Kristy Kerr (Bay City, MI) and Tim Pfeifer (Cranberry Twp, MI) added to their list of titles already won in the Alro Steel – Michigan Junior Masters Associations 2nd Annual Greater Taylor Open. With the event running the week after the end of the high school season in Michigan a large turnout was expected and that ran true as 140 bowlers participated in the event, the second largest field in MJMA history.

The bowlers were faced with the duanting task of tackling not only the other bowlers but the lanes as well since the challenging Chameleon pattern awaited them. The boys tackled the conditions and when the eight games of qualifying were complete, thirteen had averaged over 200 on the pattern. Cory Hines (Jackson, MI) led the way with a fine 1777 total with Pfeifer right behind at 1772. The ladies were led by Kerr who shot a fine 1595 on the pattern with Bethan McGeary (New Kensington, PA) not too far behind with a nice 1540 total.

The match play portion saw 24 guys and 8 girls square off against each other and as usual a lot of position changes were taking place. Adam Jablonski (Sterling Height, MI) made the most of his Sunday however as he moved from the final qualifying position in 24th place to capture a spot in the step-ladder finals by finishing 5th after the 20 games. Joining Jablonski in the top five were Hines, Pfeifer, John Kaashoek (Jenison, MI) and Brian Dimuzio Jr. (Eastpointe, MI). The first match saw Jablonski throw a much needed three bagger while Dimuzio struggled with a few splits to win the first match 188-160. In the next match however, Jablonski seemed to find the touch on the lanes and again threw a much needed three bagger as Kasshoek continued to pressure him. However an open in the 7th frame and a damaging split in the 10th frame cost Kaashoek any chance of advancing as Jablonski moved to the semi-finals with a 217-180 victory

In the semi finals Jablonski would face off against Pfeifer. After a split in the first frame Jablonski quickly recovered with yet another three bagger to close the gab with Pfeifer but a 5-10 split in the 10th frame sealed Jablonski’s fate as Pfeifer moved to the finals bowling a clean game in a 215-193 win. The finals pitted Hines and Pfeifer who were the top two averages during the event. Hines started quickly throwing the first four strikes but opened in the 6th frame to give Pfeifer life. Pfeifer again threw a clean game but his final score was in jeopardy when Hines stepped up in the 10th frame. Needing only a mark to win his first title Hines left a 2 pin on the first ball and then proceeded to miss his spare and hand Pfeifer his 5th MJMA title in a thrilling 213-211 match.

The ladies also had their share of excitement in the finals. Kerr had relinquished her top qualifying position to Addileen Pointer (Highland, MI) who won all eight of her match play games on Sunday to garner the full 240 bonus pins and take over the top spot by 41 pins. Kerr was second with McGeary third and Jennifer Guertin (Milford, MI) in fourth. In the first match, McGeary faced off against Guertin with Guertin getting off to the quick start with a double right off the bat. Both continued to make spare until the ninth when McGeary picked a 6-10 spare and Guertin closed with strikes in the 9th and first ball in the 10th to seal the win 204-174 and advance to the semi-finals against Kerr.

Kerr started strong throwing strikes in four of the first five frames while Guertin opened her first two frames and was trying to play catch up. Kerr however would not let that happen as she stayed clean through the first nine frames and advanced to the finals with a 211-164 victory. In the finals, Kerr would face Pointer who was coming off a Michigan High School Singles title the previous weekend. Pointer showed why she won that title early as she started with three strikes to open the match. However back to back opens in the fourth and fifth frames opened the door a bit for Kerr and she capitalized by throwing her own four-bagger in the 5th through 8th frames to put the match away and win her 7th MJMA title 228-170.

In all, it was another very successful event at Taylor Lanes. In the two events we have held their a total of 290 bowlers have competed, far and away our best tournament totals of the season. The Dobbins family has bent over backwards to make sure we have everything we need and even some things we didn’t and we are very much looking forward to being back there again next season.

Brunswick also was a part of this event as well, not only with the donation of another Ultra Zone bowling ball to raffle off but with a seminar that was held right after bowling was completed. I want to thank Billy Orlikowski who conducted a technical session on what pin position and drilling are all about on a bowling ball. Although the crowd was smaller than we had hoped, the bowlers who remained got some very good information on equipment and how to match that equipment to lane conditions. Kind of ironic that three of the bowlers who made the boys step-ladder finals were in that class, must be that the information proved to be valualble to them.

Two more MJMA bowlers also qualified for the Junior Gold National Tournament at this event as Cory Hines and Kayla Blanchard punched their tickets to the tournament in Detroit this coming July. We will be giving away two more spots at our next event in Grand Blanc at Galaxy Lanes on April 26th and 27th, we will also award at least two spots at our event in May and Spectrum Lanes in Grand Rapids, MI.

The total scholarships awarded for the Taylor event was over $5,000.00 bringing our season total to nearly $42,000.00. With two events left along with the Championship event in June we are anticipating having our best year ever in awarding scholarships as we will approach $70,000.00 for the season. This is not possible with out the assistance of people like the Glick family and all the people at Alro Steel. Their sponsorship is greatly appreciated and we are looking forward to their involvement for many years to come.

As mentioned the next event is April 26th and 27th in Grand Blanc at Galaxy Lanes. Mr. Ken Hochstien has given us the lane machine for this event so the conditions will once again challenge our bowlers. This event will also see our annual Beat the Otter challenge. A guest bowler will come in to challenge our youth bowlers on the same conditions and set the bar for a score to beat. Any youth bowler beating that score will receive a commemorative t-shirt and bragging rights for the year.

We look forward to seeing everyone there and don’t forget it is an 11:00 AM start for this event. If you have any questions or need further information please contact Jerry Tarabek.