RACINE - Joe Arvai IV thought he had made a major mistake.

With his riding lawn mower out of commission, Arvai still decided to cut the grass and pushed a mower around his yard for more than two hours Saturday.

By the fourth game of The Journal Times Match Game Bowling Championship later that night, a weary Arvai looked at his father and said, "I shouldn't have cut the grass today."

While Arvai's legs were a little wobbly, there wasn't anything wrong with his right arm. Arvai threw the ball with authority and accuracy en route to the Men's Division championship at Castle Lanes.

Arvai mowed down the opposition in winning seven of his eight matches.

When his work on the lanes was done, Arvai had a grand total of 4,393. He finished easily in front of runner-up Ron Vokes, who had a 4,205 total, and third-place finisher Brian Candido, who had a 4,067 total.

Jerry Riemer was fourth at 4,060 and Ken Schwartz was fifth at 4,042.

For Arvai, who got his first bowling ball for his eighth birthday, winning the championship was truly special.

"This means a ton to me," said Arvai, who collected a check for $380 and a plaque for his winning efforts. "This is the biggest we do in bowling in the city.

"It means a lot to me."

Before emerging victorious, Arvai's best finish in The JT Match Game was second in 2006. He was determined not to come up short this year.

After opening with a 248, Arvai followed with games of 277, 245, 246, 246, 224, 255 and 279. On the surface, it appeared Arvai had smooth sailing in his final match-game block. But that wasn't the case.

Arvai had an open in the eighth frame of his third game, and he had another open in the second frame of the fourth game. Yet, on both occasions, Arvai responded with back-to-back strikes.

In past tournaments, Arvai conceded, he probably wouldn't have overcome such adversity.

"I let things go tonight," said Arvai, a senior account manager for Quick Cable. "I get agitated easily when things go bad.

"But tonight I told myself, I can't get mad at anything that happens. I said to myself that I had to stay focused, that I had to stay in the moment."

Arvai also stayed in the lead from start to finish in the final round. Yet, Arvai, who competed in front of several hundred spectators, including his wife, Cindy; his mother, Betsey and his father and grandfather, wasn't able to seal the deal until the last few frames.

That's because Vokes performed admirably as well. The 49-year-old Vokes, whose previous best in this event was sixth in 2007, had five games of 258 or more, including a high of 262.

"All the props to Joe; Joe bowled awesome," said Vokes, a transportation coordinator for Tax Air Freight in Milwaukee. "He didn't waver.

"He didn't let anyone sneak up from behind on him. I bowled good; he just bowled better."

n Mike Vasey and Jesse Theilman rolled the only perfect games in the final round. Brian Candido had a 299 game.

n CJ Torosian got off to a torrid start, rolling games of 258, 259 and 278 for a three-game total of 795.

n One of the more amazing developments in the tournament came when Candido rolled a 299 in the fourth game and made a quantum leap from 11th place to fourth place in the standings.