CACTUS BOWL

Champs BJ Baker & Kayla Goad

BJ Baker and Kayla Goad took a bite out of the shark pattern en route to victories in exciting JBT Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl.

Greg Garbera, who seems to like Cactus no matter what pattern is laid out, opened the scratch division stepladder finals with a 220-163 win over Mike Armstrong.  Greg Geering then defeated Garbera 192-168, before Baker stopped Geering 204-181, to advance to the title match.

On a day with a -145 cut (only a 170 average), top seed Mike Cross showed no fear en route to being the only 200+ average bowler.  However, he slowed down in the semis and only stayed ahead of Baker by 5 pins going into the ladder.  After Cross' clutch strike in the tenth, BJ needed strike-6-spare in his tenth for victory.  After an equally clutch strike of his own, BJ left a 7-split (getting extremely lucky to get the 10-pin out), and got the 2-count on the fill ball for a 201-200 victory, and the 29th title of his outstanding JBT career.

Taylor Coleman opened the handicap division's stepladder finals with a big 242 that beat Shannon Ryan's 186 and Mike Kenny's 195.  Coleman's 205 was good enough to escape from a much tighter round two, as he beat Marcus Stanley (200) and Kristen Lee (194).  Kayla Goad, who has proven tough in stepladders before, then fired a big 239 to eliminate Coleman (212) and Ahkeen Williams (204) to advance to the title match.

Top qualifier Jason Mertens, a product of the revived Green Valley program, was enjoying his best JBT result of his career, but ran into a freight train in Goad, who ran off the last seven strikes for the high game by anyone of the tournament  (254) for a 288-227 win and her third career JBT title.

Thanks as always to Dale Schnell and the whole Cactus staff for another great job hosting our event.  Dale has always been a huge supporter of JBT and we appreciate all he does for the Tour.  110 bowlers shared in over $2,400 in scholarships- want in on the fun?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's as simple as that!