Celmer Completes Sweep for #15 while Kile Wins #2 at Bowl-O-Rama Easter Classic

The PJBT continued its 16th season on Saturday, April 4th, with our Easter Classic tournament.  Every year, the PJBT holds a traditional Easter event on the Saturday before Easter.  On the PJBT tour, we are mostly Sunday events….but with the holiday….we always have a Saturday Afternoon event for the Easter Classic.  The tradition continued at Bowl-O-Rama in Reading, PA, again this season.  On this day, we saw 82 bowlers come out and compete, including 47 in Scratch and 35 in Handicap.  The format for the Easter Classic was our typical event format.  5 Games Qualifying, Top 40% in each division bowl 3 additional games of match play, and the top 5 advanced to a stepladder final.  All bowlers on this day were competing on the WTBA Atlanta Pattern.

Jack Celmer, of Wernersville, PA, made history on this day.  In Scratch, Jack captured a season sweep of Bowl-O-Rama and his 15th career PJBT title.  His 15th win puts his in a tie for 5th All-Time in PJBT history, trailing his older brother Travis by 9 titles.  His older brother Travis, is the all-time leader in titles with 24.  Jack swept the center’s events for the year because he won our Marathon Event earlier in the season, back in September 2014 at Bowl-O-Rama.    Celmer’s day went as follows.  He started off qualifying near the top of the leaderboard with a 5 game total of 1030.  Celmer was seeded 2nd behind qualifying leader Christian Francis.  Francis got off to an amazing start, shooting 1135 for 5 and leading the field by over 100 pins.  Celmer made up the deficit in Match Play.  He won all his matches and won the final match play game, the position round final game vs Francis to take the lead of the event entering the stepladder finals.  In the final match, Celmer took on 4th seed Thomas Mattaini.  Entering the final match, Mattaini was on a roll, winning all 3 stepladder matches over Daniel Althouse, Charles Kollar, and Christian Francis.  The title match was shot for shot but Celmer outlasted Mattaini in the title match 194-180 to take home the title and the $200 top scholarship prize.

In Handicap, Lexi Kile, captured her 2nd PJBT title of her career.  Kile had won earlier this year at Lincolnway Bowl back in November 2014.  Lexi, similar to Jack Celmer, was seeded 2nd after qualifying.  She shot 1014 for 5 games with handicap.  She sat in 2nd behind qualifying leader Blayne Tasillo who shot 1026.  In match play, Lexi won her matches and defeated Blayne Tasillo in the final match play position round game to take the tournament lead into the finals.  In the title match, Kile faced off vs Blayne Tasillo.  Kile got off to a quick start while Tasillo struggled.  In the end, Kile defeated Tasillo in the title match 160-134 to take home the title and the $200 top scholarship prize.

We also want to thank Steve Brown, who donated $100 to the scholarship fund on this day because 50 years ago, on 4-4-65, Steve’s high school bowling team won the state championship at Bowl-O-Rama!  How unique.  Thanks to Steve’s donation, we paid out the top 9 bowlers in Scratch and 7 Bowlers in Handicap.  We gave away over $1,300 in scholarship at this event.