Zimmerman Goes Back-To-Back while Hood Wins at Special Event in Chambersburg

The PJBT continued its 17th Season with our Bonus Payout Tournament in Southern PA.  For the past couple of years, the PJBT has made a trip to Chambersburg, PA, for our Bonus Payout Scholarship Tournament.  This event has become famous over the years thanks to the support of Kurtis Barron and Engineered Construction Products.  Kurtis was a regular attendee of the PJBT for many years as his children….Tyler & Kaitlin competed.  Being they live in this area….Kurtis’ company started an event where he donated a large scholarship fund check to be given out on the day of the event.  Being his kids are older now and involved in other events but bowling….this year’s event was bittersweet….as it was his last year for sponsoring the event.  As in past years, he gave a $1000 donation to the prize fund so that we could pay out double the normal top prize ($400) and over 2/3 of the bowlers who made match play earned a scholarship.  The PJBT would like to thank Kurtis for his past support of our events and hope to see his family and him at future “reunion PJBT” functions.

On this day, 48 bowlers took to the lanes to compete for the Bonus Payout Scholarships.  We saw 20 bowlers in Scratch and 28 bowlers in Handicap compete.  The event was our normal singles format but the event was conducted on the challenging WTBA Athens Pattern.  The pattern seemed to play harder than normal as scores were low.  It was a grind for our competitors.

In Scratch, Dylan Zimmerman of Harrisburg, captured his 7th career PJBT title and 5th of the season.  His 5th title tied him with Zachary Dragovits for most titles on the year.  This also was back-to-back victories for Zimmerman, who won last week at East Lincoln Lanes PJBT event.  Zimmerman led the field of 20 by being the only bowler to go “plus” for the 5 game qualifying round.  Zimmerman shot games of 220, 201, 202, 176, and 210.  He stood at +9 in the lead.  The first cut 10th place was -141!  In Match Play, Zimmerman went 2-1 shooting games of 216, 234, and 205.  Zimmerman stood at +124 and led the field by 70 pins entering the finals.  In the final match, Zimmerman stook on 2nd seed Anthony Neuer.  On a day when scores were low….Zimmerman never slowed down.  He shot 221 in the final match and defeated Neuer 221-199.  Zimmerman won the $400 top prize and plaque for title.  On this day, we paid out the top 7 of 10 semi-finalists with scholarships.

In Handicap, Breanne Hood captured her 2nd career PJBT title and 2nd of the year.  Breanne was near the top of the leaderboard all day but wasn’t the leader for much of it.  Breanne shot scratch games in qualifying of 91, 133, 126, 95, and 114.  With her 94 pins handicap, she stood at +29 after 5 games.  She was in 2nd place behind tournament leader Andrew Sass by 24 pins.  The top 5 entering match play was Sass, Hood, Chloe Skurzynski, Jacob Ricketts, and Kody Creager.  The first cut for 12th place was -65.  In match play, Breanne went 3-0 with games of 110, 103, and 133.  She was now the tournament leader over 2nd seed Chloe Skurzynski.  In the title match, it was Hood vs Skurzynski.  This set up an interesting finish….because if Chloe won….we would have had the same 2 winners in a PJBT events for 2 weeks in a row….as Zimmerman in Scratch and Skurzynski won last week at East Lincoln Lanes.  The match was action-packed and brought surprises.  Tournament Director Matt was impressed at the effort made by Chloe to defeat Breanne.  Let me explain.  Match started out normal with Chloe in the lead.  Chloe made a shot around the 6th frame and got a shooting pain up her arm.  It looked as though she pulled a muscle.  She was in major pain and didn’t look like she could continue.  However, after consulting Matt on rules….she finished out the match bowling 2-handed!! and she was not bad at it….she did have 1 solid strike during the game.  Matt was impressed that she was able to do that.  He mentioned in today’s bowling….bowlers who are 1-handed or 2-handed usually can’t do both.  Some bowlers can bowl right and left handed but not 1 and 2 handed.  Despite her strike, she had some open frames and a gutter ball.  In the end, Hood overtook Skurzynski for the title 205-164.  Hood captured the $400 top prize and champions trophy.  After the match, Hood and Skurzynski shared a moment of joy together despite her injury….showing the best of competition….it was great to see.  For the bonus payouts in Handicap, the top 9 bowlers of 12 who made match play took home scholarships.

No honor scores were bowled on this day and $28 carry over to our large 3-Person Team Tournament on March 6th.