Girls Rankings at the Break

THE TOP TWENTY GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL BOWLING TEAMS IN NEW JERSEY

1. Brick Memorial     (LW: 1, GA: 199)
2. Brick Township     (LW: 2, GA: 184)
3. Manchester Township     (LW: 4, GA: 177)
4. Ocean Townshp     (LW: 6, GA: 174)
5. Warren Hills     (LW: 3, GA: 176)
6. Toms River South     (LW: 5, GA: 171)
7. Toms River North     (LW: 7, GA: 167)
8. Wayne Valley     (LW: 10, GA: 173)
9. Teaneck      (LW: 9, GA: 172)
10. Edison      (LW: 8, GA: 164)
11. Eastern      (LW: 11, GA: 161)
12. Lacey      (LW: 13, GA: 161)
13. Holy Angels     (LW: 12, GA: 166)
14. Manasquan     (LW: 14, GA: 156)
15. Freehold Township     (LW: 15t, GA: 155)
16. South Plainfield     (LW: 19, GA: 156)
17. Howell      (LW: 15t, GA: 154)
18. Central      (LW: 17, GA: 151)
19. Carteret     (LW: unr, GA: 149)
20. Demarest     (LW: unr, GA: 151)

Not a whole lot of change, really.  #1 and #2 are pretty clear, but 3 through 5 is an open question, based for now on recent results. The Big North teams may jockey all season; I'll be very interested to see what they can do with 5 bowlers. Wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Edison, Eastern or Lacey take a jump forward very soon, as they all look to be improving over the last couple of weeks. Carteret's recent 2581 is a higher series than 8 of the teams ranked ahead of them have reached, so they've got a chance to move up if they can hit those heights again.

Top 20 breakdown: Skyland 1, Olympic 1, GMC 3, Big North 4, Shore.... 11.

5 TEAMS THAT JUST MISSED

Washington Township
Paramus
Barnegat
Paramus Catholic
Woodbridge

Washington Twp certainly hasn't bowled badly; their average has just slipped a bit under some other contenders. PC outscored #13 Holy Angels in a match last week (though AHA won the match 4-3) so they have it in them to make a run.Similarly, Woodbridge split a set with #16 South Plainfield. Barnegat is consistently solid; every set seems to be in the 2200s.  One breakout day could push them into the top 20. Paramus has looked good early, 18-3 in BN action, but we need a few more scores.

5 TEAMS TO KEEP AN EYE ON

Gloucester Tech
Southern
North Brunswick
Westwood
Colonia

GT is another team that's been extremely consistently solid and just needs a breakout. Southern put up very good sets early in the season, as did North Brunswick; either is a good candidate to jump forward. Colonia is capable of putting up scores that fit in with teams ranked higher (2270 last week). Westwood's had a very successful program the last few years, winning sectional & state titles.  They got hit hard by graduation and had a tough start to the season, but they've made serious improvement and shot a very nice 4-bowler 1947 on Thursday.

Ok, no more rankings for a couple of weeks. We may take an irresponsibly early look at sectionals later this week.  Happy Holidays.