I'm not gonna give the speech every time. NJ.com's full results are here. The story is here. And now just my bit.
GROUP I
Sometimes, you look at the numbers and you just know what to expect. Roselle Park was just a little better than Dayton, and Dayton was significantly better than anyone else. Often, events defy interesting commentary. Well done?
GROUP II
Now, this was a competition. #9 Montville was expected (well, by me anyway) to cruise to the G2 title, but it was far from that simple. I listed like 17 teams that could contend for the #2 spot, so I can't take much credit for giving Caldwell, Cranford and Jefferson a shot, but those 4 had quite a battle all day. Each of the four had one bad game: Montville, Jefferson & Cranford all had theirs in Game 1, and Caldwell took a 22-pin lead over Montville behind Colin Dromgoole's 258, with Cranford 16 out of 2nd, and Jefferson 24 more back. Each of the four improved in game 2, but Jefferson's Brandon Vance shot a huge 256 to lead his team to within 2 pins of Montville. Both teams were still behind Caldwell (Montville was 40 back), and Cranford was within striking distance, 70 back of Montville. Erik Katterman took over in game 3, calmly crushing the first nine on his way to a tournament-best 277 / 713, his team managed 1015, and took the title by a deceptively large 130 pins. The race for 2nd was tighter: Cranford's best effort on the day (921) pulled them closer, but not quite there. Caldwell finally had their rough game, despite Bryce Bayard's 268, and Jefferson was able to make the comeback and take the TOC spot by just 8 pins.
GROUP III
#19 Warren Hills took control early and managed the only 3000 set in the event, but Scotch Plains was the best story. I listed SPF as a contender, but to be honest, they were 4th on that list; Morris Knolls & Morris Hills had better numbers. After one game, with Warren Hills out to a 90 pin lead, the other 3 were within 6 pins of each other. Scotch Plains put that to rest with a huge 1015 in game 2, led by Spencer Vaughn's 228. If it hadn't been for WH's 1040 game, the Raiders could have easily made a run at first. Instead, they took 2nd by a comfortable margin and get a strip to North Brunswick next Friday.
GROUP IV
The order of finish in Group IV was pretty much exactly what I expected, but boy was it closer than I thought it would be. Livingston dug themselves a big hole in game 1, and even a 1016 in game 2 left them in third place, but the Landers got just enough out of Michael Liu (237), Zach Schwartz (230) and Justin Schoenbach (234) in the final two games to come back and take a 20 pin victory. Seton Hall Prep made a charge in game 3, but Union managed to hold on to preserve a trip to Bowlero by just nine pins.
INDIVIDUALS
Most of the advancers got mentions in the preview, but Kyle Bernokiets of West Orange (697) and Aaron Heimall of Roselle Park (690) had scores that go beyond "another day at the office". Weinberg, Lawson, Murray, Dromgoole, Alim, Vance, Price and Bayard are all well-credentialed bowlers who had good days. That leaves Jonathan Andruchowitz of Bloomfield, who claimed the final spot in the TOC. I plead ignorance, and apologize to Mr. Andruchowitz. The SEC-American just doesn't seem to want to publicize their results.
No comments:
Post a Comment