The Michigan Junior Masters Association rolled into Salt River Lanes in New Baltimore, Michigan the weekend of February 20-21, 2010 with 81 bowlers looking to take home this years title and scholarship earnings. The past few years have seen the scoring average for this event go pretty high so we made some adjustments to the Silver Bullet oil machine to make the conditions play just a bit tougher and it worked. The 45 foot oil pattern really challenged the membership and only one bowler, Erik Stanley (Warren, MI), managed to average over 200 for the entire event.

Stanley led the boy’s side of the event after the 20 games of qualifying and match play to earn the top spot for our stepladder finals but four other guy’s were waiting in the wings to take home the coveted title. Aaron Lorincz (Belleville, MI), who shot the high single game of the event at 267 was in second place with James Koss (Brighton, MI), Kevin Madajczyk II (Shelby Twp., MI) and newcomer Brock Finch (Stirling, Ontario Canada) rounding out the top five.

Finch and Madajczyk II squared off in the first match and when back to back opens for Madajczyk II showed up in the 8th and 9th frames it was Finch, who bowled a clean game, winning the first match 214-182. Finch then faced Koss in the quarter final match and in was now Koss’s turn to roll the clean game as Finch found the opens late in the match to give Koss a 216-165 win and advance to the semi-finals. Lorincz, who has already chalked up two titles this year, was ready and waiting for Koss and he rolled the third consecutive clean game to win the match 198-154 to advance to the finals.

Stanley, who had dominated match play all day on Sunday, was awaiting his chance to earn his first singles title to go along with his doubles title earned in January. However, opens in the 3rd, 4th and 5th frames seemed to all but lock out that hope until Lorincz opened with a Greek Church in the 6th frame. Both bowlers traded strikes the balance of the way but when Stanley came up in the tenth he needed two strikes to give himself a chance for the title only to have a stuffed ten pin end the day and give Lorincz his second singles title and third overall this year.

The girl’s had their own flare of excitement going on as the defending champion from last season Aleksandra Hudak (Taylor, MI) found a way to make the top four by winning her final match play game and jumped from 5th to 3rd place and make the step-ladder finals. Joining Hudak in the step-ladder finals were tournament leader Kara Richard (Tecumseh, MI), Tori Ferris (Kalamazoo, MI) and Samantha Johnson (Wyoming, MI).

Hudak’s luck seemed to quickly vanish however as she had 3 splits show up in the first 7 frames against Johnson and couple that with Johnson being clean through nine frames it all added up to a Johnson victory 189-169. Johnson moved up to the semi-finals to face Ferris and this match literally went down to the last ball. With the game tied at 158 after ten frames, a one ball roll-off format was used and both Johnson and Ferris struck on the first extra ball. Johnson then carried 9 on the second extra ball and won the match when Ferris carried only 7 pins on her second shot.

Johnson faced off in the finals against Richard and her luck seemed to change all of a sudden as she rolled into open frame problems in four of the first seven frames while Richard was doing what she need to do by filling frames. Even a split in the tenth frame for Richard was not going to deter her from winning her 4th MJMA title with a 176 – 149 victory.

We also awarded Junior Gold spots to both Nicole Kinney (Brownstown, MI) and Jalen White (Lansing, MI). They will represent MJMA at the National Junior Championships in Indianaoplis, Indiana this coming July.

Our next event will be the 4th Annual Brunswick Taylor Open. Brunswick has stepped in to add scholarship money to this event and will be conducting a clinic prior to the event on bowling ball technology. Anyone wishing to attend the seminar can sign up on-line at www.mjma.net . Entry forms for the event can also be found on the website and do not forget this event fills up every year. With the end of high school bowling, our events typically fill up very fast the rest of the year so if you are looking to bowl in upcoming events, please make sure your entry forms are in to the tournament director as soon as possible.

Rosters for the Brunswick Taylor Open will be posted on the website about one to two weeks in advance of the event. If you have sent in an entry and do not see your name on the roster, please contact Jerry Tarabek at (616) 780-2095.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Taylor Lanes on March 20-21 for the Brunswick Taylor Open. Saturday’s start time is 11:00am with check in beginning at 8:30AM to allow for check-in prior to the Brunswick clinic which starts at 8:45AM. Please make sure you are there early since we will have a lot of people to check-in and we will need to start on time to allow Taylor Lanes the time to re-oil the lanes for the night leagues.

If you have any questions please contact Jerry Tarabek.