Well, it was a long and grueling weekend at JBT Pac NW located at Triangle Bowl in Longview, WA.
I believed Jeff and Evan planned to bowl there around this time because they installed new brunswick pro lanes and approaches, that they recently finished.
Saturday, regular event and format. They threw out the kegel route 66 pattern from the kegel "challenge series". its a 4 to 1 ratio. didnt have to play too far left, mostly anywhere from 11 to 16 is where you wanted to be. scores weren't ridiculously high but they were up there, I believe i qualified 3rd that day after the qualifying round. I felt pretty good going into the semi final round, Game 1 i ended up losing 250 to 240 (some where in that range) and losing game 2 248 to 245, i was pretty disappointed losing those 2 matches not because i lost and they bowled better but the fact that i lost the 60 bonus pins that would of helped me move up the standings then i lost game 3 of matchplay after chopping a spare. I started putting away my stuff because there was no way in hell i was gonna make top 5 after leaving 90 bonus pins out there on the lanes....
but.... some how, someway i ended making top 5 by 2 pins.. which was a shock to me cause i left the 90 pins out there.
Well i ended up bowling in my opinion one of the hottest bowlers as of late, in Makayla Douglas, I was terrified to bowl her because she is really good. I opened in the 10th frame again and basically figured i was done. but a bad break gave me the win then the next match, i didnt throw the ball worth a pile of you know what. and lost.
Sunday: Invitational time. I had a bye into the top 16 via total points from the whole season. I didn't throw a great opening game, then made a ball change and threw 2 straight big games, then game 4 i ran into a wierd transition where it went about 3 to 4 ft longer so i shot a terrible game 4, but the 10th frame i made a ball change that would end up being the best decision i have made so far in my bowling career, moving in to about 18 and using a ball with surface and game 5 i couldnt miss, so i finished at 29 over and qualified 5th for the 16 man triple elimination bracket.
I started feeling it and got into that mindset i wasn't going to easily come out of. I started putting frames together and was winning matches. as we got down to it, i realized that i haven't lossed a game yet and had to bowl Eddy Smith in the round of 4. I was determined and just put shots together and moved on to the "show" or championship round. I had to bowl ,my buddy and co writer of this blog, Cameron Weier.
What happened next was spectular and nothing short of amazing.
Since i was the higher seed i decided i would start 1st and finished last because I wanted the outcome of the game to be in my hands and not camerons. I started out with a split, five bagger as cameron opened up with the front six. after the open in the 1st and watching cameron double to start out, i told myself i have to stay in it and give myself a chance to win this thing in the end. so i got into this mindset and i honestly got lost in the match, like i had no idea how many i threw together and i wasnt paying attention to what cameron was doing or what the score was. i just knew i had to put together the best shot i could, each time i threw the ball. at this point I had threw a 8 bagger on the board while cammys run stopped at 7, and went spare, spare going into the 10th frame. Cameron doubled to force me to throw the first one in the 10th to win the match and title. I went up and didnt do anything different from any shot before this frame, everything was the same, only thing I did differently was the extra time i took breathing and relaxing to make sure i was ready to throw the shot. I went up there and in my mind it was the best shot i thrown all day long, and got it to the pocket and strike to win the invitational title.
It was by far the biggest win i have ever had in my career and biggest winnings i have ever bowled for. I was completely shocked that i ended up going undefeated through the bracket and beat one of the toughest and by far one of the best bowlers to ever come out of Washington, my pal Cameron Weier. I was speechless, didn't know what to say. and to this day I still can't believe i managed to pull this whole thing off, considering how far i have come in the past year. hard work pays off, i never believed it til now.
Aside: Congrats to Cameron on being named the Pacific Northwest Bowler of the Year, well deserved and well earned, helleuva season my man.
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