KALAMAZOO (WQLR) – Tommie Whitten outlasted 38 other senior bowlers and took home the 2018 Riley Stewart Memorial Seniors bowling tournament championship Sunday afternoon at Eastland Bowl in Kalamazoo. The tournament, in its 30th year, gives bowlers 55 and over the chance to compete against other top senior bowlers. The tournament is broken up into two divisions: seniors (ages 55-64) and super seniors (65 and up). 20 seniors and 19 super seniors took to the lanes Saturday in a five-game qualifier; the top five from each division moved to their respective stepladder finals on Sunday.
The Senior division qualifiers were Elliott Herring (1191 5-game pinfall from Saturday, led all qualifiers), Ken Houser (1063), Don Gleason Jr (1062), John Thomasma Jr (1055) and Jack Logan Jr (1029). The Super Senior qualifiers were Tommie Whitten (1128), Jim Dechnik (1107), Dennis Louden (1037), George Paynich (1029) and Jim Rock (989).
In Sunday’s senior stepladdder, Thomasma defeated Logan 224-165 in the first match and topped Gleason 212-203 in the 2nd match. Houser knocked off Thomasma in the 3rd match 236-214 before dropping a strike-fest to Herring 278-245 in the senior final. The super senior stepladder saw Paynich defeating Rock 236-230 in the first match, and besting Louden 227-199 in the 2nd. The 3rd match came down to the 10th frame with Dechnik slipping by Paynich 237-235. In a brutal super senior final, Whitten outlasted Dechnik by 10, 181-171.
With the senior and super senior champs crowned, the two winners took to lanes 15 and 16 in a one-game match to determine the overall champion. Both bowlers started out strong and gave each other a great match, but in the end, Whitten defeated Herring 258-225 to claim the 2018 Riley Stewart championship.
The Riley Stewart tournament is an annual event open to all bowlers 55 and over that are sanctioned in the Greater Kalamazoo Bowling Association of the United States Bowling Congress.
(GKBA association manager Becky Brandt and board member Myke Brandt contributed to this article.)
