Ok -- this is why even though it may take a couple of days to get full recaps posted, it's worth the wait: had a chance to go back to search the old NJBRG archives and found out that on Saturday, Immaculate Heart won its eighth consecutive sectional title. EIGHT! I'd have to do signifcantly more research to find out where that ranks in the scheme of all-time great sports dynasties, but for the moment, I'd put the Blue Eagle bowlers right behind Mount Union's D-3 football team and just in front of Marshall High School from Remember the Titans.
Of course, the state only started awarding Group championships at the sectional level two years ago, so instead of the old format of the top 4 or 5 teams advancing to the State finals (done until 2006), the top 2 teams in each Group qualify, for a total of 8. Yes, this is more fair to some of the smaller schools that would not otherwise have a chance to reach the state finals... No, it's not fair to some of the higher-scoring teams that get snubbed. Is there a solution to this mess?
Well, I'd like to think that if they can make the changes they have so far, perhaps the NJSIAA can continue tweaking the system. Cosmic thought: How about wild card entries? I'm almost positive they do this in cross-country and track, and if you take two wild card teams -- i.e. highest scorers that did not advance, regardless of Group size -- that still gives you a nice even 10 teams from each section. And, since they've already split up all the State bowling finals on to separate days (another rant for another time, trust me), this could easily be implemented without overcrowding the T of C field. Just a thought.
Anyway, time to review all the fun stuff from Saturday's action at Bowler City. Once again, congrats to the champs & State qualifiers...
GROUP 4 -- 1. IHA, 2,972... That's 3 straight North-Group 4 titles, plus 5 North Sectional titles from 2002-06 for a total of 8. The last overall section champ other than IHA? Paramus Catholic in '01.
2. Ridgewood, 2,582... Only two Maroons had ever earned a trip to Carolier under coach Dick Bennett -- Alecia Hefter and Ellen Seavers each went once as individuals early in the '00s (or whatever you call them). Now the whole team gets to go, and they do it in the same season that they gave coach Bennett his 100th win with the RHS girls. P.S. Their lineup includes three sophomores. Regardless of what happens on President's Day, this group may be heard from again down the road.
GROUP 3 -- 1. Warren Hills, 2,531... Since they won the section, they are ineligble to win our "Best Nickname Award" for the tournament -- however, the Blue Streaks can rarely be topped in that category, plus they now have two Group 3 titles in the last three years. Originally, I had said they're from Blairstown; it's actually one of the 5 Washington Townships in the state (the Warren County one), and coach Greg Rottengen did say the trip took about an hour and 15 minutes, but again, well worth it.
2. Hackensack, 2,163... The Comets beat Fair Lawn by 15 points, and that wasn't even the closest race of the day. It's kind of odd to see Hackensack in Group 3, but in this case it just means more NNJIL teams get to move on.
GROUP 2 -- 1. Holy Angels, 2,336... another memo from the Department of [writing] Corrections, the Angels win their 2nd title in a row. They dropped down from Group 3 to Group 2 this year, but would have scored big enough to go either way. Both the surprise and the controversy of the day was with the Group 2 runner-up...
2. Indian Hills, 2,232... the Braves trailed Bergenfield by 53 heading into the final game, and ended up beating the Bears (2,231) by ONE PIN. Big props to IH leadoff bowler Breana Parian, who bounced back from a second-game 98 to roll a 161 and give her team a Game 3 total of 769. However, I still have yet to talk to coach Mike Michels because the Braves left early -- which means the first question for him, naturally, is: did you even know you advanced?
GROUP 1 -- 1. County Prep, 2,297... This is typically a Hudson County-heavy division, so not a big surprise that that's where the top 2 teams are from. The Hurricanes sure the like the Group-title setup, as they have now captured the Group 1 championship in all 3 years of its existence.
2. High Tech, 2,255... another fantastic nickname -- the Lasercats -- set aside in the interest of fairness. They beat Pascack Hills by 25, which any other year might qualify as a "heartbreaker" for the Cowgirls. Man, the NBIL really ended up getting squeezed out this year... luckily, I think they'll give me a lot of good stuff to write about at league finale day on Wednesday.
The individual cutoff ended up being 593. The 12 qualifiers....
1. Nicole Chanin (Sparta) 674
2. Sonja Shirak (Clifton) 658
3. Nicole Linder (IHA) 642
4. Lauren Rhein (IHA) 640
5. Brianna Carlo (Dumont) 631
6. Samantha Carter (Wallkill Valley) 626
7. Gia Bethea (University) 617
8. Colette Malyack (DePaul) 616
9. Victoria Grimshaw (IHA) 614
10. Lorisa Jones (Marist) 609
11. Heather Van Dyk (Jefferson) 595
12. Stacy Fernandez (Ridgefield Park) 593
Chanin also had the high game with a 269. She may have had the line of the day as well -- the second- and third-place individuals both got medals, so I think she may have been anticipating the same when she was called up to the counter for the high series award. Tournament director Howie Conklin then presented her with the first-place trophy, drawing the following reaction: "Oh wow, a trophy!" So, she ended up with a pleasant surprise, and the rest of the Group champs ended up with "Oh wows" instead of trophies (I did notice Conklin pull Chanin aside when he gave her the high game trophy, so my guess is that he asked her if it was okay to use her line as kind of an inside joke when presenting the rest of the awards. Clearly, she was cool with it -- as I often like to say, that's the price you pay for greatness). Anyway, that leads us to this site's own, very unofficial awards, for the teams that put a capper on their season Saturday...
Best nickname: The Mother Seton Setters. They were the two-time defending champs of Group 2, but dropped down to Group 1 this year and ran into County Prep. Their trip wasn't quite as long as Warren Hills', since Clark is right down the Parkway, but Mother Seton is the lone Union County girls team in the section, so they deserve some "ink."
Best dressed team(s): TIE, Mahwah and Westwood. The Thunderbirds stayed within the guidelines with matching sky-blue shirts, but they went the extra mile and decorated with that fabric... paint... stuff, or whatever it's called. Meanwhile, I don't know if the Cardinals thought it up themselves, but their T-shirt design and slogan were masterful: "XXX [next line] Get your mind out of the gutter." The best 3-strike ideas my friends and I ever came up with all involved turkeys -- bravo, Westwood, for thinking outside the box.
Best plot twist: Northern Highlands and Ramapo are pretty familiar with each other, being NBIL rivals. So at least twice this year, they've had to deal with the whole "coach-versus-former-team" rigmarole, with first-year Ramapo head coach Pat Noto having spent the previous 3 years as Highlands' assistant coach. So, which two teams got paired together on Lanes 9 and 10 at Bowler City on Saturday? Yup, the Green Raiders and Highlanders. How funny the fates can be sometimes -- not unlike coach Noto himself, who NH senior Sara Schwartz (half-jokingly) accused of making silly faces at her before she went up to bowl. The Bad News Bears and Yankees could learn a thing or two from this type of rivalry.
There's no cheering in the press box -- but...: Maintaining journalistic objectivity isn't always as easy as it looks. Yes, I've shared my not-so-veiled bias toward left-handers -- c'mon, we only make up 11 percent of the population -- but when you try to curry favor by supporting my favorite football team, well, that puts me in a pickle. So Part 1 of this award goes to IHA southpaw Victoria Grimshaw, who uses a New York Jets ball as her spare ball. Good thing she earned her way onto the blog with a top-12 series (614) and top-3 high game (240), otherwise I'd lose all credibility.
Okay, for Part 2, I have to get a little more serious... Bergenfield senior Brittany Kniesler (591) missed the cut by two pins, and normally, my heart goes out to anyone in that situation anyway. Now, throw in the fact that I had a whole conversation with Brittany at the girls county tournament about how she has a disabled younger brother who is a frequent visitor to Boston Children's Hospital -- ironic, given that I have a younger brother who spent about 1/3rd of his life at Boston Children's before finally getting a kidney transplant that took in 1997 (there aren't enough wooden surfaces nearby to knock on right now). Anyhow, it's tough not to root for a person when you share similar experiences like that, especially ones based around family. Plus, you know, she was the 13th-place finisher, and that's my lucky number, and... (hey, give me a break, I'm trying to keep from getting too heavy-handed here).
I know how to lighten things up again...
The Twilight Zone award: Has to go to Ramsey's Kate Strangfeld. In the third frame of her first game, the gate inexplicably came down after she had shot the ball, but before it reached the pins. Maybe the pinsetter grew a mind of its own, or perhaps its own sick sense of humor? Either way, the ball hit the gate and slumped off into the gutter, and they had to go retreive it. It seemed like a pretty random accident, but just in case, I'm keeping my eye on Lane 1 at Bowler City for the rest of the season.
That's about all I've got for now. I did get a hold of the final averages from the NNJIL, so I will go back and fix/update those when I get a chance, plus I'm hoping to see the NBIL finale on Wednesay. Cheers...
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