The Junior Tournament Bowlers Association of Ohio returned to Rebman Recreation Center in Lorain for the third time in as many years for the annual Junior Doubles Championships. Thanks to Rick and his staff for hosting another great event and our 102 youth bowlers. This month our athletes were challenged by a 39 ft Kegel sport pattern, leading to quite low scores in both divisions. On the girls side a score of -335 was needed to get to the match play bracket while the boys needed -145 to be in the cut. The girls qualifying was lead by the team of Felicia Goll of St. Clair Shores, MI. and Kara Richard of Tecumseh, MI at -125. On the boy’s side winner of last month’s ABI Phone Systems Open, Eric Bracken of Brighton, MI partnered with Belleville, MI’s Aaron Lorincz to post a great +118. Individual high qualifier for the boys was Garrett Gauthier of Lapeer, MI at +147 and Seanna Bell of Pittsburgh, PA was only girl to stay in the black figures at +26. A total of 14 players managed to average 200 over the six game block. High games for this event were by Bell with a 242 and Bracken at 278, both coming in game 4 of the qualifying round. Eric Bracken and Aaron Lorincz

Once match play began the lanes opened up, much to the delight of the Baker style match play contestants, as scores began to go in a positive direction. On the girls side the top qualifiers of Goll and Richards reached the semi-final match to face the Wright State girls duo of Heidi Sanders of Fremont, OH and Danielle Rohr of Troy, OH. It was Sanders/Rohr coming out on top 180-167, 161-224, and 213-186. On the other side of the bracket it was the Pikeville College/Rochester NY duo of Sarah Germano and Kim Yioulos besting Erica Anderson and Kristen Keenen in two games 214-148 and 216-172. The finals would be a PC vs. WSU matchup, but it was all PC in the final match as Germano/Yioulos used key doubles in the right spots to claim the title 213-199 and 199-164.

In the boys division Bracken and Lorincz bested Paul Benedict Wyandote, MI and Matt “Big Wheel” Anderson of Holy, MI in two close games 204-203 and 226-205 to advance to the Championship match. Their opponents, the team of 2 time Pennsylvania State high school singles champion Antonio Palangio of Pittsburgh, PA and Pat Yusko of Greensburg, PA, reached by defeating Justin O’Hara of Westland, MI and Nicolas Sutherland of Grand Blanc, MI, in the other semi-final 181-221, 237-222 and 194-162. Bracken’s JTBA experience was the key in the Championship Match as he won his second straight title 214-158, 215-237 and 255-173. Congrats to our Champions. Kim Yioulos and Sarah Germano

We will be making our final visit to historic Ducat’s Imperial Lanes in Toledo. As you may have heard the center is closing and this will be the final event to be held there. There’s added money for this event so it should be a special event for the JTBA!!!! May 3,2009 is the date, so don’t miss out on the chance to be part of bowling history. Also a reminder that you need to bowl in 5 regular season events, make a cut in an event and bowl 2 of the last 4 to be eligible for the JTBA Championship Tournament. We hope to see you at Imperial!