RECORD-BREAKING DAY AT BOWLERO:
RYAN CARLISI IS THE LAST ONE STANDING
The boys' scores were just as off-the-charts as the girls'. Nothing wrong with the shot at Bowlero, is what I guess I'm saying. (Sorry this is so late.)
Here's nj.com's story.
High scores started coming right away, as 13 boys shot 240+ in game one, including South Jersey individual champ Andrew Abbonizio of Shawnee (240), Watchung Hills' Ethan Goldring (256), and Dickinson's Ray Ramos (246). But the biggest number was thrown by the bowler probably most grateful to be there. Austin Devereux of Manasquan, who won the Central Jersey title, was unable to attend, which gave St. Rose sophomore Joey Ocello a second chance, and he made the most of it with a big 279 right out of the box. Ocello would make the cut with a 716 set and finish in 14th overall.
The numbers just got bigger in game two; much bigger. Eighteen shot 240+, including: Joahnn Gamo of Clifton (257), Eric Lawson of Warren Hills (254), Jack Deruvo of East Brunswick (268), Louis Folgore of Monroe (252), Sean Harris of Cinnaminson (268), Ryan McGuire of Indian Hills (242), Josh Bottieri of Jackson Liberty (245) and Nicholas Solina of Gloucester Tech (246).
There were even bigger scores at the top. David Grant of Fort Lee shot 278 after 246 in game one, which moved him into fourth place. Egg Harbor's Matthew Stephens (256-279) and Jared Duncan of Indian Hills (245-290) each now had a pair of huge scores, and were tied for second. One of the great stories of the postseason continued as well, as Rashee Coe of Bayonne had apparently left his 168 average far, far behind, following up his 667 at sectionals with a 236-269 start at states. But sitting at the top was North 1-B champ Matthew Burzynski of Dickinson, who had gone out very strong with 258-279.
Things settled down a bit for the stressful third game. Doug Titmas of Old Bridge (268) and Justin Rinaldi of Hasbrouck Heights (243) admirably put up big games despite having very little shot at making the cut. Joey Steele of Sussex Tech (228-668) and Lawson (234-667) also showed no quit, but came up just short of the 686 cutline. Egg Harbor's Jason Pesce got even closer, but his 195-256-233=684 missed by just 2 pins.
Westampton Tech's Jordan Shackleford (699), Justin Pavlik of Ridge (695), Nick Greco of Fair Lawn (687) and Aaron Heimall of Roselle Park (686), all bowled well and survived to the afternoon despite the crazy-high cut. Thirteen boys posted scores over 700, including Rob Murray of Morris Knolls (716), Steve Nicholsen of Jackson Memorial (728) and Anthony Mathis of Cherry Hill East (734) who had put up solid numbers all morning. James Stoveken of Woodbridge was already looking good before he left no doubt in game three, firing 278 to complete a 761 set that put him into a tie for 4th with Burzynski. Dayton's Evan Weinberg shrugged off a 193 in game one to card 279-266 and rise up to sixth place at the break.
Other than Stoveken's run, not much changed near the top, as every one of them was still tossing strong games: Grant's 246-278-256=780 was on top, followed closely by Duncan (245-290-238-=773), and Stephens (256-279-236=771).
Three bowlers were escpecially impressive, putting up a big game three to come back from a non-qualifying position to make the cut. Dumont's Kyle Schellberg shot 244 to move from 21st to 13th (704), Cameron LaPlant of JP Stevens shot a great 274 to move to 12th place (707) all the way from 32nd after two. And sitting in 11th place after his 247 pulled him up from 19th with a 710 set was a young man from Steinert named Ryan Carlisi.
It became evident very quickly that the advancers round would belong to two bowlers: Matthew Stephens and James Stoveken went absolutely nuts. Stoveken followed up his 771 with a 278-257-277=812 and Stephens was somehow even better, carding a massive 267-278-290=835 for an overall 1606. Even on a very-high scoring day overall, nobody would finish within 90 pins of these two stars.
But the battle for the other three stepladder spots was tremendous. Game four saw Schellberg shoot 247 to jump up to 8th and Carlisi post 249 to move up to 7th, while Nicholsen's 248 elevated him to 4th. Eleven bowlers were within 68 pins after four, all with talent and a fair shot to make the finals.
Things got a little clearer in game 5: every one of the top seven after the fifth had just shot 235+ (as did Aaron Heimall a little further down the standings). Nicholsen's 290 was the big number, and it put the Jackson Memorial senior into third place. Grant stood in fourth after a strong 249, and moving into fifth with his fourth consecutive game of 247+ was Carlisi. Weinberg, Mathis (coming off a 247), Burzynski and Ocello were all in the hunt for the last couple of spots.
Nobody got in cheap: Carlisi took third with a 259 game that completed a fantastic 787 set and 1497 total. Nicholsen finished off a very impressive 728-752 for fourth place. Fifth place came down to Grant and Weinberg, and the Dayton junior took the final spot: it took every bit of the 259 he shot in game six, as the margin was only seven pins.
Grant (1448), Mathis (1418) and Burzynski (1400) finished 6-7-8, all averaging over 233 and none putting up a particularly bad game. It was just a brutal field. Duncan (1397, 9th) and Shackleford (252 final game, 1393 total, 10th) were also excellent. Heimall made a great surge the final two games: after making the cut on the number, he finished 258-236 for a 1380 total and 11th place.
Schellberg (247-185-238), Coe (248-181-245) and Ocello (224-227-180) finished 12-13-14, each the victim of just one bad game, and each of them bowled fantastic otherwise. Greco was very solid in the afternoon, shooting a consistent 655; it just wasn't quite enough on this day. LaPlant, Murray and Pavlik completed the top 18, none quite able to match their morning performance.
Just based on the scores, none of the stepladder matches were particularly close. Weinberg survived game one against Nicholsen, 196-166, but ran into the buzzsaw that Ryan Carlisi had become 235-186 in game two.
Neither James Stoveken nor Matthew Stephens, who were both amazing for six games in qualifying, could quite get it working enough to stay with Carlisi, who shot 235-237-244=716 during the stepladder to take his three matches and take a well-earned championship.
A bowler whose school doesn't have a team winning the individual title is not unprecedented (Raychel Waltz of Nottingham did it a three years ago), but it's still quite an accomplishment to go to both sectionals and this giant, beautiful mess of an event without the support system of teammates and perform so well. Congratulations to Ryan for his deserved title, and to Matthew, James, Evan and Steve for bowling so incredibly well under serious pressure.
I'm waiting on the Boys TOC wrapup until I have bowler-level data (hopefully in a day or two), because there are at least four very good stories to tell, and I can't really tell them without the numbers.
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