ARIZONA INVITATIONAL

champs Randy Cote & Nick Wade

   Randy Cote and Nick Wade earned $1,000 scholarships each as champions of the JBT Arizona Conference Invitational tournament, hosted at Chandler's Kyrene Lanes.

   Cote was the top seed for the 16-person, triple elimination matchplay finals, as the two-hander was able to overpower the demanding Shark lane condition.  However, he went 2-2 in early matchplay rounds to get to the brink of elimination.  He did survive to round six, and in that round eliminated fellow Tucsonan Labriel Leach.  With six bowlers left in round seven, #13 Kyle King ousted #3 Miguel Lopez, #2 Eduardo Perez handed #9 Martika Cabezas her second loss, while Cote gave #7 Kris George loss #2. 

   Now with five players left, George earned a bye, while King eliminated Perez and Cote eliminated Cabezas.  With three players left, it was King's turn for the valuable bye, and he watched Cote oust George 246-149 to reach the title match against Kyle.

  When the shark pattern dries out there's still out of bounds, so King and Cote had to make big adjustments to find the pocket.  While Kyle stepped in front of the ball return on the right hand lane, Cote took one finger out of the ball to cut down rev rate.  It was the right move, as the two-handed, one-fingered strike machine blasted a 222-191 win over King for the title, the $1,000 scholarship, and his 7th career JBT title.

   Travis Johnson found a pocket full of strikes en route to the top seed for matchplay, but went 2-2 early to dig a hole for himself, eventually bowing out in round six in 7th place.  In the round of seven, six bowlers remained, and in those matches, #12 Alex Pellegrino was eliminated by #7 Justin Givler, #11 Kalya Goad ousted #3 Steven Acuff, and #2 Nick Wade, the previous day's Tournament of Champions winner, gave #13 JD Sweet, the last non-exempt player in the finals, his second loss. 

   With four bowlers left, Wade eliminated Goad 216-198, while Sweet eliminated Givler 213-179, setting up a scenario where JD had to beat Nick twice to win the title.  In the first game, Nick rolled a clean game through eight frames to seal a 223-176 win and wrap up the title and the $1,000 scholarship.  This was a dream weekend for Wade, with two titles (he had only one previous) and over $1,500 in scholarships!

   Over $7,000 in scholarships were awarded to the field of talented qualifiers.  The top 20 point scorers now advance to the 2009 Touring Players Championship, featuring $2,000 first place scholarships per division.  Want in on all this action?  Be sure to check our schedules and come on out to 2009-10 JBT events starting this August!

AZ Invitational- final results and optional scholarship winners
6/21/2009    
Arizona Conference  
   
Scratch Division  
rank name prize
1 Randy Cote $1,015
2 Kyle King $660
3 Kris George $600
4 Eduardo Perez $230
5 Martika Cabezas $150
6 Miguel Lopez $175
7 Labriel Leach $75
8 DJ Sloan $90
9 Cameron Smith $190
10 Courtney Dutton $75
11 Greg Geering $80
12 Riley Dempsey $50
13 Matt Herbert $110
14 Kaitlin Mayall $85
15 Jeff Williams $70
16 Greg Garbera $90
17 Christian Jensen $30
18 James hawkins  
19 Allie Ijams  
20 Anthony Tripi  
21 Rebeca Reguero  
22 Chris Varholdt $15
23 Nathan Shock $15
24 Amanda Falk  
25 Joey Mogavero $15
26 Charlie Goulet  
27 Rachelle Davis  
28 Zach martinez  
29 Jacob Smith  
30 Brian Ballard  
31 Natalie Jimenez  
32 Kyle Karpovich  
33 Nick Lee  
34 Mike Kremer  
   
Handicap Division  
rank name prize
1 Nick Wade $1,130
2 JD Sweet $530
3 Justin Givler $300
4 Kayla Goad $200
5 Steven Acuff $210
6 Alex Pellegrino $140
7 Travis Johnson $75
8 Brooks Gould $120
9 Emilio Luna $175
10 Lindsey Ailport $75
11 Blake Kalaf $200
12 Daniel Cotton $130
13 Dominic Luna $50
14 Josh Shoup $125
15 Maura Swaim $65
16 Jeff Weyrauch $95
17 Michael Keller  
18 Brad Hansen  
19 Bethany Baker $30
20 Danny Varholdt $45
21 marcus Stanley $5
22 Rane Lacona $45
23 Karissa Tafoya  
24 Adam Lebbs $15
25 Marina Stever  
26 Chris Rodriguez  
27 Eric Demo  
28 Jared Billman  
29 Taylor Knight $15
30 Taylor King $15
31 Alexis Atkin  
32 James Burke  
33 Derek Iozzio  
34 Cody Vanderweyst  
35 Jenni Cahn  
36 Derek Acuff  
37 Cody Taylor  
38 Danielle Stewart  
39 Savannah Carr  
40 Kristen Lee  
41 Timothy Jacob  
42 Valry Swaim  
43 Zach Simon  
44 Austin Hinz  
     
   
   
Round Leaders (5 pts. Each)  
Scratch Handicap
1 Lopez Cotton
2 Lopez Cotton
3 Cote Johnson
4 Leach Wade
5 Cote Johnson
     
   
  TOTAL AWARDED THIS EVENT: $7,610