State Finals Wrapup - Girls Individual TOC

RECORD-BREAKING DAY AT BOWLERO:
AIMEE SHERMAN IS THE LAST ONE STANDING

After the CJWC, where scores were down, and the Girls Central sectional, where scores were down, and the Girls Team TOC, where scores were down for the most part, one could have wondered what the individual TOC had in store for 120 of the best high school bowlers in New Jersey.  We didn't need to worry.

Here's nj.com's story.


It looked pretty normal at the start. Fifty-one bowlers, all somewhere between pretty good and fantastic, started at 9:30, each bowling 3 games, with the top 18 making the first cut.  Katie Robb of Kingsway threw a huge 279, Pennsauken's Michelle Bello shot 245, and superstar freshman Kamerin Peters of Toms River North posted 237, but none of the other 48 broke 217.  Things would escalate quickly in game two.

After picking up a spare in the first, Peters would proceed to drill 11 strikes in a row for a monster 290 game, which was the highest game ever bowled by a girl at the state tournament level.  Jackson Memorial powerhouse Aimee Sherman was right behind with 279, and another six girls cracked 220, including Sarah Smith of Manasquan (225) and Madison Perry of Hawthorne, whose 242 moved her into fifth overall. (Not that she knew; scoring standings during competition are something of a mystery during this event, which makes the wait for the advancers announcement excruciating.)

Game 3 is always a pressure-cooker.  The few at the top who are reasonably safe to advance need to keep scoring well to keep their position, while everyone else is fighting the cutline.  The girls at the top certainly met their goal: Peters (237-290-246=773), Sherman (214-279-257=750) and Robb (279-213-225=717) each finished off spectacular series, and South sectional champ Michelle Bello of Pennsauken (245-233-214=692) was right behind.  Jill Stuart of Brick Memorial was in 5th (673) after her second straight game over 240, and Brick Township's Julianna Forbes was in seventh (661) on the strength of 248-229 in games 2 & 3.  Millburn senior Lauren Potechin (622) and two-time stepladder participant Alize Stevenson of St. Mary's (639) carded solid scores and clearly had a chance to make a run at the top five

Further down were the stories of the bowlers staring down the cut in game three:  Jaime Golden of Sparta jumped from 17th to 9th with a 246.  Freehold Township's Clare Chaffer staved off elimination with a 225 game, leaping her 12 spots to 16th (588).  Samantha Salzone of Edison fired a 234 game that moved her from 30th place into a qualifying spot at 14th (593).  And after sitting precariously in 16th after two, defending champ Lanasia Neal of South Plainfield punched her ticket with a 236 that vaulted her into 10th (622).

Four bowlers made valiant efforts but came up a handful of pins short: Arielle Wallace of Hackensack, Victoria Vucak of Paramus Catholic, Brick Township's Cailyn Ryan and Union Catholic's Goldera Surles each broke 200 in game three, but missed the cut by five pins or less. Sarah Florence of Cedar Creek (588), Wayne Valley's Claudie Rosca (583), Freehold Township freshman Sarah Orensky (593) and Ocean Township's Jenn Ingulli (577) each survived the morning session.

There were several big scores in the first game of the afternoon:  Peters shot 247, making it clear she was going to stay hot.  Neal and Perry each shot 228, pushing them to 9th & 8th respectively.  Golden put up 244, jumping her from 9th place all the way to 4th.  Warren Hills freshman Kelcie Mannon posted a nine-bagger 275 than ran her from 12th up to 5th.  And Jackson Memorial senior Aimee Sherman achieved perfection: shooting the first 300 in girls' state tournament history (breaking the record Peters had broken just a couple of hours earlier), and taking the overall lead: she and Peters had absurd 4-game scores, 1050-1020.

Peters took the lead back in game 5, 1257-1254, and Robb's 238 put her at 1171, which looked moderately safe.  Behind them, lots of big numbers were causing chaos in the standings.  Forbes's 258 moved her from 8th all the way up to 4th.  Stuart posted the highest game 5, 266, vaulting her to 5th.  Mannon's 209 put her in 6th.  Alize Stevenson crept up to 8th with a 224.  And oh by the way, that's the defending champ moving up from 11th at the cut to 7th behind a pair of 228s.  How tough was game five?  Chaffer entered the game in 13th, shot 236, and didn't move up at all.  (She would move up to 11th after six).

Headed to the final game, it looked like at least a half-dozen bowlers, and maybe even more, had a shot at the stepladder, but it was an illusion.  Peters (247-237-246) and Sherman (300-204-226) each finished with back-half 730 sets, and Robb's 216-238-216 was plenty good enough for 3rd.  No surprises there.  But Forbes, who had moved into fourth after five games, held on with both hands and put up a big 263 game (for a 714 set) to take the spot.  Stuart was excellent as well, defending 5th place with a 236 (completing a 670 set), which probably should have been enough to lock down her spot, but Lanasia Neal got it going big in game six, posting a 278 game that finished a 734 set and gave her the last spot in the stepladder by just 13 pins.

Missing the final despite very strong 2nd block scores were Stuart (670, 6th overall), Stevenson (636, 7th), Golden (638, 8th), Potechin (637, 9th) and Chaffer (635, 11th).  Bello, Mannon and Perry faded a bit to 10th,12th and 13th.  Salzone, Florence, Orensky, Rosca and Ingulli never quite got going in the afternoon and finished 14th through 18th.

Both Neal and Forbes came into the 4/5 match hot, but Forbes was just a little hotter, taking the opening match 224-207, and the 2016 champ would finish 5th after a really impressive afternoon run.  The Brick Township junior wouldn't cool down against Robb either, defeating the Kingsway junior 258-214.  Robb's 4th place finish included a fantastic seven game total of 1601, a 228.7 average.

Julianna Forbes stayed just as hot in the next match, firing a 233 game that gave her a 715 set during the stepladder, after she had just shot 714 to get into it.  But Sherman was just too much, shooting 247 to win the semifinal and ending Forbes's incredible run.

And so it came down to, by almost any measure, the top two bowlers of the 2016-17 season, Toms River North freshman Kamerin Peters and Jackson Memorial senior Aimee Sherman.  Heading into the championship match, Peters was averaging 250.5 for the day, Sherman 246.7.  Those numbers are just silly.  I can't say enough about how excellent these two have been all year. Somebody had to win, and the senior took the title, 194-192.  Amazing bowling all around: all of the finalists truly had to earn it.  Congratulations to Aimee, Kamerin, Julianna, Katie and Lanasia.