Galaxy Lanes in Grand Blanc, Michigan proved to be just the right medicine for John Kelley (Sterling Heights, MI) and Jennifer Churchill (Windsor, Ont) to each capture their third Alro Steel / MJMA titles this year and their sixth overall in their youth careers. Both bowlers moved into the top ten in tournament wins in the organizations history as Kelley’s win ties him with Chris Sands and Ronnie Sparks Jr. for 6th place and Churchill ties Clarissa Missler for 10th on the All-Time Champions list.

To get to this point though Kelley and Churchill faced off against 112 other competitors in this year’s event. This year was a bit different as we had control of the lane machine and the scoring pace was significantly lower than in years past. One person though decided he was going to shoot a score anyway as Randy Churchill Jr. shot a 300 in the second game, only the second 300 of the season in MJMA. The rest of the field was very tightly bunched as was seen when we only had a 70 pin difference between 5th and 24th place in the qualifying on the boys side. It was so tight that we needed one more game to decide who the top 24 players were going to be as Brandon Dean (Ira Twp., MI) and Josh Harper (South Lyon, MI) tied for the 24th qualifying position. By rule, a one-game roll off was in order and Dean made the field of 24 with a 201-192 win.

As Sunday got underway, the girls’ field was tightly bunched as well and stayed that way all the way through the eighth match play game when Valerie Calberry (Brampton, Ont) and Sara Litteral (Chesterfield, MI) shot big games to move from 4th and 5th place to 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Becky Sulligan (Greer, SC), who was our Junior Gold qualifier for the girls, shot a 200 and won her match but fell from 2nd to 4th place but did claim the last step ladder position over Jessica Baker (Springfield, OH) who shot 211 her last game but fell from 3rd to 5th place. In the finals Litteral defeated Sulligan in the opening game 218-192 as Sulligan opened in back to back frames and just ran out of room to recover. In the semi0finals it was Calberry defeating Litteral, the defending event champion, as she started with the first 3 strikes and then stayed clean for a 216-200 win. This set up an all Canadian final with Calberry and Churchill. Churchill though started with the front six strikes and cruised home with a 257-210 win to earn that 6th MJMA title.

The boys’ field for step ladders included two youths from Pennsylvania and three from Michigan, including a first time step ladder appearance for Josh Brown (Monroe, MI). In the first match Brown faced off against Chris Creeks (Zelienople, PA) and Creeks experience showed through as he pounded out strikes for a 267-172 win to move up and face the other Pennsylvania bowler, Tim Pfeifer (Cranberry Twp., PA). These two have bowled against each other many times and being in the finals is nothing new to either of these bowlers but something happened on the way to the finals for Creeks as the lanes got away from him in a hurry and Pfeifer pulled away with a 234-146 victory.

In the semi-finals Pfeifer faced off against Kelley. Pfeifer opened in the 6th and 7th frames to give Kelley renewed life after he had just opened himself and Kelley took advantage of that by striking on his first two balls in the tenth frame to win the match 232-214. This now set the table for an all Sterling Heights, MI final with Kelley and Ryan Van Hecke (Sterling Heights, MI) who was our tournament leader after qualifying. In a very close and entertaining match it was Kelley holding on for a 206-205 win. Jared Klug (Milwaukee, WI) was the top finisher for the boys in the hunt for the Junior Gold spot as he finished eighth overall in the event.

I want to thank Ken Hochstein and the staff at Galaxy Lanes for another great event. We will be looking forward to next year as we hope to return to Galaxy Lanes again. Next on the event schedule is our final stop of the regular season, a one-day event at Spectrum Lanes in Wyoming, MI, a suburb of Grand Rapids, MI. Mike Eaton and his staff will have the lane machine ready as we close out the year with a double points event that will have an impact on the Bowler and Rookie of the year standings. We will also have our annual “Beat the Otter” event at Spectrum as we will bring in a celebrity substitute to bowl against the kids for bragging rights for the year and a t-shirt. I sure hope our celebrity is ready because after seeing what the kids have done to the lane conditions the last couple of events, our celebrity better shoot a big score or we will be giving out a lot of t-shirts.

It is always a fun event and we are looking forward to a good sized field to compete for the 13th Annual Greater Grand Rapids Open title. We hope to see you there as well to watch some of the best youth amateur bowling in the Midwest. For more information please look to our website at http://mjma.net or you can call Jerry Tarabek Jerry Tarabek at 616-780-2095.