three strikes.  Sherman flushed the first two shots, but the third missed right, and the eight-count was good for a 197 game, advancing Panaligan to the finale.

Nathan and Steven squared off for the title at Suncoast last season, with Nathan squeaking out a high-scoring victory, and this match proved to be just as tense, but again a lower scoring version.  In the end, Panaligan converted a 6-pin, enough for a 197-194 win.  The victory was the third win of his JBT SW career.  For Black, even though he is winless in four stepladders this season, it also marks the fourth time that he's earned the most scholarship money on the day, thanks to a large take in the brackets.

In the handicap division, #4 seed Bryce Hackney opened up the stepladder finals with a 213-191 victory over Ryan Yadao.  Round two was a nailbiter, as Willie Dubovik IV, needing a strike to win ob his fill ball, came up with a heartbreaking 8-count, resulting in a 208-207 win for the surprised Hackney.  In the semifinals, Hackney stayed in control teh whole match, and defeated #2 seed Courtney Dutton to advance to the title match against top qualifier Cameron Peck.

10 year-old Peck had already won an Arizona Conference event this season, and that gave him extra confidence to hang in there against Hackney, who saved his best bowling in the stepladder for this match.  However, in a strange ending, Hackney doubled to apparently defeat Peck, but Bryce's fill ball went in the gutter, leaving Peck to only need a spare to win.  Cameron converted his 5-pin leave, and ended up winning 239-230 for his second career title.  It was a heck of a weekend for the Peck family.  Cameron won $360 in scholarships at Suncoast, and $240 for a third place finish the day before in San Diego.  Meanwhile, big brother Shane earned $160 at Suncoast, and $28 in San Diego, for a total of $788 earned by the Peck family this weekend!  

An outstanding total of $2,305 was awarded to the Mojave Conference regular season singles record 104 entries.  In addition, Joe Claspell won our raffle for any Storm ball of his choice, and four bowlers won spots to the 2006 Junior gold finals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Rachelle Davis, Megan Withey, Bobby Sherman, and Brandon Allred.  We'd also like to thank Lynn, Edson, Blue, and the great staff at Suncoast for helping us put on a good show, as well as the Senior Islanders league for waiting patiently while we finished up with the qualifying round which ran long due to the overflow turnout.