SANTA CRUZ LANES

champs Allie Ijams & Jeff Weyrauch; Women's Series champ Natalie Jimenez

     An historic day on the Junior Bowlers Tour resulted in wins for Allie Ijams and Jeff Weyrauch, and a Women's Series win for Natalie Jimenez, in thrilling action at Tucson's Santa Cruz Lanes.

    Weyrauch climbed the handicap division stepladder finals for his first career JBT title.  He began with a 232-184 win over first time finalist Timothy Jacob.  He then beat Karissa Tafoya 242-174, and followed with a 218-197 win over Justin Givler to reach the title match.

    Top seed Danny Varholdt had dominated the event, leading from round 4 on, but like yesterday's top seed, had trouble adjusting to the drying-out wood surface by the time the title match rolled around.  Jeff took advantage, defeating Danny 223-202 for the victory.  It was an historic win indeed, as it makes the Weyrauch family only the second in JBT history with three siblings to win JBT titles (joining the Stone clan from Oregon).

    The scratch division used our nervewracker format, where if matches in a 16-person bracket end up tied 1-1 after 2 games, a one-shot rolloff determines the winner.  Upsets abounded in round one, as only two of the higher seeds advanced in round one, with upset victims including #1 Kyle King, ousted 2-0 by Natalie Jimenez, #2 Nick Lee, taken out 2-0 by #15 Charlie Goulet, and #3 Cameron Smith, a 10-7 nervewracker victim to #14 (and winner in nervewracker in Albuquerque just 7 days ago) Allie Ijams.

   In the round of 8, Jimenez swept #8 Jacob Smith 2-0, #6 James Hawkins swept defending champ #13 Greg Garbera 2-0, Ijams eliminated #10 Eduardo Perez 2-0, while Goulet and #12 Shawn Peters went to nervewracker, with Charlie escaping 10-9 to advance.

   In the semifinal matches, Jimenez made it 6-0 with a two game sweep of Hawkins (225-189; 235-229).   Allie continued to make our fingernails shorter, meanwhile, going to nervewracker with Goulet.   Ijams elected to have Cherlie go first, and he flushed a strike.  Allie matched that strike, and when Goulet;s next shot went high, she struck again, eliminating Goulet and creating the first ever open scratch division title match between two female bowlers!

   In the historic match, Ijams won the first game 243-198.  Game two came down to the wire, with Allie's 29-count in the tenth frame enough to shut out Jimenez.  The 212-202 final score earned Ijams her 2nd career JBT title- what a week for her!  And, what a year for the girls of JBT.  Allie's win was the SEVENTH of the season by a girl in an open (boys vs. girls) title match- the previous record was TWO.

   Natalie was out for revenge in the Women's Series match, which ironically featured Allie and Natalie going at it again as the top 2 female qualifiers, right after the title match was over.  That created a mental challenge to rev back up after the energy expended in the regular title match, and Jimenez was up to the task, zeroing in on the right hand lane for a 208-183 and a long-awaited first Women's Series title.  The win makes her eligible for up to a $500 bonus at the Girls Invitational, held in Vegas in May.

    Thanks as always to the whole team at Santa Cruz for a great job hosting JBT events.   Over $1,900 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all ages and averages- want in on the fun?  Come on down to the next JBT event, it's as simple as that!