Forgive the Hamilton reference.
First, I'm sure you noticed the link to the NJIT college bowling program. Coach Casey Creutz was one of the very first blog followers back in late 2016, and I told him some time ago that I would be happy to help him spread the word about the opportunity to bowl in college here in New Jersey at NJIT, for men as well as women. It just took me a lot longer to get around to it than I anticipated. Sorry, Coach. But anyone who knows any high school bowler interested in continuing to compete in college, please take a look.
Now, unlike Thomas Jefferson, I haven't been away so much as buried in sectional previews and recaps for the better part of two weeks. Nothing I can do about all the regular season stuff I've missed, but I'd like to very quickly hit on a few tournaments that have taken place.
Monmouth County
The Monmouth County tournament took place on Wednesday, and #7 St. Rose just lit the place on fire, posting a 3146 in qualifying (first by over 150 pins) and winning two Baker rounds to claim the title. Christian Brothers put up their best set of the season at 2979 to take second, while Manalapan stayed hot after their fantastic sectional showing, finishing 3rd with a 2989. Freehold Township (2905), Howell (2890), #14 Ocean Township (2803), Matawan (2694), and Wall (2642) made u pthe top eight.
And... that's all I've got. I only have that thanks to a generous coach who emailed me a photo of the leaderboard. I don't have individual scores and I don't have anything, team or individual, on the girls. Little help?
Ocean County
The Ocean County tournament sent to an all-Baker format this year, which is pretty cool, even though it gives me no stats to use. On the boys's side, #4 Toms River South was the top qualifier, followed by #8 Brick Township, Jackson Memorial, #2 Brick Memorial and Toms River North. Brick Memorial then won two rounds of playoffs to take the team title, with Brick Township as the runnerup.
On the girls side, #5 Lacey Township was the top qualifier, followed by #1 Toms River North, #3 Brick Township, #4 Brick Memorial and #6 Manchester, with TRN taking out Brick Memorial in the playoff final.
Full results available on the shore conference site.
Skyland Conference
The #2 Warren Hills girls dominated the Skyland tournament, shooting a 2844 series. South Hunterdon took second by just 37 pins over Phillipsburg. Katie Winch (665) was the top individual, followed by Kelcie Mannon (627) and Olivia Ostrander (559), all from the champs.
The Warren Hills boys won as well, but the margin was considerably closer, as the Blue Streaks took Hunterdon Cental by just 50 pins, 2933-2883, with South Hunterdon finishing third. Justin Pavlik of Ridge shot a final game 299 to win the individual title with a 704 set, with Warren Hills' Avante Wilson (671) and Ryan Monahan (670) rounding out the top three.
Shore Conference - Teams
The Shore Team tournaments are just an amazing gathering of talent. The top four teams make the Baker bracket, so it's a race to the top four, and on the boys' side, #4 Toms River South fired three games over 1000 to make it easily with a 3152 set, while Manchester and #7 St. Rose held on for spots two and three. Freehold Township pulled an upset, making the playoffs on the strength of a huge 1114 in game two, holding off Jackson Liberty, #8 Brick Township and #2 Brick Memorial to make the bracket.
TRS took out Freehold by 31 pins in the 3-game Baker match, while St. Rose dispatched Manchester by 47. Toms River South won the Shore Conference title with a 641-568 win over St. Rose in the final.
Ed Dudek of CBA had the high individual series at 705. Kyle Oliveri of TRS (694), Manchester's Justin Villano (681), Chris Shymanski of Brick Township (676) and Vinny Mastria of St. Rose (670) rounded out the top five.
The #1 Toms River North (2917), #3 Brick Township (2818) and #6 Manchester (2699) girls qualified for the finals easily, and #5 Lacey (2594) made a furious comeback to take the final spot from #9 Freehold Township (2568), with #7 Toms River South in sixth.
Brick Township won a very tight semifinal by 25 over Manchester to reach the finals, but TRN won two narrow Baker matches: 621-583 over Lacey, and 619-591 over Brick, to take another championship.
Top girls' series were thrown by Brick Township's Julianna Forbes (683) and Caylin Ryan (644), Kim Wolf of Manchester (613), Liz Schreier of Lacey (609) and TRN's Livia Spalluto (603).
Full results for this event, and the individual events (see below), as always, available on the Shore site.
Shore Conference - Individuals
Same as the teams, the top 8 make the playoff bracket. Nick Gross of Brick Township was fantastic in qualifying, coming in at #1 with a 759 set. Big numbers also came from Kevin DiBernardo of TRS (731), Keansburg's Thomas McKeon (714) and Aaron Reingold of Matawan (708), with Tom Laskay of Freehold (697), David MacGillivray of Barnegat (688), Kenny Burdge of Manchester (687) and Brick Memorial's Alec Hehir (683) also making the playoff.
Hehir, Laskay, MacGillivray (with a 290 game) and Burdge survived the quarterfinal round. Burdge defeated MacGillivray to make the final, and Laskay took out Hehir 243-222 to join Burdge. In the finals, Manchester sophomore Kenny Burdge defeated Laskay 233-190 to take the Shore Individual championship.
The scoring on the girls side was, predictable, fantastic. 5 Shore Conference girls shot 600 and didn't even make the playoff bracket: Paige Peters of TRN (626), Amanda Shelters of Brick Memorial (614), Lacey's Julia Muro (612), Cassidy Syrdale of TRN (609) and Morgan Gitlitz of Colts Neck (608).
Two TRN girls did make the finals: Kamerin Peters (712) and Livia Spalluto. (TRN's top five shot 3160... think they're ready for sectionals and states?) They were joined by Alexa Tieto of Ocean Township (664), Julianna Forbes of Brick Township (642) and a trio of Manchester Hawks: Vicki Smith (661), Theresa Bedaro (641) and Victoria Shaw (627). Manchester's top five shot 3005. They're ready, too.
Anway, Tieto and Bedaro advanced to the semifinals with very strong games. Forbes defeated Spalluto 225-205 and Peters barely got by Shaw 212-209. Peters beat Tieto to reach the final, while Forbes defeated Bedaro 237-204. And Kamerin Peters finished an unofficial 680 set in beating Forbes 247-211 in the final to claim her second Shore Conference individual title.
Union County
Small article on nj.com about the Union team tournament here. I"m not entirely clear about the format; it seems like it was maybe just a seeded Baker bracket? Anyway, #19 Linden took the champioship, defeating Union in the final.
GMC Teams
All things considered, the GMC team tournament might be my favorite event of the year. It's wonderfully constructed: all 20 teams (19 on the girls side) are seeded into a bracket and each round consists of best-two-of-three team matches - bowl 6/count 5, just like the regular season. The whole thing takes 5 days, it's contested at a very high level, and there are plenty of great matchups between highly ranked teams.
The full record of matches can be found here.
All the scoresheets from all the matches can be found here.
(Thanks to Coach Canova for maintaining the awesome GMC site)
The #11 East Brunswick girls upset 3rd seeded #18 Carteret in the quarterfinals, 2nd seeded #10 Woodbridge in the semifinals and top-seeded #13 South Brunswick in the finals to win a hard-fought conference championship. But it's the boys' semifinals I want to talk about.
Last Saturday, #6 Monroe's quest for another state championship ended with a disappointing fifth place finish in Central Group IV. Two days later, they faced Group III champion #3 Woodbridge, and the Falcons waxed them. All six bowlers shot over 400 (2 games), including Ryley McKiernan shooting 237-225, with team totals of 1073 & 1104, which earned a sweep even though Woodbridge bowled quite well (1020-1067).
Also last Saturday, #10 Edison's quest for a state title ended with a disappointing fifth place finish in Central Group III. Two days later, they faced Group IV champion #1 East Brunswick. And the Eagles waxed them. Jason Smith shot 264-299 and Wyatt Buchany shot 256-300. The team totals were 1067-1159, sweeping East Brunswick, who didn't bowl badly themselves (1046-1032).
Now, East Brunswick and Woodbridge are both great teams, and favorites to go on to win state titles on Monday, but those performances by Edison & Monroe, given the circumstances, will stand among the most impressive of the season, no matter what.
Monroe swept Edison the next day to take the GMC tournament title, but there are plenty of winners on both sides.
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