SO CAL INVITATIONAL

champs Jimmy Hefley & Josh Shoup

Hefley, Shoup Earn $1,000 Scholarships as JBT So Cal Invite Champs; $7,000+ awarded

     Jimmy Hefley, Bakersfield CA, and Josh Shoup, Tolleson AZ, each captured $1,000 scholarships as champions of the JBT Southern California Conference Invitational tournament, hosted by Keystone Lanes.  Over $7,000 in scholarships were awarded at the event.

    85 qualifiers were tested by the demanding PBA Chameleon lane condition, requiring shotmaking, a good spare game, and constant adjustments all day long.  Eventually, 11 qualifiers joined 5 exempt bowlers from their season-long JBT performance into a 16-bowler, single elimination, two game total pinfall matchplay finals.

    In the scratch division, Hefley qualified as the #16 seed, then after defeating #9 Kris George and #8 Brandon Kraye, upset top seed and 31-time JBT champ Kyle King in the round of eight, 427-410, to reach the semis.  Other quarterfinal action saw #5 Foster Phandanouvong beating #4 Matt Herbert 387-296; #6 Greg Geering upending #3 Joey Chuo 397-386, and #10 James Hawkins upsetting #2 Jeremy Glover 360-334.  Down to one game semifinal matches, Hefley outlasted Phandanouvong 177-169, while Hawkins outstruck Geering 222-195, setting up a JBT first- a title match between two bowlers using the uber-modern, uber-powerful two-handed bowling style.

   Four hands and only two bowlers generally leads to a lot of strikes, but the tricky condition and the title match pressure appeared to affect these two talented players, as they struggled throughout the game.  In the end, though, needing a strike to win, Hefley- whose only other JBT win also came from the #16 seed in a matchplay format- shredded the rack, locking up a 174-165 win, his second JBT title, and the $1,000 scholarship windfall.

   Handicap division qualifying action was highlighted by Vincent Nolan, who put on his best JBT performance by far en route to grabbing the #1 seed, and consequent two-round bye, for the matchplay rounds.  Vincent stayed strong in the round of eight, beating #9 Kaitlin Silva 422-401.  In other round of eight matches, #2 Randi Speiler got by #4 Tanner Long 410-370;  #6 Josh Shoup beat #3 John Wright 370-327; and #10 Brad Hansen upset the previous day's champion, #2 Jacob Potts, 442-415.

   In the semifinal matchups, Speiler defeated Nolan 232-220, while Shoup beat Hansen 183-169, advancing Randi and Josh to the title match.  In the finale, Shoup, the all-conference point leader, engaged in a tough battle with Speiler, with Josh's 10th frame spare locking up a 204-196 win, the 4th title of his JBT career, and his biggest JBT payday, a $1,000 scholarship.  He also edged out Dan Hansen for the So Cal points lead with the win.

   The top 20 So Cal point scorers now advance to the JBT Touring Players Championship, our most prestigious event, featuring a $2,000 first place scholarship per division.  Thanks as always to Keystone for hosting our Tour on a very busy weekend.  A whopping $7,515 in scholarships was awarded to the talented field- wow!, and over $250,000 has been awarded by the JBT this season alone Tour-wide.  These are amazing numbers only made possible by our sponsors and your continued participation.  Want in on all this fun?  Come down to a JBT event this summer, or when the So Cal Conference kicks off a new season this September!