Youngest Winning Combination in PJBT History Capture Pop Tomek Memorial Scholarship Titles

The PJBT continued its 17th season with another Classic Event in our Season Schedule.  On this day, we rolled off the Pop Tomek Memorial Scholarship Tournament.  Many years ago, the PJBT started a Memorial Tournament in the name of Pop Tomek.  Pop Tomek, as he was known, was the father of regional bowler Jim Tomek Jr.  Pop was a bowling coach and signifigantly involved in the youth bowling programs in the Harrisburg area years ago.  After his passing, the PJBT started an annual event in his name.

This year’s event location was moved to Red Crown Bowling Center in Harrisburg, PA.  We had 58 athletes for the event take on Pop’s oil pattern…the PBA Cheetah Pattern.   The format for the Pop Tomek Memorial was each bowler bowl 6 games.  After 6 games, the top 16 bowlers were seeded in a bracket (1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, and so forth).  The Round of 16 was 3 games max….first bowler to win 2 games head-to-head advance.  We did the same format for the Round of 8.  Once we got to 4 bowlers, we went to individual matches head-to-head.  Bracket goes from 4 to 2 to winner.  This format is similar to the PBA Regional Format.

Pop would have been proud on this day to be able to know that our Scratch & Handicap Winners Combined Age was 23.  We had a 12 year old win his 1st Scratch Title and an 11 year old youth bowler win his 1st ever PJBT Handicap title.

In Scratch, Alex Horton, just 12 years old….beat out some great competitors to win his 1st ever PJBT title and in Scratch!  Horton started out in qualifying shooting games of 179, 190, 184, 249, 198, and 195.  He stood at -5 (1195) and was seeded 4th out of 37 scratch bowlers.  The 16th place cut for 6 games in Scratch was -114.  The bracket finals began and this is where everyone started paying attention to Horton.  All the bowlers I mentioned have such talent and was exciting to watch Alex take them on.  In the Round of 16, Horton took on #13 seed Zachary Bowers.  Their match went three games with Horton winning after losing game 1, 178-197 / 203-163 / 183-142.  He advanced to the Round of 8 to take on #5 seed Kasey Sullivan.  Their match also went 3 games.  Again, Horton lost Game 1 and battled back to victory winning 224-234 / 231-221 / 217-192.  Onto the Round of 4 and the semi-final.  Horton took on #10 Jamie Kelly in the semi-final match.  Horton shot 247 and defeated Jamie Kelly 247-223.  This advanced him to the title match vs #6 Tristan Leyen.  In the title match,  Horton got off to a quick start on Leyen and never looked back.  Horton defeated Leyen in the title match 211-178.  Horton took home of the Pop Tomek Memorial Title Plaque and a top prize of a $600 scholarship!!

In Handicap, Matthew Meehan captured his 1st ever PJBT title in his 1st ever event.  Meehan entered the tournament with a 99 entering average and 90 pins a game.  His route to victory was also a battle to the top.  In qualifying, he shot scratch games of 88, 78, 96, 75, 105, and 133.  He was at -84 (1116) and was in 9th place out of 21 athletes.  16th place cut off for bracket was -157.  Meehan began the bracket with a match vs #9 Jocelyn Hood.  The match went 3 games with Meehan winning 2-1 (247-194 / 198-211 / 186-181).  In the Round of 8, Meehan took on tournament leader Tevon Kerr.  However, Meehan was not worried.  He swept his match vs Kerr 2-0 (203-192 / 199-185).  In the Round of 4, Meehan took on #3 seed Nate Davy.  This match was close to the end but Meehan outlasted Davy 195-174 to advance to the title match.  In the final match, Meehan took on #7 Brandon Stark.  This match came down to the last frame….but in the end, Meehan defeated Stark 218-205 to take the Pop Tomek Title.  Meehan won $300 top scholarship prize and the Pop Tomek Memorial Title Plaque.

Special Thanks to the Tomek Family for donating $2500 to the prize fund for this year’s event and also getting Storm to donate 2 bowling balls and 2 bowling bags for our raffles.  It was another great Memorial Event.