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!

Santa Cruz Lanes (Sun)- final results and optional scholarship winners
3/1/2009    
Arizona Conference  
   
Scratch Division  
rank name prize
1 Allie Ijams $200
2 Natalie Jimenez $100
3 James Hawkins $70
4 Charlie Goulet $50
5 Jacob Smith $40
6 Eduardo Perez $30
7 Shawn Peters  
8 Greg Garbera $15
9 Kyle King $255
10 Nick Lee $30
11 Cameron Smith $45
12 Labriel Leach  
13 Miguel Lopez $45
14 Joe Lewandowski $50
15 Nathan Shock  
16 Randy Cote  
17 Jeff Williams  
18 Courtney Dutton  
19 Rane Lacona  
20 Kyle Karpovich  
21 Eric Rubin $15
22 William Witt  
23 Chris Varholdt  
24 Tyson Lewis  
25 Rachelle Davis  
26 Anthony Benicki  
27 Andy Holick  
28 Jenni Cahn  
29 rebeca Reguero  
     
     
     
     
   
Handicap Division  
rank name prize
1 Jeff Weyrauch $375
2 Danny Varholdt $145
3 Justin Givler $75
4 Karissa Tafoya $65
5 Timothy Jacob $40
6 Ashley Collins $30
7 Adam Lebbs  
8 Daniel Cotton $15
9 Cody Taylor  
10 Joseph Metzer  
11 Savannah Carr $30
12 Alexis Atkin $110
13 Kayla Goad  
14 Taylor King  
15 Becki Meils  
16 Derek Acuff  
17 Aaron Munyon  
18 Lindsey Ailport  
19 JD Sweet $15
20 Dominic Luna  
21 Blake Kalaf  
22 Kristen Lee  
23 Brandon Webster  
24 Alex Pellegrino $30
25 Travis Johnson $15
26 Marina Stever $20
27 Pamela Perez  
28 Bethany Baker $25
29 Maura Swaim  
30 Valry Swaim  
31 Cassie Collins  
32 Ashley Benicki  
33 Josh Shoup  
34 Steven Acuff  
35 Branden Castleman  
36 Emilio Luna  
37 Megan Carlson  
38 Marcus Stanley  
39 Jake Childers  
40 Kyle Smith  
41 Ben Meils  
42 James Burke  
     
Scratch High Games:  
  Lee 280  
  Benicki 277  
Garbera 267  
Perez 266  
King 258  
   
   
Handicap High Games:  
Varholdt 288  
Weyrauch 288  
Givler 285  
Goad 276  
J Smith 271  
   
   
Round Leaders (5 pts. Each)  
Scratch Handicap
1 Benicki Jacob
2 Smith Jacob
3 Leach Munyon
4 King Varholdt
5 King Varholdt
6   Varholdt
7   Varholdt
8   Varholdt
   
   
   
High Female:  
Ijams 1000  
Jimenez 990  
Dutton 978  
Ailport 957  
Tafoya 945  
   
   
  TOTAL AWARDED THIS EVENT: $1,945