The final regular season event is now complete for the 21st season of the Alro Steel / MJMA. It is quickly becoming a tradition that the folks at Spectrum Lanes in Wyoming, Michigan set a tough road for our youth bowlers and this year was no exception. In the lowest scoring event in the last three events, Matt Anderson (Davison, MI) and Bethan McGeary (New Kensington, PA) led the way through qualifying as the top seeds going into the PBA style bracket format for match play.

However, as we know, in brackets anything can happen and it did this weekend. Not only did the two top seeds get knocked out in the first round of competition but only four (4) of the twelve (12) higher seeds made it through to the second round of competition. In the second round, three (3) of those four (4) seeds got through with the girl’s #2 seed Kristy Kerr (Essexville, MI) being the only casualty.

As for the girl’s six-time winner Jennifer Churchill (Windsor, Ont) faced off against Christina Huttinger (Zelienople, PA) in the finals. It was the first time Huttinger had made the finals and she took full advantage as she focused on her game and never watched the opponents frames to score a 202-176 win and earn her first MJMA title and the $300.00 scholarship that went with the win. We also qualified another girl for Junior Gold and that was Bethan McGeary who was our qualifying leader for the first 8 games.

On the boy’s side, four non-singles winners advanced to the semi-finals as David Klaas (North Street, MI) faced off against Andy Toole (Lawton, MI) and Brian McMahon (Saginaw, MI) was challenged by Scott Honeysett (Lansing, MI). Klaas defeated Toole 172-169 when Toole opened in the 10th frame and McMahon edged Honeysett in a very tight 223-214 match. In the finals, Klaas took an early lead thanks to a couple of open frames by McMahon but that soon dwindled as McMahon strung seven straight strikes to overtake Klaas and win his second MJMA title, first singles, 232-199.

This event also was the “Beat the Otter” event and our celebrity bowler, Billy Orlikowski, did his best on the same lane conditions as the kids bowled on but he could muster only a 210 high game for his four game set. That meant that anyone rolling a 211 or better would earn bragging rights and a T-shirt specially made for the event. Well, Billy should be glad to know that 12 girls and 46 guys beat that score to earn the rewards for this year. Sure hope I can get a volume discount on those shirts this year.

I do want to thank Billy Orlikowski though for taking the time to bowl with the kids. It is in tribute to Dan Ottman that we carry on this tradition and we will continue to do it for the years to come. Orlikowski spoke about his history with Ottman and how “The Otter’ influenced who he is and his bowling career. He also helped us announce the agreement with Brunswick Bowling as they will take over as the official bowling ball sponsor for the Alro Steel / MJMA for the upcoming 2007-08 season. We will have a number of special events going on next year and Brunswick will be part of that with a couple of training schools on top of bowling ball raffles and coupons for the MJMA bowlers for discounts on equipment. Thanks to Bill O and the staffs at Brunswick for making this happen.

Our next event will be the Daniel C. Ottman Memorial Championship Tournament at the Monroe Sports Center on June 8, 9 and 10th. This invitational tournament will bring the best that the Alro Steel / MJMA has to offer together to compete for the tournament title and their share of the close to $20,000.00 in scholarships that will be awarded. We will kick off the event Friday night with the opening ceremonies that begin at 6:00PM so anyone wanting to take part in the festivities needs to be there early.

We hope to see a great turnout again this year as we close out the 21st Alro Steel / MJMA season and look forward to next year, our 22nd season, starting August 4th at Lodge Lanes in Belleville, Michigan. More information is available here on the website, or you can call Jerry Tarabek at (616) 780-2095.