STARLIGHT LANES at Santa Ana Star Casino

champs Allie Ijams & Olivia Stedman

      Ladies' Year on the Junior Bowlers Tour just keeps rolling on, as Allie Ijams and Olivia Stedman won JBT titles in exciting NM-TX Conference action at Starlight Lanes.

     Our popular 'survivor' format on another challenging condition produced do-or-die, low-bowler-out situations on every pair after the qualifying round, until only one survivor remained.  The scratch division was eventually whittled down to four.  In the resulting semifinal matches, Tom Crites defeated Diego Lucero, the previous day's champion, 195-159, while in a rematch of yesterday's semifinal match, Allie Ijams avenged herself by defeating Hannah Stedman 194-169- but they weren't done with each other yet... more later.

    In the title match, Allie- who won her first scratch title in New Mexico and February and has just kept improving since- remained in complete control against first-time finalist Crites, and won the match 201-164 for her third title of the season.

     The handicap field was carved down to six, and in the round of six, Stacia Cilley beat qualifying leader Jacob Gill 220-194, Samantha McFarland beat Andrew Esparza 206-193, and Olivia Stedman, Hannah's younger sister, beat Tonia Barela 219-192. 

    This created a 3-way semifinal game, and in that round, Stedman's 240 and Stacia's 211 advanced, while Samantha bowed out with a still-good 192 effort.   Thus, it was two ladies in the handicap title match, and in that game, Cilley, a finalist the previous day, rolled a 188, but it was Stedman avenging Hannah's semifinal loss with a 228 win and her first career JBT title.

    This event was also the 19th and final JBT Women's Series event, and the top two qualifiers bowled a separate girls title match- and that meant Hannah and Allie had to clash one more time, in what would be the rubber match of their personal series this weekend.  In the match, Allie just kept filling frames, eventually grinding out a 201-183 win over Hannah to become the only girl this year with 3 Women's Series titles.  It's hard to think of enough superlatives to lavish on all our girls this year, who have really impressed at every level.  Hannah's breakthrough weekend gave her two 2nd and a 3rd in one weekend, while Allie, the Women's Series points leader, finished 1st, 1st, and 3rd on the weekend, earning $600 in scholarships and passing the $7500 in career JBT scholarships along the way.  Um.... WOW!

         Thanks as always to Margaret, Jerry, Josue, and the crew at Starlight for a great job hosting our Tour.  Over $1,500 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all ages and averages- want in on the fun?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple!

story and results soon!

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