CACTUS BOWL

champs Randy Cote and Rane Lacona

     Two JBT veterans picked up long, loooong awaited second career titles in exciting JBT Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl.

     Randy Cote climbed the ladder for the scratch division win, shooting a huge 1031 for his four finals games.  He opened with a 252 game that ousted fine efforts from Greg Geering (224) and Zach Simon (214).  Randy amped it up to a 266 game in round two, dismissing DeShaun Jefferson (179) and Mike Cross (199).  Cote then bowled his "low" game of the finals- a paltry 235, but it was still plenty to beat Eric Rubin (204) and Kyle King (190), as he advanced to the final match.

     Top seed BJ Baker continued his red-hot early season start by opening the day with a 299 game and then cruising to the top seed.   He came up with an excellent 245 in the finals, but it wasn't nearly enough as a confident Cote thrilled the crowd by running the front nine strikes before settling for a 278 game that earned him title #2.  

     The handicap stepladder was all about Danny Varholdt up until the title match.  He began with a 236 game that beat Taylor Knight (234) and Cody Vanderweyst (200).  He improved to 257 in round two, ousting Kristen Lee (237) and Rebeca Reguero (184).  In the semifinal, Varholdt came up with his biggest game, a 266 that beat Daniel Cotten (204) and Jacob Lebbs (226), advancing Danny to his first title match.

     Top seed Rane Lacona had struggled with the tough conditions laid out early this season, but found Cactus much to his liking, gaining the top seed.  He'd have a tough challenge against Varholdt, though, who was looking to join fellow #8 seed Cote as the only 8-seeds to run the whole ladder in the same event.  Rane responded brilliantly though, running the first six strikes- and needing most of them- winning the match by a strange looking 301-260 margin after handicap was added in.

     The wins broke extreme victory droughts for both players.  Randy's last win was at Country Club on 10/15/05, which was unfortunately our last visit there.  Rane broke an even longer drought, having last won at Brunswick Mesa on 6/9/02, so we're thrilled at their perseverance and having them back in our winner's circle.

      Big thanks to Mr. Dale Schnell and the whole crew at Cactus for their usual top notch hosting job- Dale is a huge supporter of our Tour and we appreciate his over a decade of support!