2/9/10 North Jersey Sectional Finals - Girls

Wait, you mean the North Jersey girls sectional tournament WASN'T postponed until the 13th? It was moved to the 9th and the 13th was actually the date for the BOYS tournament?? Okay, The Messenger got a little bogged down at work this week, where he was asked to do the job of 2 people but only get paid as one person, all while there was another snowstorm blanketing the state. Not that he's bitter about that sort of thing — well, maybe a little.

The point is, TM has finally made it back to his distant mountaintop sanctuary at NJBB Worldwide Headquarters (a.k.a. his family's house in Seaside Park) and has all Saturday afternoon to get caught up on the good stuff that has gone un-blogged this week.

So by now, it has been well-documented about Clifton shooting 2,542 to knock off Immaculate Heart (2,475) for the Group 4 championship, but the Blue Eagles holding on to second place by 16 pins over Bergen Tech (2,459) to advance to Carolier once again. Still, IHA's streak of 8 consecutive sectional titles came to a close (5 North Sectional crowns from 2002-06 + 3 straight North Group 4 titles from 2007-09, after the State split into groups)... BUT, if The Messenger is not mistaken, the string of Non-Public teams shooting the high series at the sectional tournament continues. DePaul (2,677) led the house this year, and a quick peek back at last year's NJBB entry reminds us that the last overall section champ before IHA began its run was Paramus Catholic in '01. So who was the last public school to lead the section in scoring? E-mail NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com with the answer before our crack research staff (of one) comes up with it, and you will win a signed copy of The Messenger's scoresheet from this very tournament! Unless you don't want it. In that case, just go ahead and gloat, because we really don't have anything of monetary value to give out as prizes.

Ok, so back to the recapping — cheers to Clifton's Sonja Shirak for rolling the second-high game (255) and series (695), but also to the Mustangs' Kortney Casperino, who not only turned in a quality 226–626 but also (by TM's unofficial count) threw the ball that put her team over the top and clinched the Group 4 title, a 7 on her first roll in the 10th frame of Game 3. As for the ball that vaulted IHA over Bergen Tech for second? Well, we mentioned it was well-documented, so I'll throw a bone to our rival blog on this one. You win this, round, CC!

Group 3, to me, provided one of the most feel-good stories of the day. Submitted for your approval, more documentation (scroll down to the second-to last graf before the scores) of the triumph of Bergenfield, which led wire-to-wire and laid claim to the championship trophy with a 2,425. In trying to elicit some quotes about redemption or something of the ilk, I brought up last year's one-pin miss to some of the Bears, which brought about a sarcastic ribbing (sarcasm from a Howie Conklin-coached team? nahhh...) that TM attempted to shake off of by shifting the focus to said trophy, as well as the third-place high game (247) and series (666) medals won by Bergenfield anchor Cassidy Fiore. Actually, when the Bears were summoned forth to claim their prize, the question overheard was, "is it shiny?" The answer — more so than the shiny mailroom that Buddy the Elf worked in, less so than Lightning McQueen's lucky 'bolt' sticker... second place in Group 3 went to Hackensack (2,223), which produced a 782 in Game 3 to hold off a challenge by Nutley (2,123), who only trailed by 19 after Game 2.

We've already made mention of Group 2 champ DePaul, a first-year squad that really didn't bowl like one since, well, their anchor Colette Malyack (224–614) gained plenty of experience last year tallying one of the top averages for the then-coed Spartans and helping them earn a trip to the State finals. As a freshman. DePaul actually beat Clifton for the one and only NJTCC-Passaic girls title this year, and their pair of Rebeccas — Dykstra (221–565) and Nemeh (218–562) — both qualified for the State individual finals... the Spartans shared lanes with another first-year team and league rival, Lakeland (2,197), which started off in second place before Holy Angels (2,279) came on strong and did what they always do: the Angels have now punched a ticket to North Brunswick every year the Group format has been in effect.

In Group 1, Hudson County Prep was going for a fourth straight title, and it ended up being pretty close... for second place. Mother Seton (2,401) was just too much and emerged as another wire-to-wire winner, breaking the Hurricanes' monopoly on the bracket (boy, there were dynasties ending all over the place). Bearing one of The Messenger's all-time favorite nicknames, the Lasercats of High Tech held a slim, 18-point lead over County Prep for second place after 2 games, and even though the 'Canes scored an 806 in Game 3, the 'Cats picked up the gauntlet and answered back with an 805, grabbing the final transfer spot, 2,170 to 2,153.

Now, for some of the unofficial awards that the NJBB likes to dole out from time to time...

The Phil Connors History Repeating Award: Nicole Chanin of Sparta won her second straight North Jersey individual title with a leave-no-doubt series of 228-213-278–719, taking medals for both high game and series.

The Bob Walk Ironic Name Award: Has to go to Bayonne anchor Katie Zero. I really hope the Bees' softball coach has looked into making her a pitcher, because that is the surname I would want for someone who's key stat is earned-run average. Maybe during bowling season she should legally change her name to Katie Striker, or something like that. Seriously, really cool last name, but really ironic given her sport.

The Clairol Best Hair Color Award: tie between Kelsey Rafter of Nutley and Liz Gould of High Tech. Both decided to show school spirit by (ostensibly) going with team-colored 'dos. I give Rafter credit for trying to pull off Maroon, but if I had to do a tiebreaker and choose only one — I mean, Goold managed to rock Lasercats Purple and help her team qualify for States, and those are some serious double prizes.

The Gratuitous Award of Gratuitous...ness: To the Kearny trio of Mariana Torres, Antoinette Cocuzza and Erika Valente. Three lefties, ALL IN A ROW. One more, and The Messenger might have renamed the Parker Bohn III All-Stars in their honor.

So it's on to Monday (and Wednesday for the individuals), which has become an NJBB holiday of sorts — yes, TM will be there to work; and yes, he has allotted time to both Twitter and blog before the day is out; bottom line, it's gonna be some good old-fashioned fun at Carolier on Presidents' Day. Wouldn't want it any other way...

North Jersey Sectional Tournament scores

GRP 4	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Clifton	850	817	875	2542*
2nd	Immaculate Heart	803	810	862	2475*
3rd	Bergen Tech	761	859	839	2459
4th	Bloomfield	699	732	829	2260
5th	Bayonne	754	725	730	2209
6th	Ridgewood	727	705	741	2173
7th	Fair Lawn	651	723	764	2138
8th	Kearny	633	683	645	1961
9th	Paramus Catholic	620	653	623	1896
10th	Passaic Tech	507	573	552	1632
GRP 3	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Bergenfield	853	765	807	2425*
2nd	Hackensack	741	700	782	2223*
3rd	Pascack Valley	682	721	804	2207
4th	Nutley	629	793	701	2123
5th	Ramapo	643	645	697	1985
6th	No. Highlands	727	604	651	1982
7th	Passaic Valley	692	624	635	1951
8th	Wayne Hills	585	674	592	1851
9th	Belleville	606	579	661	1846
10th	Old Tappan	531	505	544	1580
GRP 2	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	DePaul	957	873	847	2677*
2nd	Holy Angels	728	835	716	2279*
3rd	Pascack Hills	738	778	694	2210
4th	Lakeland	752	737	708	2197
5th	Indian Hills	690	808	675	2173
6th	Ridgefield Park	599	713	638	1950
7th	Ramsey	700	606	573	1879
8th	Dumont	570	633	544	1747
9th	Mahwah	549	515	490	1554
GRP 1	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Mother Seton	764	792	845	2401*
2nd	High Tech	742	623	805	2170*
3rd	County Prep	698	649	806	2153
4th	Holy Family	727	690	734	2151
5th	Westwood	678	666	653	1997
6th	Marist	664	651	606	1921
7th	McNair Academic	600	623	653	1876
8th	Mount St. Dominic	581	592	607	1780
9th	Harrison	552	604	576	1732
10th	Newark Vocational	547	528	529	1604

*Qualified for State team finals @ Carolier Lanes, Feb. 15

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS

PLACE	BOWLER/SCHOOL	TOTAL
1st	Nicole Chanin, Sparta	719
2nd	Sonja Shirak, Clifton	695
3rd	Cassidy Fiore, Bergenfield	666
4th	Crystal Keller, Lenape V.	647
5th	Jersaine Lacibal, Bloomfield	643
6th	Sarah Esmenda, Berg'field	631
7th	Kortney Casperino, Clifton	626
8th	Stacey Fernandez, RP	620
9th	Colette Malyack, DePaul	614
10th	Nicole Linder, IHA	606
11th	Heather Van Dyk, Jefferson	590
12th	Christina Romano, Millburn	581
13th	Kimberly Ercolino, Bergen T.	579
14th	Katarina Nier, Scotch Plains	571
15th	Rebecca Dykstra, DePaul	565
16th	Katherine Lee, Leonia	563
T-17th	Jaclyn Lima, Linden	562
T-17th	Rebecca Nemeh, DePaul	562

Please e-mail any/all corrections to NorthJerseyBRG@gmail.com.