Cedar Falls Women Split $50,000 Powerball Prize
Kirsten Jacobsen, Bethany Wentink Win Big in October Drawing
To download image, right click on image, then navigate to 'Save Picture As' to save this file to your computer.
CLIVE, Iowa — Two Cedar Falls women have split a $50,000 Powerball® prize.
"It's kind of a family affair," Bethany Wentink told officials Monday as she and her sister-in-law, Kirsten Jacobsen, claimed the prize at the lottery's Cedar Rapids regional office. "Every time it's a big Powerball, it's just one of those things: Everyone needs to go out and buy a ticket, and if anyone wins, then we'll split it."
Wentink, 37, said she and her family bought a handful of tickets for the Oct. 24 drawing. One of Jacobsen's tickets, purchased at Fareway, 214 N. Magnolia Drive in Cedar Falls, matched four of five white balls and the Powerball to win the big prize.
The ticket was one number away from winning that night's $637.8 million jackpot. The winning numbers in that night's drawing were 18-23-35-45-54 and Powerball 16. The Power Play® number was 4.
The jackpot continued to grow to a record $2.04 billion for Monday's drawing. It was won with a ticket purchased in California.
Wentink, a mother of two, said she plans to save her portion of the winnings, and put some aside for a future vacation.
"Right now, I'm thinking maybe California, to Disneyland," she said.
Players in $2 Powerball choose their first five numbers from a pool of 69, and another number – called the Powerball – from a separate pool of 26. The Power Play option is available for an extra $1 per play.
Since getting its start in April 1992 in 15 states with jackpots that started at a guaranteed $2 million, Powerball has grown into one of the world's biggest and most recognizable lottery games. Today Powerball is played by 48 lotteries across the country with drawings at 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Return to top↑