nj.com story here. Full results here. This was an amazingly competitive and exciting event, everything you hope and expect high-level high school bowling to be.
GROUP I
Well, this was crazy. Four good teams came in with a reasonable shot, and all four teams engaged in a back-and-forth battle where anything could have resulted. Matawan took an early lead with a 986 in game one behind good games by Chris McShane (217), Travis Sweeney (211) and Ryan Nesbitt (210), while Bishop Ahr was right behind at 963 thanks to Andrew Funk's 247. The favorites bounced back in game two, with #8 Manasquan posting 983, powered by Austin Devereux's 257 and Chris Heilos's 224. #17 St. Rose was one stick better than their Shore rivals, as Joe Ocelo (214) and Carter Vanderslice (219) pushed their team to 984. But Bishop Ahr was even 3 pins better than the Roses, firing a balanced 987, led again by Funk (226). Ahr took a 68 pin lead into the final game, but it was anybody's to take as the four teams were within 98 pins and all were capable of going big. Nobody backed down in the finale: Ocelo (214) and Jarrett Toth (215) helped St. Rose to a solid 947, but the teams' 2829 would come up just short. Bishop Ahr got 206s from Erik Gonzalez and Kyle Heyman, as well as 231 from Funk (completing a 704, 8th best in this loaded sectional) and reached a total of 2889. Matawan made a dynamite run at the leaders, firing 1027 behind Ryan Nesbitt (210), Sweeney (208) and a big 245 from Matt Nesbitt, but came up 10 pins short of Bishop Ahr. Still, that would have been good enough for a slot at the TOC, except that Manasquan got a nice 224 from Kyle Bauter and a devastating perfect 300 from Austin Devereux, which landed the Warriors a 1059 game, a 2913 set, and the Sectional championship (as well as landing Devereux a 772 set and the individual title). Fantastic bowling all around and very touch placement: Central had the top FOUR scores in Group I for the entire state, but only two can advance.
GROUP II
This one, too, folks. Three teams got off to fast starts: #16 St. Joseph's (Metuchen) put up 996 behind John Reggio (234) and Joe Chrobak (216). #6 Ocean Township was only 2 sticks behind after a balanced 994 led by Matt Redbord's 222. And an underdog got involved, with Ewing tossing 989, powered by Chase Springett (227) and Reese Hunt (219). All three took a step back in game two, and South Plainfield roared past everyone with a 989 game on the strength of Ryan Berardi's 213 and Angelo Salici's big 277. That left St. Joe's on the outside after two, but the Falcons were having exactly none of that. They put up a monster 1129 in game three, with all five bowlers shooting 200 (Justin Biancamano 204, John Hogan 214, Giovanni Santiago 221, Chrobak 224 and Reggio 266 to complete a 679 set, putting him in the individual TOC). St. Joe's was safely in first at 3025, but second place was wide open until Ocean Township put it away with a 971 game, thanks to newly subbed-in Jack Henry (204), Brian Davis (212), and TOC qualifier Redbord (226, for 682). I guess in the end, the two favorites advanced, but nobody made it easy. Great bowling.
GROUP III
This one, too? Absolutely. #2 Woodbridge had vastly superior season-long numbers than Monroe and Sayreville, but all three GMC squads showed up ready to bowl: all three topped 1000 in game one. Monroe's 1020 was the product of huge games by Louis Folgore (268) and Ryley McKiernan (266); each would shoot 668 and qualify for Wednesday's individual event. Woodbridge came in at 1034 thanks to a great game by James Stoveken (278) and another big number from John Drost (236). But Sayreville, the defending state champ, had the early lead behind a huge 1061: Ryan Johnson (239), Eddie Peterson (218), Chris DeOcampo (237) and Dylan Gilligan (201) all broke 200 for the Bombers. Woodbridge and Monroe would separate themselves in Game 2, each breaking 1000 again, and while Sayreville bowled well, they would be unable to make up the ground. Monroe's Tyler Kresan put up a huge game 2 with 267 and Zac Waynor's 225 was big as well. Stoveken (227) and Drost (230) again paced the Barrons. Monroe took an eleven pin lead over the state's #2 team into the final game, and Folore & McKiernan's continued excellence, with help from Zack Vollemann (203) was enough to take the title, though Stoveken fired 224 to complete a 729 set, good for 5th in the sectional. Great job by Monroe, and Woodbridge may have gotten a huge wake-up call before States on Friday. Also of note in Group III, Freehold Township, whom I listed without comment in the preview, put up 2758, by far their best score of the season, to finish a surprising fourth. Very nice job.
GROUP IV
I'm not going to pretend that this one was as thrilling as the craziness in the other three groups, because #4 East Brunswick simply decimated the field and looked very much like the best team in the state, at least for one day. The Bears put up THREE games over 1100 and an astounding total of 3400, which was only the top sectional score in the state by 225 pins. Three East Brunswick bowlers finished in the top eight of this loaded sectional: Jack Deruvo (255-256-242=753) came in fourth, with James Reitano (710) and Sam Bortnick (682) also moving on to the individual TOC. Daniel Lenk (628) and Ethan Shamin (627) were very good as well. Just an outstanding performance.
The battle for 2nd was a good one, though. Howell took the early lead with a 972 in game one, led by Joseph Inserra (212) and Brian Garofano (215). #11 South Brunswick came back big in Game 2, shooting 987 behind Anthony Fama (235), Chan Woo Ang (202), and held a 72 pin lead over Howell, with Old Bridge only six pins further back. South Brunswick finished with a solid 984 for a total of 2903. Howell made a nice charge, shooting 1004 with big games from Inserra (209) and Garofano (235), but came up 52 pins short. Old Bridge was another story. Gerard Chidichimo's 201, Peter Mattson's 200 and the big one, Doug Titmas's 284 (which also landed him in the TOC with a 677 set) pushed the Knights to an excellent 1053, but their 2894 was a scant nine pins short of a qualifying spot.
INDIVIDUALS
15 qualifiers with the cutline at a very high 668. We covered individual champ Devereux, as well as Deruvo, Stoveken, Reintano, Funk, Redbord, Bortnick, Reggio, Titmas, Folgore and McKiernan. Cameron LaPlant of JP Stevens was brilliant, shooting 227-259-279=765 to finish second. Ethan Goldring of Watchung Hills fired 715, his third 700 on the season, to take 6th. That leaves two bowlers that entered as individuals. Ryan Carlisi of Steinert put up a nice 679 to qualify for Bowlero. And Justin Pavlik of Ridge scored a fantatic 228-300-233=761 to take third. A really wonderful collection of bowlers here.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Sectional Wrapup - Boys North 1A
nj.com story is here. Full results are here. I don't have bowler-level detail for all teams, so sorry if some of this is cursory. I will say, that of the eight sectionals, this is the one where my preview commentary was the furthest off. It didn't help that due to an editing error, my preview paragraphs on Bergenfield and Ridgefield Park were accidentally combined and rendered nonsensical.
GROUP I
Our first group is our first big upset. Hasbrouck Heights winning the three-team battle was only a mild surprise, but Becton stealing spot #2 from North Arlington is certainly noteworthy. Justin Rinaldi picked a great time for his season-high series, 644 (he averages 180), which earned him Group I's only spot in the individual TOC, and earned his team a tight 15-pin victory over the favorites.
GROUP II
The two favorites are moving on, but Fort Lee bowled fantastic and flipped the order to take the sectional with an impressive 2945. We knew how great David Grant was, so his qualifying 646 was no shock, but Luke Athanassapoulos shooting 658 on his 182 average? Very nice. Dumont leapfrogged a couple to finish solidly in third behind Kyle Schellberg's 694 (third overall).
GROUP III
In this sectional's marquee event, the favorites are moving on, but oh boy was it close. #14 Indian Hills was brilliant, posting a sectional-best 3103 behind Jared Duncan's 702 and Ryan McGuire's 664, as well as solid numbers from Jon Mormando, Jack Miller and Andrew Smolenski. This group has a real chance to compete for a state title on Friday. #18 Pascack Valley didn't have their best day, but managed to secure a TOC spot with a solid 2857 because Henry Tipping was great, shooting 268/675. Ridgefield Park and Demarest each made a strong run at the upset, coming up just 66 & 67 pins short, respectively. RP's Derek Lewandowski secured an individual spot with a 642 set.
GROUP IV
Of the 32 sectionals in 2017, I think this one carried the biggest upset of them all. I dismissed Northern Highlands with one line, calling their numbers "just a little shy", and the Highlanders simply went out and blew the Group IV field away, shooting 2925 and besting second-place Ridgewood by 151 pins. How the heck did they do that? Well, Emily Mamunes was a bit over average with a 567. Miles Halpin was a little over his average, 547. Jacob Lucibello did well, shooting 593 on his 182 average. Shane Bendit was right at his average. And Junior Will Cunningham bested his average by TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY PINS. 237-300-209=746 on a 172 average. That's.... that's amazing. Matt Myers' 680 helped Ridgewood win an extremely close 3-way battle for second over Fair Lawn (by just 28 pins) and Bergen Catholic (by 46).
INDIVIDUALS
Only twelve spots available in North 1A, with the cutline coming at 642. Only a handful of surprises in the individual qualifiers, and we covered just about all of them: Cunningham, Duncan, Schellberg, Myers and Tipping were the top five. We mentioned McGuire, Athanassopoulos, Grant, Rinaldi and Lewandowski. That leaves Nick Greco of Fair Lawn, who shot 648 and is obviously an established great bowler. And Junior Eric Weiss of Bergenfield, who destroyed his 166 average and his 603 season-high series by carding a fantastic 646.
Two hundred and thirty pins over average. Damn.
GROUP I
Our first group is our first big upset. Hasbrouck Heights winning the three-team battle was only a mild surprise, but Becton stealing spot #2 from North Arlington is certainly noteworthy. Justin Rinaldi picked a great time for his season-high series, 644 (he averages 180), which earned him Group I's only spot in the individual TOC, and earned his team a tight 15-pin victory over the favorites.
GROUP II
The two favorites are moving on, but Fort Lee bowled fantastic and flipped the order to take the sectional with an impressive 2945. We knew how great David Grant was, so his qualifying 646 was no shock, but Luke Athanassapoulos shooting 658 on his 182 average? Very nice. Dumont leapfrogged a couple to finish solidly in third behind Kyle Schellberg's 694 (third overall).
GROUP III
In this sectional's marquee event, the favorites are moving on, but oh boy was it close. #14 Indian Hills was brilliant, posting a sectional-best 3103 behind Jared Duncan's 702 and Ryan McGuire's 664, as well as solid numbers from Jon Mormando, Jack Miller and Andrew Smolenski. This group has a real chance to compete for a state title on Friday. #18 Pascack Valley didn't have their best day, but managed to secure a TOC spot with a solid 2857 because Henry Tipping was great, shooting 268/675. Ridgefield Park and Demarest each made a strong run at the upset, coming up just 66 & 67 pins short, respectively. RP's Derek Lewandowski secured an individual spot with a 642 set.
GROUP IV
Of the 32 sectionals in 2017, I think this one carried the biggest upset of them all. I dismissed Northern Highlands with one line, calling their numbers "just a little shy", and the Highlanders simply went out and blew the Group IV field away, shooting 2925 and besting second-place Ridgewood by 151 pins. How the heck did they do that? Well, Emily Mamunes was a bit over average with a 567. Miles Halpin was a little over his average, 547. Jacob Lucibello did well, shooting 593 on his 182 average. Shane Bendit was right at his average. And Junior Will Cunningham bested his average by TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY PINS. 237-300-209=746 on a 172 average. That's.... that's amazing. Matt Myers' 680 helped Ridgewood win an extremely close 3-way battle for second over Fair Lawn (by just 28 pins) and Bergen Catholic (by 46).
INDIVIDUALS
Only twelve spots available in North 1A, with the cutline coming at 642. Only a handful of surprises in the individual qualifiers, and we covered just about all of them: Cunningham, Duncan, Schellberg, Myers and Tipping were the top five. We mentioned McGuire, Athanassopoulos, Grant, Rinaldi and Lewandowski. That leaves Nick Greco of Fair Lawn, who shot 648 and is obviously an established great bowler. And Junior Eric Weiss of Bergenfield, who destroyed his 166 average and his 603 season-high series by carding a fantastic 646.
Two hundred and thirty pins over average. Damn.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
State Finals Wrapup - Girls Team TOC
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)