The Alro Steel - Michigan Junior Masters Association rolled into Royal Scot Lanes in Lansing, Michigan for the 21st Annual Alro Steel Greater Lansing Open. This year’s fields of 101 bowlers were all vying for a title and their share of over $3,500.00 in total scholarship purse available.

Traditionally, our stop at Royal Scot Lanes is for the Adult – Junior event in January however, the Michigan State tournament will be hosted by Royal Scot Lanes this year and the Kwiecien family were kind enough to move the tournament to November as a singles event. Since it was singles, we got to play with the lane machine and thanks to our friends at Kegel the scores plummeted compared to our recent events.

A very challenging 33 foot pattern with plenty of up front oil made the scoring very difficult and there were more than a few confused and frustrated youth bowlers. Our tradition, going back to when Dan Ottman started the program was always to test the bowlers and give them something to learn from. Ottman’s famous phrase of “Hate me now, thank me later” was no more true than this weekend.

After the eight games of qualifying, only one bowler stood above a 200 average. Nicolas Sutherland (Grand Blanc, MI) stood alone with a fine 1639 score for his 8-game block. But eight games was not enough to set the match-play field as we had ties on both the girls’ and guys’ side as we had a tie for the final qualifying spot in both divisions. After the one game roll off, Mikel Polley (Mt. Morris, MI) and Megan Seavey (Fenton, MI) were put into the field of 24 boys and 6 girls who would be back on Sunday for match-play competition.

Sunday proved to be another scoring challenge as the field was tightly bunched most of the day on both sides with the exception of Nicolas Sutherland (Grand Blanc, MI) who led qualifying from Saturday and continued his dominance on Sunday as the top qualifier and number one seed in the step ladders for the boys. Rounding out the boys finals field were Adam Jablonski (Sterling Heights, MI), Garret Gauthier (Lapeer, MI) who had qualified 23rd, Ryan Dobie (Springfield, OH) and Jonathan Schiller (Milford, MI) who jumped 4 spots in the final position round match to make the top five by 2 pins.

In the first step ladder match it looked like no one wanted to win until Schiller took charge by hitting a four-bagger (aka Hambone) late to win 188-130. Schiller then continued his hot bowling as he shot a clean game in defeating Gauthier, who was making his first step ladder appearance, 217-157. Jablonski was next in the ladder and our number two qualifier quickly found his stroke on the championship pair as he bowled a clean game that included 9 strikes to advance to the finals with a 248-187 win. In the finals, Jablonski continued his striking prowess as Sutherland struggled to carry a strike and Jablonski went on to win his second Alro Steel – MJMA title 225-184.

In the ladies final Sarah Lokker (New Baltimore, MI) followed up her qualifying lead as she led through match play to earn the top seed in the step ladder finals. Kara Richard (Tecumseh, MI) was in second while seven-time Alro Steel – MJMA champion Kristy Kerr (bay City, MI) was third and Courtney Spaulding (Tecumseh, MI) making her first step ladder final in fourth.

Spaulding showed some nerves in the first match with a couple of early open frames but it was Kerr’s six strikes in a row that put the match away late as she advanced to the semi-final with a 195-160 victory. Kerr Continued her drive to championship number eight with another six strike performance against Richard but it was a 9 count on the final ball of the match that created a tie at 201. With the format of a one-ball roll-off in play both Richard and Kerr struck two times in a row but on the third roll Richard threw an eight count while Kerr filled the frame with another strike to move into the finals match.

In the finals match Kerr showed some uncharacteristic miscues with opens in the second, third and fifth frames but Lokker also opened in the 4th and 5th to keep the match close. Lokker then proceeded to throw 4 strikes in a row to close out the match and earn her second Alro Steel – MJMA singles title and third title overall.

We awarded over $3,500.00 in total scholarship for this event to bring the total for the season to $16,150.00. Along with that, we awarded three Junior Gold spots for this event. Josh Jablonski (Sterling Heights, MI), Andy Toole (Lawton, MI) and Kristy Kerr (Bay City, MI) all earned their trip to Indianapolis in July 2009 for the National Tournament to represent Alro Steel – MJMA.

Our next event is the 7th Annual Alro Steel Sunnybrook Sport Challenge at Sunnybrook Lanes in Sterling Heights, Michigan on December 13th and 14th. We have room for a lot of bowlers and with the enhanced scholarships that will be available, estimated at over $4,500.00, we should see a very large turnout. Bowlers, you may want to get your entries in early for this one and do not forget we will also have the cookie dough fundraiser orders ready for pick up at Sunnybrook Lanes as well.