More Tournaments

Couple more tournaments before we get the rankings. First, the Bergen County boys tournament was held on Saturday.  This is a pretty great event: it's broken into small schools & big schools, with a qualifying set in the morning and an additional set in the afternoon for the top half of the field.  North Arlington took the small schools championship by 57 pins over Mahwah, with Lyndhurst in 3rd.  The big schools title was earned by Fair Lawn with a very impressive 5958 total, which bested the field by over 200 pins.  Ridgewood took 2nd and Demarest 3rd.

Individual awards (based on the A.M. portion only) went to Lyndhurst's Michael Lavell for a 695 set that easily topped the small schools list, and Nick Greco of Fair Lawn, whose 686 series edged past Peter Bondy of Bergenfield (683) and Ridgewood's Brian Skettini (679).  But the performance of the day was owned by Anthony Frangiosa of Fair Lawn.  Despite not getting much action in conference play so far this season, Frangiosa put up a solid 619 in the morning and a tournament-best 288-695 in the afternoon.

Vince has an excellent report here.  Greg Tartaglia's northjersey.com has an article here.

The Snowball Classic at Laurel Lanes pits some of New Jersey's best against some excellent programs from southeastern Pennsylvania.  On Monday, the hot Jersey teams from Saturday continued their streaks through the weekend.

The Brick Memorial boys got big numbers from John Boughton (760) and Michael Guzman (703) to shoot 3221 and take the #2 qualifying spot behind a very talented PA team from Truman.  Just a few sticks behind was Brick Township, whose 3200 took the fourth and final qualifying spot behind good days from Nick Gross (734) and Andrew Masi (689).

Toms River South posted a solid sixth in qualifying (3rd among NJ schools) at 3083, while Seneca, Howell and Warren Hills all managed top 10 finishes.  Boughton took individual honors, with Gross finishing fourth and Kyle Oliveri of Toms River South taking 5th with a 730 set.

Unfortunately, I don't have details about the Baker playoffs, aside from the basics: Brick Township fell to Truman in the semifinals while Brick Memorial defeated Pennsbury. And despite Truman putting together a nine-bagger in the final, the Mustangs prevailed to finish off the weekend double, having won the Central Jersey Winter Classic on Saturday.

The girls' side included the top seven teams in New Jersey, as well as a powerful PA representative in last year's semifinalist Truman.  Toms River North and Warren Hills battled to the very end for the top seed, with TRN squeaking by by just 5 pins on the backs of the Peters sisters (Paige shot 711 and Kamerin 708).  Warren Hills' season-best 2899 was powered by Kelcie Mannon's 707 and Olivia Ostrander's 672. 

After Truman, who qualified 3rd, was a small surprise in Lacey.  The #5 team in NJ, who recently welcomed back Claudia Schreier from injury, raced out to a huge 1056 in game one and stayed hot enough to card 2826 for the final qualifying spot.  Toms River South, Brick Memorial, Brick Township, Manchester and Howell finished 5th through 9th respectively.

TRN survived an extremely close semifinal against Lacey, with both teams bowling very well.  Warren Hills needed a huge comeback in their semifinal, posting a four bagger in game 2 to defeat Truman.  And in the finals, the Blue Streaks were able to throw enough good shots (and carry them) to post a pair of 220+ games and take the only title that eluded them in 2017.

The top individuals were Paige & Kamerin Peters, Mannon, Hannah Dalton of TRS (673) and Ostrander, with additional big numbers coming from Amanda Shelters of Brick Memorial (655), Caylin Ryan of Brick Township (632), Howell's Alexa Scranton (618) and Liz Schreier of Lacey (609).

Full results, as they usually are, available at the Shore Conference site.