Cook & Honish Capture Victory in Lebanon, PA on Athens Pattern

The PJBT held it’s final Challenge Shot Regular Season Event for Season 16 at Cedar Lanes on May 10,2015.  The event saw 67 bowlers come out and compete on the challenging WTBA Athens Pattern.  The event had 35 competing in Scratch and 32 in Handicap.  Format for event was our normal singles format…(5 games, top 40% 3 games of match play, top 5 stepladder final).

Jack Cook, making a late push for Bowler of the Year, continued his hot streak with his 3rd season title on this day.  Jack was our tournament leader after 5 games of qualifying with a 1086 or +86.   He started off slow with a 163 game…but never looked back.  Shot games of 217, 256, 237, and 213.  In match play, he won his matches with some strong 200+ games and had a 140 pin on the field entering the stepladder final.  In his final stepladder match, Cook took on 2nd seed Brandon Runk.  Runk, a regular on the PJBT tour….had just returned from college and was competing for a title in just his 5th event of the year.  The final match was close throughout but back-to-back opens by Runk late in the match opened the door for Cook….and he walked right thru!  Cook defeated Runk 223-176 and took home the title and the $200 top scholarship prize.  Cook’s win gave him 3 on the year.  We now have 5 bowlers with 3 titles on the year.  NO DOUBT….THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR TITLE IS STILL UNDECIDED….and will come down to the final weekend of regular season competition!  (First time in many years this is the situation)….exciting!

In Handicap, Brianna Honish captured her 1st ever PJBT title.  The road was not easy for Honish but she took advantage of the moment.  During qualifying, Honish was not at the top of the leaderboard but in the hunt.  She shot games of 72, 115, 115, 114, 114.  With her handicap she was at 905 or -95.  She was seeded 12th of 14 bowlers entering Match Play.   In match play, she made her move.  She won her matches with some good games and propelled herself into the 5th and final qualifying position for the stepladder final.  Then the road to victory began!  She walked the ladder!  In match 1, she defeated #4 seed Kera Boys 128-116.  Match 2 saw Honish defeated #3 seed Jadelyn Swisher 154-140.  In the semi-final, Honish beat #2 seed Caden Duff 149-113.  Then came the exciting title match.  Honish took on tournament leader Morgan Long.  Long was in the lead of the match.  Honish got up in the 10th frame needing to strike out to even give herself a chance.  She gets 1 strike….a jersey cross-over 2nd strike….and a 3rd strike.  By striking out, she forced Long to simply get a mark in the final frame to win.  Long left the 3-9 spare combination and did NOT convert.  Honish defeated Long in the title match 148-141 to take home the $200 top scholarship prize.

Thanks to Pure-It Pro Shop for sponsoring our event at Cedar Lanes.

The 300 Pot was not hit on this day and now stands at $155 entering next Saturday’s final regular season event at Colony Park Lanes North, York.