In what proved to be a very competitive and entertaining weekend, the 15th Annual Michigan Junior Masters Association Greater Lansing Open produced our first back-to-back winner of the season and another first-time champion. Samantha Johnson (Wyoming, MI) won her second MJMA title and the first female to win back-toback events since Bethan McGeary (New Kensington, PA) accomplished the feat back in 2007 while Aaron Lorincz (Belleville, MI) solidified his points lead with his first ever MJMA win.

Royal Scot Lanes and the Kwiecien family once again played host to the annual trek to Lansing, Michigan and this year a field of 146 bowlers, including 40 female bowlers, marched in to try and conquer the challenging conditions that awaitied them. The 40 female bowlers was the largest female field in recent history and also meant that the ladies match-play on Sunday would consist of 12 bowlers vying for the title.

Johnson had finished as the top seeded qualifier going into match play however both Tori Ferris (Kalamazoo, MI) and Sarah Lokker (New Baltimore, MI) finished ahead of Johnson after the match-play portion was complete on Sunday. Rounding out the top five for the girl’s step-ladder finals were Brandie Reamy (Livonia, MI) and our Rookie-of-the-Year leader Leslie Brown (Novi, MI).

In the first match Reamy quickly jumped on some early nerves by Brown and kept the game clean all the way through to advance to the next match 192-146. Johnson was awaiting Reamy and once again Reamy seemed to be in control but back-to-back opens in the 7th and 8th frames allowed Johnson the break she needed and Johnson advanced with a 179-172 win. Johnson next faced Lokker and again Johnson fell into an early hole thanks to a couple of open frames but a combination of a three bagger by Johnson and a couple of late open frames by Lokker, gave Johnson the trip to the finals 187-164.

In the championship match Ferris started very strong by getting strikes in three of the first five frames but Johnson was also filling frames along the way. In the sixth frame Ferris threw what proved to be the door opening split as Johnson capitalized on the opening and threw the next four strikes to win the match and the title 225-189. Johnson collected her second title and the $325.00 scholarship that went along with it. The rest of the 12 bowler field split the remaining $1,100.00 in scholarship money,which was the largest payout of the season on the ladies side.

The guys’ had their own excitement as well as four non-winners made it to the five man step-ladder finals. Lefties seemed to have a good shot all weekend and both Andrew Klingler (Holly, MI) and Bryan Eaton (Wyoming, MI) took advantage of that and made the step-ladders. Klingler took the top spot while Eaton finished fourth after match-play. Joining the two lefties were Aaron Lorincz (Belleville, MI), Michael Van Peeren (Wyandotte, MI) and Justin Netherland (Port Clinton, OH).

Netherland, who had won our last event in Kalamazoo, started out fast with a three bagger and looked to be in control until splits in the 5th and 7th frames and an open in the 9th aided Eaton to his first stepladder win 209-180. Eaton next faced Van Peeren who was bowling in his first ever step-ladder final. Eaton capitalized on his first game success and led most of the way to win his second match 208-187 over Van Peeren. In the semi-finals Eaton faced Lorincz who had made his way up the qualifiers list all day on Sunday. This match was very tight and went back and forth until Eaton opened in the 6th and Lorincz took control rolling a four-bagger to advance to the finals 202-194.

Lorincz put the pressure on Klingler right away in the final match as he threw four strikes in the first five frames while Klingler, bowling his first ever step-ladder match, found a split in the third frame to give Lorincz the opening he needed. Klingler closed out his game well but Lorincz was not to be denied his first MJMA title as he won the match 220-193.

The guy’s split their share of over $3,000.00 in scholarships for this event with Lorincz taking the largest share by winning $600.00 for first while Kllingler took $500.00 for second plus an additional $50.00 for being high qualifier. We also awarded two Junior Gold spots from this event and both Aaron Lorincz and Brandie Reamy punched their tickets to Indianapolis, Indiana to represent MJMA at the National Tournament.

The next event on our schedule is the Turbo 2-N-1 Sport Challenge event being held December 12-13, 2009 at Sunnybrook Lanes in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Turbo 2-N-1 has added $1,000.00 to the scholarship fund for the event and will also be hosting a clinic for our bowlers prior to the event. Lou Marquez, Turbo 2-N-1 Director of Training, will be there along with Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, multiple PWBA Tournamnet Champion and Team USA member, to run the clinic.

The clinic which focusses on Sport Bowling and preparing yourselve for Junior Gold Nationals is free to our members and will begin at 9:30AM in the banquet center at Sunnybrook Lanes. Pre-registration is suggested so that there are enough materials and give-aways available for all who attend. You can pre-register by going on-line at www.mjma.net and following the links at the Turbo 2-N-1 information. You can also pre-register by sending in your tournament entry form and filling in the bottom portion of the entry and sending to the address listed.

We are all looking forward to this special event and hope that we see many of you in attendance both in the Turbo 2-N-1 clinic and out on the lanes to compete against some of the best bowlers from the Midwest and Canada!