PAC NW DOUBLES

champs Josh Jackson, Sam Parks, Wes Jenkins, & Jessica Bubnich

       Four juniors captured JBT titles in exciting action at the Pac NW Doubles Classic, hosted by Roxbury Lanes.

      Perry Crowell and Kevin Hong escaped round one of the scratch division's Baker-format stepladder finals with a 216-212 win over Chris Kirk and Rob Hartwig.  Perry and Kevin then survived another squeaker, 191-180 over Lori Hanken and Patrick Hickok, before being stopped by Sam Parks and Josh Jackson 214-200, to reach the title match.

    Top seed Tristan Curtis teamed with talented adult bowler Tom Anderson, who has always done well in this event for his juniors, to lead the event fairly easily after qualifying.   However, Baker style bowling is all about momentum, and Sam and Josh had all of it, as they opened with a six bagger that was too much for a hole for Tom and Tristan to come back from, despite the match getting much closer at the end.  The 224-203 win was good for the first JBT title each for Jackson and Parks.

   Thomas and Laurie Nylund opened the handicap division stepladder finals with a close 227-223 victory over Lee Farquhar and Andy Herrmann, with both teams stringing late in the game.  Jessica Bubnich and Wes Jenkins then took over, beating the Nylunds 186-167, and following with a 234-203 win over Aaron Waterman and Ron Satterthwait to reach the title match.

   Top seeds Thomas and John Nute bowled very well all day, highlighted by Thomas' high individual handicap game of the day (291), to grab the top seed.  All four finalists bowled extremely well all game, but ninth frame opens from Jessica and Thomas gave Bubnich and Jenkins a one-pin lead after nine frames.  John, up first in the tenth, then struck, and Jenkins matched him with a strike of his own.  Nute then struck again on shot #2, and Wes again came up clutch, matching the strike.  After John got 8 on the fill shot (with an unfortunate 4-9), Jenkins then left an 8-count of his own, good enough for the 212-211 thrilling win, his first JBT title, and Jessica's second.

   All of that excitement paled in comparison to the PowerBowl playing of the day, with three bowlers- Daniel Carroll, and Zach Hemming twice getting to the jackpot shot.  After Carroll missed and Hemming missed on his first effort, Zach changed his final shot call to 5, threw a plastic ball at the corner, and the 4-pin fell out of the cluster he left at the last possible second for a 5-count, hitting the PowerBowl jackpot for a cool $1,000 holiday scholarship bonus-- wow!!!

  Thanks to the whole crew at Roxbury for another great job hosting out Tour.  Over $3,000 in scholarships was awarded to a large field who braved some nasty weather to participate.  Want in on all this fun?  Want to win over $1,000 for finishing 15th? You gotta bowl JBT events, it's as simple as that!!!

for those of you wondering where Evan had to run off to...

Jessica's win was clearly thrilling!