Zimmerman & Colon Capture 10th Annual Tomek Memorial Victories

The PJBT continued its 19th Season with a trip to York, PA for our 10th Annual Pop Tomek Memorial Scholarship Tournament.  This 2-Day Event was created many years ago to honor the great PBA Bowler Jim Tomek’s father, who was nicknamed Pop.  Over the years, he was very active in youth bowling as a coach and mentor to many youth.  This event was an extended unique format, similar to a PBA Regional.

All 16 bowlers who make the cut in each division earned scholarships.  The lane pattern was the PBA Cheetah Pattern.  Pop always liked to play the gutter when he bowled and there is no shot that exemplifies that more than Cheetah.  The event had 3 qualifying rounds with top 5 bowlers from each squad advancing to the finals.  The 16th seed was determined by highest girl (if none in the cut) or highest bowlers score not in the finals.  Finals format was head-to-head single elimination matches.  Round of 16 and 8 were 3 games, first bowler to win 2 games advance.  Once we got to 4 bowlers, individual 1-game matches made our bracket go from 4 to 2 to winner.

In Scratch, Dylan Zimmerman of Lebanon, Illnois (formerly Harrisburg PA) took home the Tomek Title.  Zimmerman, a freshmen at McKendree University, came home from college for the weekend to bowl and celebrate the holiday.  He made his trip home worth while.  He won his 1st title of the year in just his 2nd event of the year.   Zimmerman qualified for the finals thru the first squad of qualifying.  He was the #3 seed in the 2pm Saturday squad.  Anthony Mastroianni led the squad with +232 for 6 games.  Mastroianni went on to win the overall high block for all qualifying squads.  Also qualifying was Dawson Miller, Zimmerman, Michael Mirabile, and Alex Horton.  Squad 2 of qualifying saw Mandy Barna, Jack Celmer, Katherine Clouse, Jenna Lehrer, and Rachel Hines qualify for the finals.  On Sunday’s final qualifying squad, Brandon Runk, Alexis Neuer, Joey Ocello, Gene Blair, and Isaac Erickson qualified.  The wild card was Ben Rynes from qualifying Round 1.  In the bracket final, Zimmerman was overall the #7 seed of 16.  Zimmerman won his round of 16 match vs #10 Gene Blair in 2 games 211-190 and 197-189.  This advanced him to the Round of 8 where he took on #15 seed Rachel Hines.  Again, Zimmerman won easily 2-0 over Hines with matches of 278-198, and 223-148.  This advanced him into the Final 4.  In his semi-final match, he took on #5 seed Dawson Miller.  This match was a strike fest!  In the end, Zimmerman shot 265 to Miller’s 244.  This advanced him into the title match vs #1 seed Anthony Mastroianni.  Zimmerman knew to win he would need to bowl another great game….and that is what he did.  Zimmerman shot 259 and outlasted Mastroianni with 231.  In the end, Zimmerman bowled the minimum amount of games (6) to win the title and went 6-0 in his matches!  For the title, Zimmerman received a $500 scholarship and the Major Title Glass Bowling Pin for his win.

In Handicap, Giulietta Colon of Brooklyn, New York, captured her first ever PJBT title.  Colon entered the event with a 75 average and 112 pins handicap a game.  She qualified for the finals off her 1st qualifying squad.  She qualified 4th of 5 bowlers.  Severo Gordon led the squad, followed by Brianna Palasik, Tyler Barnhart, Colon, and Angel Petersam.  In the second qualifying squad, Logan Chappell, Jody Royer, Brayden Lusby, MariBeth Baker, and Kristina Colon advanced.  On Sunday, Lauren Bowersox shot the best handicap qualifying block  of the event at 1183 (-17).  Also advancing were Desiree Dent, Kyle Bowersox, Jacob Dent, and Chase Attig-Chavez.  The wild card advancing was Cloe Noel.  In the Bracket Final, Giulietta Colon was seeded 9th of 16.  She first beat #8 seed Tyler Barnhart 2-0 in the Round of 16.  Scores were 167-153 and 160-158.  She moved onto the Round of 8 vs #16 seed Cloe Noel.  Again, she went 2-0 winning the match 155-135 and 140-126.  This advanced her into the Round of 4 semi-finals.  Her next match was vs her SISTER, Kristina Colon.  In a close match, Guilietta outlasted her sister Kristina 176-168 to advance to the finals.  In the title match, Colon took on #2 seed Severo Gordon.  This title match was again close into the late frames.  In the end, Colon defeated Gordon 194-174 to capture the title.  Giulietta Colon won a $300 scholarship for her win and the 1st Place Glass Bowling Pin for a majot title win.

Congrats also to our additional honor scores bowled and bonus scholarship winners.  Joey Ocello shot 300 during qualifying Sunday to take home the $107 300 Pot.  In addition, Dawson Miller had an 11-in-a-row 299 and Alexis Neuer had an 11-in-a-row 290.  Michael Mirabile won the 18 game bonus pot of $150 for his high 18 game block for all qualifying squads.  Anthony Mastroianni and Lauren Bowersox won $50 bonuses for high block during qualifying.  Finally, our top two girls overall…. Alexis Neuer (+97) $50 and Mandy Barna (+61) $30 won scholarships.

Overall, we gave out over $3500 in scholarships for the 2-Day Event!

Next week:  The PJBT visits one of the new centers on our schedule.  We travel to Wind Gap, PA, and Blue Valley Lanes.  This event will be on Sunday, December 3rd at 10:30am.   This event is a regular season singles event.  Hope to see everyone there!