Neuer Wins in Impressive Fashion while Brandon Stark Captures Title at ABC West Lanes

The PJBT continued its season with the back end of a tournament double-hitter at ABC West Lanes in Mechanisburg, PA.  On this day, 60 athletes came out to bowl a regular season singles event with standard PJBT singles format.

In Scratch, Alexis Neuer captured her 3rd title of the PJBT season.  However, she did it in impressive fashion.  Neuer shot 254, 231, 181, 242, and 224 during qualifying.  She sat at 1132 (+132) and was seeded in 7th place.  She trailed tournament leader Daniel Althouse by only 63 pins entering match play.  10th place first cut for 5 games was +84.   In Match Play, Neuer went 2-1.  She shot 215 (Win), 217 (Loss), and 258 (Win).  Her final game allowed her to sneak into the final as the 4th seed of 5.  She had the long road of walking the ladder in the finals to win….which she did….and she did in amazing fashion!  Match 1 was vs #5 seed Dylan Zimmerman.  Neuer shot 279 and ended the match early winning 279-222.  In Match 2, Neuer took on #3 seed Connor Kolessides.   Again, the match was over early as Neuer flirted with perfection!  She shot 277 and defeated Kolessides, who shot 214.  In the semi-final match, Neuer took on #2 seed Daniel Althouse.  Ironically, up to this point in the season, Althouse had the top high 3 games series of 831 bowled earlier this season.  Neuer started with the front 10 in this match and shot 288 to win 288-172.  Neuer shot 279-277-288 for and 844 series in her first 3 games of the finals.  Wow!  It was some great bowling.  In the title match, Neuer took on tournament leader Jarrett Defalco.  This match, unlike the first 3, seemed to be a battle…as the lanes transitioned.  It came down the 10th frame where Neuer needed 27 pins to shut out Defalco and win.  She got the first 2 strikes, just needed 7 pins to win, 6 to tie.  Her shot went wide and we saw a wash out (1-2-4-10) and the 10 fell late….for a 7 count….good enough for the victory.  Neuer defeated Defalco in the title match 200-199 to win a $200 top scholarship prize and first place plaque.

In Handicap, Brandon Stark got revenge on his runner-up finish the day before at the Pop Tomek Memorial Tournament with a victory on this day.  He got his 1st ever PJBT title.  Stark entered the event with a 104 average and 86 pins a game.  He shot scratch qualifying games of 121, 169, 126, 158, and 136.  He was seeded 4th out of 39 athletes entering match play.  The first cut for 16th place was +30.  Stark turned it on in match play going 2-1 with games of 154 (Win), 171 (Win) and 106 (Loss).  This propelled Stark into 2nd place entering the stepladder finals.  Stark entered the finals in the semi-final match vs #3 seed Cole Oberst.  Stark defeated Oberst 168-134 and advanced into the title match vs tournament leader Aaron Stump.  The title match came down to the final frames but Stark outlasted Stump 180-164 to take the title.  Stark won the $200 top scholarship prize and plaque for the win.

Congrats also to Chloe Skurzynski who rolled an 11-in-a-row 290 game and Alexis Neuer for her 844 series in the Finals.