(2/16/09) NJSIAA Team Finals - Girls

Today's episode: "Bummer"... not only that I've been running around working on a zillion different things and needed two days to get an entry done, but also that the North just can't seem to put it all together down at Carolier Lanes. Don't get me wrong, the trip is fun, and worth it every year (for me, anyway), but I haven't seen a bowling team from up here have a real knock-out day in North Brunswick since the Clifton boys won a State title in 2002. I recall the Butler boys finishing fourth in Group 1 once, but on the girls' side, North Jersey teams don't fare well at the finals.

Anyhow, congrats to Immaculate Heart and Ridgewood (5th and 6th, respectively, in Group 4), Warren Hills and Hackensack (5-6 in Group 3), Holy Angels and Indian Hills (5-6 in Group 2) and High Tech and Hudson County Prep (4-6 in Group 1) for earning the right to represent the North section at Carolier. That may seem like a small consolation now -- particularly for IHA, which had some pretty high hopes going in -- but in retrospect, I dare any die-hard bowler to come up with a better way to spend President's Day. Also, I've been working on a Ph.D in spin-doctoring, and my goal is to unearth the most positive news, notes and nuggets from the girls team finals in the next 9,000 words. (I'm kidding. I don't even have a word counter, and I guarantee it won't be that long.)

Good news for IHA (2,571): senior Lauren Rhein put it best -- regardless of how it ended, "This season in general was awesome. I couldn't have asked for better," she said. And Rhein should know, being not only the Blue Eagles' anchor but also their only four-year varsity starter. She and classmate Grace Capone had high games of 212 and 211, respectively -- about what you'd expect from a pair of college-bound bowlers, headed for Vanderbilt and Sacred Heart, respectively. (Have I used that word enough already?) Also consider that three Eagles still have the State individual finals to compete in, and that they didn't lose to a single team from North Jersey. Not even a game. I thought they might have gone 119-0 in the NNJIL before, but Rhein reminded me that Paramus Catholic managed to steal one game from them every year. And again... she should know.

Good news for Ridgewood (2,510): One word, courtesy of senior anchor Kim Burdi: closure. The Maroons went from starting with a 768 in Game 1 to finishing with a 922 in Game 3 -- if my records are correct, that's their highest 5-person series of the season. Senior Courtney Visco threw a 218 in her final game, while Burdi not only finished her career with a 224, she also knocked down a 7-pin to pick up the spare on her final roll -- the one single-pin spare that makes lefties wince (And in this case, I should know). Granted, Ridgewood won a Bergen County title in 2004, but according to coach Dick Bennett, this '08-09 squad was the best OVERALL team in program history. Plus, the Maroons made it onto the annual WGHT North Jersey bowling recap (more on that shortly) for the first time... not too shabby.

Good news for Hackensack (2,380): I bumped into head coach Bob Lotz before practice started up, and he reminded me that the Comet boys made it down to North Brunswick last season, and some of his girls had come down to cheer them on. Other than the synthetic lanes (which are everywhere in the Central and South and very few places up here), one of the biggest X-factors at Carolier is the crowd -- if you get a chance to observe that atmosphere in person, it gives you a better grasp of what awaits. Perhaps that's why the Hackensack girls had the best Game 1 of all the locals, an 859. Of course, that was where they topped out, but again, we're keeping it postive. To that end, some of the Comets' boys bowlers showed up to join the fan section, thusly keeping karma in Hackensack's corner.

Good news for Holy Angels (2,247): The seniors close out their careers with back-to-back sectional titles, one in Group 3 (2008) and one in Group 2 (this year). Not many teams can claim they've made it to the State finals in two different Group brackets -- maybe Mother Seton, I know they've been back and forth between 1 & 2 -- and in the interest of spin, we will ignore the fact that the state only divided up into groups three years ago. Details, details. Speaking of spin, I've determined that Angels anchor Apollonia Colacicco is the Jamie Moyer of North Jersey bowling, i.e. a master of the off-speed breaking-ball; it ain't fast, but it gets the job done... actually, let me qualify that comparison. Colacicco is like a much younger version of Moyer -- much, much, much, MUCH younger. And righty instead of lefty.

Good news for Indian Hills (2,217): The Braves will return five bowlers with varsity experience next year, and their best two are freshmen -- Emily Ostapczuk and Bridget Pyryt. Remember the names. In fact, Indian Hills might have done even better at Carolier but for the fact that Pyryt, their anchor, was out sick. (Yup. A freshman anchor. Coach Michels may still be pinching himself). However, along with Ridgewood's Visco/Burdi duo, Braves senior Katie Lach made herself into a top candidate for our Vanessa Williams Award (Saving the best for last), capping her career with a 538 series that featured a 202 game -- and that was after she had been out sick for the sectional tournament on Feb. 7. In the 10th frame, she finished up strike-9-spare, and in the 11th, she was kind enough to give an interview for the 'GHT recap. Speaking of which...

Programming reminder: With the Passaic County basketball tournaments getting down to the semifinals, WGHT 1500AM will have coverage and reaction from those on the Monday, Feb. 23 edition of Sports Overtime. The following day, Tuesday, Feb. 24, is when Part 2 of the year-end North Jersey bowling recap (including individual and boys team finals) will air at 2:30 pm. If you missed the girls team finals recap on Feb. 16, just follow the link to ghtradio.com on the blogroll, and you can e-mail a CD request to Jon & Marco. P.S. If you make a reference to "Gutterball Greg," I might weep a little on the inside, but they'll get a kick out of it.

AND FINALLY... this may be a North Jersey-centric blog, but we like bowling in general, so I stayed around for Monday's Baker-game Tournament of Champions, and would be remiss not to congratulate all the Group champs. Toms River East (2,829) won Group 4 going away... Brick Township (2,817) beat out rival Brick Memorial to take the Group 3 title... Manchester Township (2,767) won Group 2... and in Group 1, Keyport (2,509) rallied from six pins down after the second game to overtake Bordentown by... six pins. Ah, symmetry.

Naturally (sarcasm), both lower seeds advanced out of the the ToC semis. No. 4 Keyport took the first two games from No. 1 Toms River East, 161-147 and 170-139, then lost the next two games, 173-170 and 200-197, then won the clincher, 172-157. Point of order: East staved off elimination when anchor Emily Fiore struck out in the 10th frame of Game 3, then did it again when Fiore struck and got a 7-1 in the 10th of Game 4... big props to the senior, she bowled her heart out.

The day, however, belonged to the 2nd-seeded Hawks of Manchester Township... first, they toppled No. 3 Brick in the semifinals, 3-1 -- chin up, Green Dragons, yours is still a Top-10 nickname in the state -- ensuring that for the first time in 2002, a girls team other than Brick Twp. or Woodbridge would win the whole thing... then, with both finalists having the chance to become the first small-school champion since Bishop Eustace in 1985, Manchester put away Keyport, 3-1.
In the clincher, senior Kathryne Clark picked up a 3-10 split in the 5th frame, and that must have delighted the bowling gods, because the Hawks struck out the rest of the way for a 234. In a Baker game. Amanda DeMauro, Rebecca Harvey, Taylor Olsen, Chloe Krumeich and a 1-2-3 by Clark in the 10th -- all together, an eight-bagger, leaving no doubt and nary a dry eye clad in blue and gold. (Did I mention they also Bakered a 256 in the semis? Yeah... I'm pretty sure they're good).

Keyport had nothing to hang its head about. In fact, the Red Raiders will graduate just one senior, Catherine Wegman, and their anchor is a sophomore, Alexa Guirk. BUT, for Manchester, this was the best part... they had lost the Group 2 title in 2007 by one pin (to Mother Seton) and last year by two pins (to Carteret, and I do remember the Hawks leading after Game 2). Now, plenty of athletes have told me they think of their team like a family over the years -- but when Clark told me the same thing, it was anything but cliche. I could just sense heart-felt, deep-down emotion behind those words, because you don't get much closer as a bowling team than you do after picking each other up from heartbreaks like that. Gold nugget: DeMauro said it all -- "That's what made it all worthwhile."

Hopefully, I was able to do enough justice to this entry to make up for its lateness...

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As a footnote, I should mention that there is more hope for the North on Wednesday (er, today. Ahem.) at the State individual championships, since that tournament doesn't seem to cast quite as much of a hex on bowlers from our area. Unfortunately, deadline duty calls, and I won't be able to make it down to Carolier today, but I'll be back for the boys team finals on Saturday. I'm guessing The Record ran short on space because I'm not sure all the local individual qualifiers got mentioned -- but as a refresher, your Bergen-Passaic-Hudson county entrants are:
GIRLS: Sonja Shirak (Clifton); Victoria Grimshaw, Nicole Linder and Lauren Rhein (IHA); Brianna Carlo (Dumont); Colette Malyack (DePaul); and Lorisa Jones (Marist).
BOYS: Freddy Carlo (River Dell); Alex Prell (Wood-Ridge); Matt Priore (North Arlington); Sean Carmody (Ridgefield Park); Mike Wuhrman (Park Ridge); Rob Grippo (Bergen Catholic); Perrin DeFreitas (Hackensack); Gary Job (Lyndhurst); Steve Fernandez (Queen of Peace); Andrew Davidowicz (Lakeland); Rich Gutches (Passaic Tech); Jon Rizzi (Pompton Lakes); Matt Gilcher (North Bergen); Jaylin Floyd (Manchester Regional); Tom Maggio (DePaul); Juan Rosas (Passaic); and Omar Espinal (Union City).

And, as always, if you read something you like/don't like/whatever, drop me a line at NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.