WARREN HILLS LEAVES NO DOUBT
The question of 'Who's #1?" in New Jersey high school girls' bowling has been pretty debatable ever since Warren Hills outscored Brick Memorial, who has put up better numbers all season, at a pair of tournaments in January. The season-ending Tournament of Champions, though, was pretty definitive, as Warren Hills dominated both the Group III final and two rounds of Baker playoffs to claim the TOC championship, the first for both the school and all of North Jersey.
nj.com story and results
GROUP I
Central Jersey runnerup Matawan got off to a great start, leading after game one with 817 on the strength of Katie DeVoe's 221. Ramsey got into the mix by shaking off a rough first game with the top Group I game of the day, 917, behind huge games by Lindsay Pepper (222) and Angela DiNallo (246). Game 3 was Carteret's turn to shine, as Allison Russell's 235 paced her team to a strong 889; Carteret's 2412 put them just 3 pins ahead of Ramsey. But that battle was for second place, as Westwood put up the best total with a consistent 802-853-802 to take the title by 45 pins. The Cardinals won their second state championship in three years behind Kristen Benavente's 592 and Gabby Stellaci's 553.
GROUP II
Ocean Township, the Group II favorite, got off to a great start with a solid team-effort 936 game, led by Dana Henry (204), Alexa Tieto (213) and Jenn Ingulli (196), while Manchester was close behind with a 912 game powered by Theresa Bedaro's 234. The possibility of a two-team Shore Conference breakaway was foiled in game two by Holy Angels, whose 942 (led by Amelia Brunda's 211 and Ciara Mottley's 209) was over 100 pins clear of the field and gave them a 29-pin lead headed to the final game. A tight finish wasn't to be, as the Angels bested the field by another big margin; Tiffany Sucero (201) and Shiho Numakura (203) fueled a 922 game that gave AHA a 100-pin win over second-place Ocean Township, securing the school's first ever bowling State Championship, and ending Manchester's impressive domination of Group II (they had been champs eight straight years).
GROUP III
Warren Hills threw five strikes in the first frame of the first game and never really let up. They had the highest game in Group III in all three games, scored 3 of the top seven series in the entire event (Jessica Yerance 609, Jenna Henderson 614, and Katie Winch 652 for second overall) and took the title by over 300 pins. Edison threw an excellent 938 in game two, led by Touri Holmes's 246, but Brick Township battled back to erase a huge deficit with a strong-across-the-board 929 in game three, which gave them second place by just four pins over the Eagles. Warren Hills' first state title ended Brick Township's generational run of nine straight Group III titles.
GROUP IV
Brick Memorial lost the sectional final to Toms River North last week, and they were down one of their stars as Sarah Pitcher was out with an injury. And then , despite a solid 942 led by Amanda Shelters' 235, they found themselves down to TRN again after Cassidy Syrdale's 201 joined Kamerin Peters' tournament-best 269 game for a 952 team total. But the Mustangs didn't get down and didn't let up: they completed a 942-947-935=2824 to win their second-straight Group IV state title, finishing with a substantial 135 cushion over TRN (despite Peters' fantastic 722).
INDIVIDUALS
Official awards for high series aren't given out, so I'll list the top 10 here (with thanks to Bryan Vargas for compiling the data).
1. Kamerin Peters, Toms River North 722
2. Katie Winch, Warren Hills 652
3. Jill Stuart, Brick Memorial 619
4. Angela DiNallo, Ramsey 616
5. Jenna Henderson, Warren Hills 609
6. Jenn Ingulli, Ocean Township 613
7. Jess Yerance, Warren Hills 609
8. Julianna Forbes, Brick Township 604
9. Touri Holmes, Edison 600
10. Dana Henry, Ocean Township 600
TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
Baker matches don't leave a lot to analyze statistically. Westwood kept 2 of their 3 games against Warren Hills close, but couldn't quite get close enough to mount a real challenge. After trading the first two games, the last two Holy Angels/Brick Memorial matches were both tight throughout, and seemed to come down to carry as much as anything else; that's not exactly uncommon in a short Baker series when both teams are going well. Anyway, AHA carried a little better and moved on.
To be honest, the Baker finals wasn't the prettiest bowling we would ever see. Nerves and fatigue probably contributed to more splits and misses than these two teams had been producing the rest of the tournament. At the end of the day, I think the biggest reason Warren Hills took the title was that, with all due respect to a bunch of great bowlers in the finals, Jenna Henderson was simply the best bowler out there during the Baker rounds. Unofficially, she put something very close to 23 of 24 shots in the pocket over seven Baker games, and came through every time the Blue Streaks needed her.
So, that's the season. I'll have more to say in some season-ending posts, including final rankings and all-state teams. Congratulations to Westwood, Holy Angels, Brick Memorial, and 2017's #1 team, Warren Hills.
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