The 25th season of the Michigan Junior Masters Association kicked of at Lodge Lanes in Belleville, Michigan on August 7th. A full field of 120 bowlers, 41 being female, from all over the midwest and Canada tried to best the lanes and the competition to win the first event of the season. When the dust had all settled Mary Wells (Westerville, OH) and Andrew Bauer (Bay City, MI) were on top of the mountain and earned their first MJMA titles.

Wells was our top qualifier after the 8 game qualifying block and took the number one seed going into the PBA style bracket match-play portion of the event. After a tough first round where she bested Brianne Schmansky 2 games to 1, wells matched up against Addileen Pointer (Highland, MI) in the semi-finals. Pointer, coming off her second place finish at the recent Junior Gold National event struglled with 3 opens in the first five frames while wells kept things clean and closed strong with a 5-bagger to advance to the finals 234-169. In the other semi-finals two of our top title holders squared off as Sarah Lokker (New Baltimore, MI) was matched against Victoria Ferris (Kalamazoo, MI), between these two ladies they hold 9 MJMA titles.

Lokker, who holds five MJMA titles, struggled early with two opens in the first four frames but bounced back with a four bagger to bring herself back into the match but Ferris was keeping things clean and a late four-bagger of her own put the match just out of Lokker’s reach and Ferris moved onto the finals 226-202. In the finals Wells took control early and never relenquished the lead as she threw strikes from the fourth frame on to win the match 269-183.
On the guy’s side, five of the lower seeds in the eight match brackets came out of the first round of match play and going into the semi-finals we still had two of them fighting for a spot in the finals. Bauer, also starting from the number one spot, needed three games in both the first two rounds to get to the semi-finals where he was joned by the #4 seed Nic Sutherland (Grand Bland, MI), #10 seed Patrick Church (Farwell, MI) and Zach Brandt (Fremont, MI) the #14 seed.

Bauer had a clean game going in the semi-final against Sutherland but was trailing late in the match until Sutherland opened in the tenth frame and Bauer capitalized by striking on his first ball in the tenth to advance to the finals 220-215. Brandt and Church were back and forth in their match as well and Brandt walked up in the tenth needing a strike to win the match but a solid eight pin leave allowed Church to advance to his very first final 171-165.

The finals match was filled with back and forth action and when Church threw three strikes in the tenth frame, it forced Bauer to double to have a chance to win the match. Bauer calmly stepped up and threw the first two strikes and filled the last frame with an eight count that gave him his first ever MJMA title.

Over all we handed out over $2,900.00 in scholarships for this event to the top eight males and top four females. Our new champions will have their banners hanging on display starting at our next event in Clarkston, Michigan.

Speaking of the next event, it will mark the 25th time we decend on Cherry Hill Lanes North, the place where it all began, with the 25th Annual Brunswick Cherry Hill North Classic. We will have the qualifying begin at 11AM on Saturday, August 28th with match play at 9AM on Sunday, August 29th. Get your entries in early because we are limited to the first 108 bowlers for this event.

We will also have our annual Alumni Event on Saturday beginning right after the junior bowlers finish their qualifying. The alumni event attracks former MJMA members to match their talents against each other on the same shot the juniors bowl on for the event. Last year we had 40 alumni show up for their shot at winning a banner and the prize money that goes with it. We are expecting a bigger crowd this year so get your entries in early. You will find the information and the entry on the website at www.mjma.net.

Brunswick will be sponsoring the event for the junior bowlers and along with adding to the prize fund they will be running a bowling ball trial session. This “try it before you buy it” session will allow both our junior bowlers and the alumni the chance to try out all the new equipment from Brunswick before you decide to buy your next bowling ball. Staff members from Brunswick will be on hand to run the demo’s so come on in and try out all the new equipment they have to offer. The session will begin right after the qualifying for the juniors is complete and will run during the Alumni portion of the event.