2/14/10 NJSIAA Team Finals - Girls

Since the NJSIAA boys team, girls team and singles finals were separated out over a three-day span several years ago, the girls team tournament is the only one that still carries on the tradition of the 9:30 a.m. start on Presidents' Day – normally. However, since the event didn’t actually fall on Presidents' Day this year, the powers that be had to push the start time back to 12:30 p.m. to accommodate Carolier Lanes' usual Monday morning leagues.

According to several sources, the time change was made within the week leading up to the tournament, and the news failed to reach just one team: Ridgewood. Incidentally, the news also failed to reach one reporter – I’ll give you one guess as to which one.

The Messenger has shared plenty of the news and nuggets he has collected on the Maroons this season (including on today's WGHT Sports Overtime broadcast), and frankly, the early-bird Ridgewood folks were embarrassed enough about the gaffe, so we'll move on. Although, to the girls' credit, they seemed pretty relaxed and hey, they got to bond over brunch at a local diner.

Thoughts on some other storylines that may have slipped through the cracks:

Didn't get to mention it on GHT, but although Ridgewood was the only area school to reach the girls team finals, Paramus Catholic featured a couple of bowlers from the listening area -- sophomore Anastasia DeLeon of Saddle Brook and junior Casey Fuhrman of North Haledon -- as well as one girl about whom the NJBB is agog that she did not receive more notice.

PC freshman Nikki Vucak, a Garfield resident, rolled a 300 against Northern Highlands on Jan. 31, and all she got was this dinky one-line write-up. Granted, I understand that newspaper space is tight this time of year... but in the 8 seasons that TM has been on this beat, this is the first occurrence of a girl bowling a perfect game that he can recall. In fact, he just did a bit of research and found that IHA's Dyanne Robles shot a 300 in 1999, and at that time, she was the first girl in the history of Bergen County varsity play to do so -- meaning to my knowledge, Miss Vucak is the second. Kudos to the frosh, the NJBB is proud to be able to augment your 15 minutes of fame.

Other thoughts not already twittered by TM: Congrats to Washington Township, the folks from Sewell now have a Group 4 title for both their boys and girls teams in the past two seasons... and yes, Group 2 champ Manchester Township has accomplished the feat in recent years, just not this season. The Lady Hawks' three consecutive group titles are impressive nonetheless... actually, can't forget Bordentown, that's four Group 1 titles in the five years since the NJSIAA switched to the group format... and let us never forget Brick Township, which merely did the following: A) capture its fourth straight Group 3 championship; B) bring home its second T of C title in four years; C) continued to have one of the sweetest mascots in the state -- c'mon, they're Green Dragons! -- and D) featured not one but TWO left-handed starters in freshman Amanda Nardiello and sophomore Sydney Scelfo. Plus, junior Kaitlynn Nardiello is pretty good too. Plus plus, they did win the whole thing, so let's get the entire starting lineup a mention with freshman Amber MacLeod and sophomore Madison Lukosius in there.

Wait, wait... Brick is the defending State champ, the entire lineup returns next year, and 4 of the 5 should be there for at least two more years? TM will leave you with two parting words: yikes strikes!

NJSIAA Girls State Team Tournament scores

GRP 4	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Washington Twp.	849	996	1016	2861*
2nd	North Brunswick	864	1071	895	2830
3rd	Brick Memorial	922	865	944	2731
4th	Howell	852	899	868	2619
5th	Immaculate Heart	818	865	866	2549
6th	Ridgewood	787	804	878	2469
GRP 3	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Brick Township	919	938	944	2801*
2nd	Jackson Liberty	946	891	844	2681
3rd	Monroe	818	838	778	2434
4th	Colonia	775	783	738	2296
5th	Warren Hills	771	757	756	2284
6th	Paramus Catholic	755	773	726	2254
GRP 2	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Manchester Twp.	923	1022	963	2908*
2nd	Carteret	809	865	742	2416
3rd	New Brunswick	771	772	793	2336
4th	West Deptford	826	786	684	2296
5th	Holy Angels	782	728	765	2275
6th	Bergenfield	805	688	705	2198
GRP 1	SCHOOL	GAME 1	GAME 2	GAME 3	TOTAL
1st	Bordentown	717	829	704	2250*
2nd	Cardinal McCarrick	738	763	721	2222
3rd	Mother Seton	655	725	833	2213
4th	Manasquan	748	708	735	2191
5th	Gloucester City	647	758	704	2109
6th	Westwood	678	723	654	2055

*Group champ, advanced to Tournament of Champions

T of C - SEMIFINALS	GMS WON
1) Manchester Twp.	3
4) Bordentown	0
2) Washington Township	1
3) Brick Township	3
T of C - FINALS	GMS WON
3) Brick Township	3
1) Manchester Township	2

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