JT Dant of Pin Splitter Lanes had been trying to get Mike McClure, his friend from youth bowling, to come over to bowl in the Princeton Masters Bowling Tournament for a few years.

Five years ago the Streator native made the trip to Princeton to bowl in the Masters for the first time. He’s glad he did.

On Sunday, McClure made off with his first Princeton Masters bowling crown, defeating the red-hot rookie Trenton Acuncius 235-216 in the championship game.

“It’s been a fun ride just getting to this point and just awesome to win it,“ McClure said. ”The Masters is such a cool tournament. It’s a big part of the reason why I bowl in Princeton."

McClure, who bowls professionally and is sponsored by Motiv Bowling, said he really enjoys the atmosphere the Masters brings.

“I bowl competitively. I travel more weekends than I don’t, and I tell people all the time having something like that where you bowl 23 games in match play and get to a top five in a step ladder (is exciting),” he said. “It’s a long format. It’s fun. It’s high energy and really, really cool.

“It’s really just an impressive tournament. The way they run it and the interest they get is incredible. For a small town, the center is absolutely packed every year.”

Acuncius, bowling in his first Masters, took the No. 1 seed into the finals by a comfortable edge of nearly seven Peterson Points after 23 games over McClure, 129.12 to 122.24. They were followed by JT Dant (121.06), Allen Layton (120.28) and AJ Egan (118.37) to round out the top five.

In the step ladder finals showdown, Egan defeated Layton 226-205, JT Dant defeated Egan 247-224 and McClure defeated Dant 225-177 to set up the grand finale between McClure and Acuncius.

McClure, 35, knew he had to bring his best game to cool down Acuncius.

“Oh my goodness. He bowled incredible,” McClure said. “I’ve been in his shoes before in a tournament where you’re the hot one. You bowl phenomenal and don’t win in the step ladder. His time will come. Unreal what he did. Very impressive on his end.”

Acuncius received the Chuck Putts Memorial Award for the high average of the tournament at 239.66.

McClure added another 300 game to his resume during the tournament. Other high games of the tournament saw Egan roll a 299 and seventh-place finisher Randy Dalrymple, a past Masters champion, with back-to-back 289s.

The field averaged a 215.19 for the tournament.

Layton made an impressive return to the Masters tournament, bowling for the first time in five years following a knee injury. He overcame an upper leg injury in Game 23 to finish out in the step ladder and received the Chuck Putts Memorial Award for bowling for the most pins (15) over his average for the tournament (209 to 224).

Layton posted on social media he enjoyed coming back.

“The field was outstanding. Couldn’t let up at all,” he said. “Loved and missed the competition and really looking forward to next year.”

Garrett Allen received the Mike Young/Dave Camp Memorial Sportsmanship Award for the third time as voted by his peers, presented by his father, Randy, the Princeton Bowling President.