Nila’s Salon steams opposition

Nila’s Salon received its handsome four-foot tall championship trophy Tuesday night for topping last season’s Ada and Eve Mixed League.

The team won the championships of Tuesday’s tenpin bowling roll-off after out-pointing its closest rival, JET Holdings Co., last Jan. 18 at the Saipan Bowling Center in Garapan.

The two top teams were involved in the race-to-three games, head-to-head showdown two Tuesdays ago, with Nila’s Salon and JET Holdings splitting the four assigned games.

That left organizers to go to the team standings to try and resolve the dead-heat and luckily for Nila’s Salon bowlers, they edged JET Holdings by the slimmest of margins, 63.5-32.5 to 62-34.

Making up the champion Nila’s Salon team were three members of the Zapanta family—team captain Ross, wife Gigi, and son Russelle—top bowler Robert Talavera, Diane Babauta, Malou Cabigao, and Lala Taitano.

Talavera had the highest average for the team with 184, followed by Ross (180 average), Russelle (177), Cabigao and Taitano (148), Gigi (141), and Babauta (138).

“The important thing is we got to enjoy our stint in the league. It was fun and at the same time we got lucky during the positioning rounds, where we went up against JET [Holdings]. We won the first two, and they, the last two. We had to go the team standings, where we were ahead, so we were able to beat them. The championship was just icing in the cake because we all enjoyed playing together,” said Ross Zapanta.

Nila’s Salon finished with 55,118 pins in 853 games for a 771 average, which was second behind JET Holdings, which bowled over 56,514 pins in 100 games for a high 784 average.

JET Holdings is made up of top bowlers Mark “The Shark” Halstead and Jonathan Hensley, and Roger Vales, Ruby Besid, Cindy Iginoef, and Ron Cal.

Halstead led the way for JET Holdings, in terms of average per game, with a sterling 195 norm. He was followed by good friend and protégé Hensley (178), Cal (162), Iginoef and Vales (159), and Besid (151).

Like It Or Not was a distant third in the standings with a 53.5-42.5 record and settled for second runner-up honors. The team finished with 54,733 pinfalls in 879 games for a nice 760 average.

Players who bowled for LION were Glenn Garde (176), Emi Williams (163), Jeremy Williams (150), Ann Pickelsimer (146), Frank Pickelsimer (138), Reuben Hubbart (126), and Carmela Sablan (118).

Patriots was fourth in the team standings after the season with a 50-46 mark, while HKP & Associates round out the Top 5 with a 49-47 slate.

Nila’s Salon took home $310 for finishing in first place, while JET Holdings and LIONS received $220 and $150, respectively. Patriots and HKP & Associates got $125 and $100 to close out the money list.

The rest of the participating teams in the just concluded Adam and Eve Mixed League, with their team standing in parenthesis, were as follows: Jihadd (47-49), Martha’s Retail Store (46-50), Mark Shark (46-50), Whatever (43-53), MEN & Co. (41-55), and Blue J’s (30-66).

The president of the Adam and Eve Mixed League is Jack Cruz, while Halstead sits as its secretary. For more information on the league, call Cruz at 235-5639 or Halstead at 234-7902.