The Bowling IQ Sport Challenge event had a lot of twists and turn over the two days at Sunnybrook Lanes in Sterling Heights but in the end it was Tylor Greene (Davison, MI) winning his second MJMA title and Chelsey Purdum (Wyoming, MI) taking her first MJMA title.

Purdum worked her way into the stepladders as the number four qualifier but methodically disposed of Lauren Krywy (Sterling Heights, MI), who was making her first ever stepladder showing, 235 – 188 and then took out 5-time champion Tori Ferris (Kalamazoo, MI) 216 – 180 to set up a match with the tournament leader Sarah Lokker (New Baltimore, MI).

Lokker had led the event on the ladies side all the way through qualifying and retained the top spot after match play while averaging 208.4 on the very demanding lane conditions. However, Purdum was up to the challenge and it went down to the tenth and beyond before a winner was determined. Purdum had posted her 212 game when Lokker came up in the tenth. After getting a spare on her first two throws it was the strike on the fill ball that gave her a 212 as well and forced a one-ball rolloff. Lokker chose to go first and got a 9 count, Purdum calmly stepped up and rolled a strike to win the match and her first title.

The guys saw a number of ups and downs as well. Andrew Anderson (Holly, MI) was the top qualifier and was still on top after match play where he went 10-2-0. Although he led the event by a wide margin there were four others looking to take the title home and Ryan Powers (Portage, MI) showed he was ready for the challenge winning the first two matches over Elliot Arnold (Wayne, MI) 225-191 and Brad Berak (Macomb, MI) 234-193. Powers then ran into Greene who started quickly with the first three strikes while Powers struggled with a couple of early open frames. And that was enough to give Greene the win 201-173 and advance to the finals.

Anderson had been waiting for a longtime before his match but they two bowlers were even through four and when Greene had a split pop up in the fifth it looked as Anderson had the edge but Greene struck in the next four frames to take the lead going into the tenth. Anderson could not get the fall he needed in the tenth and Greene benefited with his second MJMA title 205-188.

Junior Gold spots were also awarded to Purdum and Anderson and they will represent MJMA in the upcoming National tournament in July in Indianapolis.
Our next event is the Christmas tournament at Airport Lanes in Jackson, MI. The two day event begins on Saturday, December 10th at Noon with match play on Sunday, December 11th beginning at 9:00AM. If you need entry forms please go to www.mjma.net for more information.