Tournament Notes

The first two big tournaments of the high school season took place over the weekend, and we've got some results to parse.

Dybuk75 did his usual great job breaking down the Tom Irwin Memorial Crusader Classic. Pascack Valley was a surprise on the boys' side; I'm sure most would have picked Montville as the favorite. Nick Cilento of Pompton Lakes and Kyle Schellberg of Dumont fired 700s for their teams.

While PV was a surprise, Teaneck winning the girls tournament was a shock. Last year's squad only carried a 129 game average and wasn't really a factor in the Bergen County tournament (finishing 15th) or sectionals (shooting 1872).  Incredible improvement, and a team to watch this season. Wayne Valley is strong again this year and Holy Angels is right behind.

Teaneck's emergence means something else, too.  Nothing is official until we see which teams enter the sectional tournament, but based on new enrollment figures and last year's entries, it looks like Teaneck, Wayne Valley, Paramus Catholic & Holy Angels are all going to be in North Group III this year, and they'll be joined by State #2 Warren Hills.  The top 5 teams in all of North Jersey may be competing for just 2 spots at the TOC.

Danielle Quitola of Ridgefield Park and Wayne Valley freshman Marissa Cosentini scored the only girls 600s.

The Bob James (formerly Bishop Ahr) tournament hasn't gotten a writeup in the press that I've seen, but the full results are public thanks to the ever-efficient Shore Bowling site on Weebly.

The dominant Woodbridge boys were more than 150 pins clear of the field, shooting 3309, while East Brunswick, Brick Memorial (who was missing star Andrew Lazarchick), Brick Township and Edison completed the top 5.

Kyle Bilawsky (751) and James Stoveken (738) of Woodbridge, Brick Memorial's John Boughton (711) and South Brunswick's Tyler Kohutanycz (705) cracked 700s during the event.

On the girls side, Brick Memorial won, which surprised exactly no one.  Edison running a close second, 160 pins clear of Brick Township?  That was a surprise.  Group III could be lots of fun at state tournament time.

Lost of girls 600s to list at the James:

Lanasia Neal, South Plainfield 675
Michelle Dekowski, Linden 660
Heather Melendez, South Plainfield 635
Deanna Calatoni, Woodbridge 631
Madison Steinbeck, East Brunswick 624
Trinity Gray, North Brunswick 620
Kiara Powell, Union 613
Amanda Shelters, Brick Memorial 602

Okay, back to regular matches for a few days (unless I get Big North tournament results).  Next Saturday, December 10, we'll have the Warren Wheeler tournament at Jersey Lanes, and both the North Jersey and South Jersey singles championships to talk about.