(1/17/09) Bergen County Girls Tournament @ Bowler City

Well, it's a tad late, and I can give you excuses from working a Saturday night shift to house-hunting to having adventurous walks on the beautiful ice this time of year – all of which have happened, btw – but either way, I must apologize for putting off my blogging. I was at the Bergen County girls tournament at Bowler City in Hackensack last Saturday, at it ended up being the type of event that deserves some extra mention, so I'll get to it shortly.

First, a point of order and some clerical business. Since I'd like to get bowling in North Jersey as much pub as possible but lack the ability to clone/teleport/imitate Plastic Man, this site will gladly accept submissions of reports from other high school bowling tournaments in the area (caveat: they will be edited before posting). Remember, our mission is to print the stuff that the newspapers can't/won't.

E-mail info to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com – we cannot, unfortunately, offer you any monetary compensation, but you will receive your name imprinted upon this here fancy Inter-web unless you instruct us otherwise.

Now then… I was curious to see how high the scoring would be at Bowler City on Saturday, considering the place had housed a pair of 300 games (Bergen Catholic's Rob Grippo and Hackensack's Perrin DeFreitas) and a 299 (Immaculate Heart's Nicole Linder) in the three days leading up to the tournament. The real story, though, was the new format.

In past years, both the Bergen boys and girls tournaments were done the same: 3 games in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, the totals from all 6 used to determine both team and individual champions. This year for the girls, the 3-game morning session was kept, and that was used to determine high series/individual champ – then, the top 8 teams advanced to an additional qualifying round of 4 Baker games. The 4 teams with the highest pinfall (morning plus afternoon) went on to a head-to-head tournament.

After the morning session, here's how the standings looked:
1. IHA 3134*, 2. Ridgewood 2468*, 3. Holy Angels 2377*, 4. Hackensack 2329*, 5. Fair Lawn 2196*, 6. Bergenfield 2181*, 7. Pascack Hills 2173*, 8. Indian Hills 2142*, 9. Northern Highlands 2002, 10. Ramapo 1936, 11. Pascack Valley 1934, 12. Paramus Catholic 1908, 13. Dumont 1902, 14. Ramsey 1898, 15. Cliffside Park 1895, 16. Westwood 1890.

FYI, IHA's first two games were 1078 and 1070, annihilating the previous single-game record of 1010 that the Blue Eagles themselves set in winning the 2003 title. Under the old format, the tournament was over right there. And, even with the four Baker games to start the afternoon, the order was juggled a bit, but not enough to change the top 4 (final totals in parens):
1. Immaculate Heart 183-174-177-205 (3873)
2. Ridgewood 121-192-183-194 (3158)
3. Hackensack 164-223-129-140 (2985)
4. Holy Angels 140-131-140-138 (2926)
5. Bergenfield 163-165-149-143 (2801)
6. Pascack Hills 204-141-156-107 (2781)
7. Indian Hills 132-126-143-172 (2715)
8. Fair Lawn 127-125-132-133 (2713)

Clearly, Hackensack took to the new format quite well, although the same could not be said for all. I'd like to think that perhaps it might spur some teams on to practicing the Baker format leading up to next year's tournament, especially since the final playoff round was rather compelling.

Even though the only spot to change in the order after Baker games was Hackensack overtaking Holy Angels, don't think this wasn't significant to the Comets, because it meant they didn't have to face IHA in the semifinals. Then again, Ridgewood wound up rendering that point moot – Hackensack took the first game, 196-147, and (after a lane switch) had a decent lead in the second game, with the Maroons sitting on 99 entering the 9th frame.

However, a couple late opens left the door open for this: Ridgewood's Courtney Visco went 8-spare in the ninth. Then, in one of the most intense finishes of the day, lefty Kim Burdi struck out (and looked 87 different kinds of fired up in doing so) to give the Maroons a 149-135 win and all the momentum. They elected to stay on their lane for Game 3 and left just two open frames, rolling six strikes to win, 197-124.

Meanwhile, IHA got past the Angels fairly easily, 205-159, 181-136. Yet, the finals brought about shades of the semis. IHA beat Ridgewood in the first game, 210-138, but again, after the lane switch, the Maroons caught fire in Game 2. They started off with 6 straight marks and closed with – what else? – Burdi striking out. And let me tell you, if Omar Minaya had seen that fire in her eyes for the 10th frame, he might have signed her to be Billy Wagner's replacement on the spot.

But let us not forget that when it comes to girls bowling in Bergen County, there are few teams as unflappable as IHA. Whether intentional or not (wish I'd asked), the Blue Eagles elected to switch back to the original lane setup for Game 3 and proceeded to build an 18-point lead before senior Vicki Grimshaw got unlucky with a 2-7 split in the 8th. That allowed the Maroons to creep closer, but Grace Capone struck in the 9th to give IHA a 149-135 lead entering the 10th.

IHA anchor Lauren Rhein finished up 9-spare-9, and probably should have had a strike on the final ball – no thanks to a Weeble-wobbling 10-pin. That left Burdi with a chance to tie the match with a strikeout, but her first ball was a bit light into the pocket, and she finished 7-spare-strike. Regardless, it was an outstanding finish, and members of both Hackensack and Holy Angels stayed around to watch even after the semifinals.

The closest margin of victory in the Bergen County girls tournament under the old format was 6 pins, which happened in 1995 (IHA over Fair Lawn) and, like clockwork, 10 years later in 2005 (IHA over Paramus Catholic). That was the first of the Blue Eagles' current string of five consecutive county titles – I have no idea why the Bergen Record keeps saying it's six, but Ridgewood won it in 2004, meaning for IHA to win it in 05-06-07-08-09 is five straight. Then again, I might be the only one nit-picky enough to point that out.

At any rate, the new format seemed to be a smash hit – FYI, Ridgewood coach and new tournament director Dick Bennett also helped revamp the county girls golf tournament last spring, increasing both participation and interest. He'll never take the credit, because he's one of those coaches who is genuinely in it for the kids first, but he deserves some mega-kudos anyway.

Oh, and speaking of bowling and golf in the same sentence, Rhein won the individual title with a 670 series and informed me afterward that she's headed to Vanderbilt to bowl in college. I told her that, coincidentally, I'd recently interviewed a Vanderbilt freshman and former Wayne Hills star who is quite the golf prodigy – "Any chance you know Marina Alex?" I asked. Lauren then politely reminded me that yes, she used to golf against Marina all the time. Glad I was paying attention.

Then again, if I didn't have bowling on the brain all winter, who'd keep this place up and running?