West Park Bowl hosted the Junior Bowling Club Gateway Tournament, a premier scratch scholarship tournament, May 17-19 in Columbia.

There were six 300 games in this ages 18 and under tournament.

The tournaments balance competition by having divisions based on averages in an effort to keep competition fair. 

The Novice division is an entry level division for bowlers under a 160 per game average. Novice bowlers rolled a five-game set to determine winners.

Tyler Balee of Columbia averaged a 206 for his five-game set, placing second overall to earn an $80 scholarship.

Alex Loughary of Waterloo averaged a 193 to place third and earn a $60 scholarship.

All other divisions bowled an eight-game qualifying round, trying to finish in the top eight to advance to Sunday’s match play.

In the Rookie division (160-174 averages), Columbia’s Maddie Brandenburger and Jack Hunsucker qualified in fifth and eighth place, respectively. 

In the Major division (175-189 averages), three Columbia bowlers advanced and a fourth bowler was an alternate.  

Braeden Filipiak averaged 220 to qualify in second, Blake Lane averaged 212 to qualify in fourth, Lincoln Corbin averaged 205 to qualify in sixth and Anthony Auer averaged 201 as an alternate.  

Lane flirted with perfection, rolling the first 10 strikes for a 283 game in his eighth game Sunday.  He also led all local bowlers by averaging 228 on Sunday.

Rounding out the local qualifying bowlers in the Classic division (190-204 average) was Waterloo’s Matthew Eller averaging 219 to qualify in sixth.  He finished eighth overall on Sunday, earning a $25 scholarship.

This event was a doubles tournament where each qualifier from the Rookies were blindly paired with a Major qualifier to form eight doubles teams.

On Sunday, each team bowled a one-game match against each of the other seven teams. The winning team from each match earned 30 bonus pins in addition to their scores.  

From the total pins scored and their bonus pins, the teams earned their position.  The goal is to be in the top four to compete in the stepladder finals for the championship. The same process was also used for the Classic and Masters (averages 205 and above) divisions.

Filipiak finished eighth in his division to earn a $25 scholarship, while the rest of the Columbia bowlers advanced to the stepladder finals.

In the first match, Brandenburger’s doubles team squeezed by the all-Columbia team of Corbin and Hunsucker by two pins.  Corbin and Hunsucker each earned $100 scholarships for their fourth place finish.  

In the semifinal match Brandenburger’s partner Josh Reiners bowled a 300 game, handily winning over Lane and his partner Julian Dwiggens of Alton.  

Lane and Dwiggens each earned $140 scholarships.  

In a close championship match, Brandenburger-Reiners beat Amanda Brevard of Imperial, Mo., and Kellen Stephans of Collinsville, 402-397, to win the tournament.

The championship earned Brandenburger and her partner $230 in scholarship money.

Additionally, she will be honored at all future Gateway tournaments with her championship banner on display.