20th CENTURY LANES

champs Nick Stone & Dani Telstad

     Directly opposite title match experiences both led to the same successful result, as Nick Stone and Dani Telstad captured their first JBT titles in exciting action at Portland's AMF 20th Century Lanes.

    Nick Rumley opened the handicap division's stepladder finals with a 188-162 victory over first time finalist Jordan Romanoff.  Thomas Nylund then defeated Rumley 234-149, and followed with a 224-212 win over Ronnie Goodman, who has now opened the Pac NW season with four consecutive top-5 finishes, to reach the title match.

   Top seed Dani Telstad took over the lead in game five, and held on for the top seed.  She and Nylund engaged in a close title match, until opened in the 8th and 9th put Dani way behind.  However, Thomas, needing a mark to win, was forced to make a 10th frame ball change due to some hand problems, and unfortunately threw a gutter ball on his first tenth frame shot, and didn't convert the spare.  Now it was Telstad who only needed a mark to win, and Dani came through with the strike for a 209-204 win and her first career JBT title.

    The scratch division was all about Nick Stone, who led game one of the tournament with a 245 on the Scorpion lane condition, and never looked back, adding a 279 and a 290 in qualifying for a huge +275 game total.  He hung on against a hard-charging Jordan Plunkett, who finished the semifinals with a 289, for the top seed.  Nick's brother Cody Stone opened the stepladder finals with a 210-209 squeaker over Rachel Kreighbaum.  Cody, using a two-handed delivery, then beat Tristan Curtis 211-194, before Plunkett stopped him 196-163 to reach the title match.

   Jordan started the title match just fine, with spare-double-spare, but even then that was not going to be enough, as Stone blasted the first five strikes, spared a 6-8 split, and then went off the sheet for a 278-204 win over Plunkett, and a first career JBT title earned in most dominant fashion.  He also joins his brothers Lucas and Cody as JBT champions, making them the only family in JBT (SW-NW) history with 3 siblings all with JBT titles- amazing!  

   Kreighbaum was consoled from her stepladder loss by a win in the JBT Women's Series portion of the event.  She earned the top seed with a +91 5-game qualifying total, and then earned the women's series title with a 214-180 win over Natalie Jimenez, who suffered her third runner-up finish in women's series events, but still continues an excellent season.