STARLITE LANES

champ Christian Jensen & runner-up Greg Garbera

Christian Jensen outlasted an extremely strong field to capture the JBT Starlite Lanes Scratch Challenge in beautiful Flagstaff.

All bowlers rolled six games of qualifying, with the twist that every game was also a head to head match, making for an extra level of competition.  The field was then whittled to 16 for best of 3 matchplay.

In the round of 16, #16 seed Kyle King pulled off the upset over #1 Kevin Saunders with a 246-244 thriller in the deciding game.  #2 Cameron Smith also fell to the upset bug, swept by #15 Mike Cross.  

In the round of 8, #9 William Atherton, the only Flagstaff bowler to make the cut, swept King, 222-221 in game one, and 199-142 in game two.  In other matches, #4 Greg Garbera came from one game down to eliminate Randy Cote, #5 Kevin Narciso swept Cross, and #10 Jensen upset #3 Nathan Shock in three games.

Down to one game semifinal matches, Garbera defeated Atherton, who was hindered by a ripped open thumb, 221-190.  In the other semi, Jensen caught fire for a 255-205 win over Narciso to set up the finale.

Garbera is in a dogfight for the fifth and final Invitational exemption via the points list, while Jensen has completely turned around a lackluster fall with an incredible spring to grab the points lead.  Christian remained in control the whole title match, and won the game 222-204.  The win, the 11th of his career and 4th of the season in Arizona, came with a $430 scholarship windfall.

51 bowlers competed in the event.   Everyone who finished in the top 5 qualifies for the 2007 JBT Arizona Invitational Tournament, the regular season's year end event, featuring a guaranteed minimum $1,000 first place scholarship in each division.  Top season-long point scorers also qualify for the 2007 JBT Touring Players' Championship, featuring a guaranteed minimum $2,000 first place scholarship per division! 

Big thanks to Starlite for hosting one of our favorite events of the season.  Over $2,200 in scholarships was awarded.  Want in on the fun?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's as simple as that!