Brunswick Zone Carolier Lanes, a nice place to play for a state championship or come inside and get warm (looks like the ‘R’ and the ‘W’ from the sign already did).
Here’s the thing about February Fever: It spreads quick, but before you know it, the fever’s gone. Since Thursday, Taglines has covered an NJSIAA-sanctioned bowling tournament every other day. This has been great fun, but also very time-consuming, hence a lot of action to write about, but little time to do so… at least here on Varsity Aces. Naturally, coverage in The Record and on northjersey.com has appeared so far for the North 1B and North 1A boys sectional tournaments and the state girls team finals.
Today (and tomorrow), there’ll be a bit of both. A total of 23 North Jersey bowlers (15 boys, 8 girls) are here at Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick for the state individual finals. And while Twitter may be a bit quicker, these updates may require more than 140 characters, so simply refresh this page throughout the day for updates.
And away we go…
FIRST, a review of all the North Jersey qualifiers in action today, along with their scores and placement from the sectional tournaments:
GIRLS [From North sectional, Feb. 1] – Dana-Marie Laloo, Teaneck (1st place, 719); Kelley Grippo, Holy Angels (2nd, 714); Emily Young, Lyndhurst (3rd, 706); Nikki Vucak, Paramus Catholic (5th, 598); Mary Kate Alvarez, IHA (7th, 591); Tiffany Sucero, Holy Angels (8th, 571); Leslie Subaldo, Holy Angels (10th, 568); Kathleen Blehl, IHA (11th, 565).
BOYS [From North 1B sectional, Feb. 6] – Nick Cilento, Pompton Lakes (1st, 731); Isiah Tolbert, Passaic Tech (2nd, 697); 3. Jeremy Scott, West Milford (3rd, 693); Matt Goldberg, West Milford (6th, 667); Tyler Knipping, Lakeland and Mike Hess, Wayne Valley (tied for 8th, 656)… [From North 1A sectional, Feb. 8] – Tyler Keefe, North Arlington (1st, 776); Daijon Smith, Lyndhurst (2nd, 753); Welmer Paquay, Hackensack (3rd, 742); Zachary Seegers, Wallington (4th, 741); Dean Edwards, Bergen Tech (5th, 723); Ryan Perez, Dumont (6th, 711); Alex McGuire, Indian Hills (7th, 698); Brian Rizzi, Paramus Catholic (8th, 684); Jake Rollins, Glen Rock (9th, 681).
Two things jump out at me from that list: A.) Jake Rollins was the ninth and final qualifier from North 1A last year, and went on to finish fifth in the state — so the only thing that matters is getting in… B.) I’m still floored by the number of North 1A bowlers that missed the cut because it was an insane 681. I mean, the top 18 at that tournament all shot OVER 650: Jordan Lopez, Lyndhurst (10th, 675); Rob Borrelli, Pascack Valley (11th, 673); Cory Heitler, Fair Lawn (12th, 667); Carlo Russo, Northern Highlands and Ryan Donohue, Lyndhurst (tied for 13th, 655); Andrew Cirillo, Westwood and Mike Foote, Wallington (tied for 15th, 654); James Kane, Paramus Catholic (17th, 653); David Grant, Fort Lee (18th, 651).
It’s a shame they couldn’t take more qualifiers from that section. But alas, with under 40 teams, you only get 9 (40-49 teams in a section gets you 12, 50 or more gets you 15). Anyway, time for the action…
12:26 PM – Competitors are just finishing up the first game… some big numbers from North Jersey boys: Jake Rollins 279, Isiah Tolbert 258, Tyler Keefe 253, Tyler Knipping 224. Highest scores for the girls so are Mary Kate Alvarez 192 and Nikki Vucak 190.
12:42 PM – It’s been done twice before by Bergen County bowlers at the state singles finals, but this year a Somerset County chap has achieved the feat. Sergey Eccles of Franklin shot 300 to join Ramapo’s Kevin Macchia (in 2010) and Park Ridge’s Dan Wuhrman (2012) among those who have thrown perfect games in the individual tournament. The others: Greg Ostrander of Wall (2007) and Jason Maulbeck of Madison (also 2010)… Jay Ciszewski of Sayreville (2013) did so in the state team finals, and of course there was that one year where Washington Township and Keansburg shot BAKER 300s within 20 minutes of each other, but that’s another blog entirely…
1:18 PM – Hasn’t been the best day for North Jersey girls (again), the best 2-game scores I’ve seen so far are from Nikki Vucak (372) and Emily Young (367). Don’t think they’ve had any 200s, but there have been a few from Central and South girls…
Remember a couple paragraphs ago, when Taglines was amazed at how high the cutoff for the North 1A sectional was? People here today might laugh, the cut-down to the second round of 18 could be over 700. North Jersey’s best so far, with Game 2 score & overall series: Tyler Knipping 233-457, Isiah Tolbert 204-462, Jake Rollins 208-487, Tyler Keefe 277-530… Keefe is leaving scorch marks on the lanes and he’s not even in the lead! Mr. 300, Sergey Eccles, is at 535, and Ocean Township lefty Kenny Ryan has gone 279-268-547. Holy. Smokes.
***NOTE*** At this point, the Internet access at Carolier Lanes gave out, so Taglines spent the rest of the day “Twittering” via Blackberry. For posterity’s sake, here are the highlights:
1:39 PM – Dana-Marie Laloo finished w/248 game. Looked like she had inside track to hi game, but Alexis Policastro of Carteret just shot 258
1:45 PM – Tyler Keefe 775 series. Wow. Isiah Tolbert 688 & scores are so high he may be on the bubble. Nikki Vucak 608 for girls, Laloo 574
1:54 PM – Just saw Jake Rollins’ series, 744. If that doesn’t make the top 18, I’m calling the USBC #PinCrushers
2:19 PM – Unofficially, it looks like the girls cut will be about 618, boys around 680… Wallington’s Zach Seegers 710, finally saw his scores
2:21 PM – West Milford’s Matt Goldberg has 286 hi game, that’s 2nd overall. Hackensack Welmer Paquay 265 hi game, 656 series. All scores now in
2:44 PM – Jake Rollins gets 1/4th of the 3rd hi game trophy for his 279 [tied with 3 other bowlers]. WM Matt Goldberg’s 286 is 2nd, obvy the Franklin 300 was No. 1
2:56 PM – Top North Jersey girl was Nikki Vucak @ 608, missed by just 10 pins. The good news: she will bowl @ Franklin Pierce in N.H.
2:58 PM – North Jersey boys on to the round of 18: Tyler Keefe 775, Rollins 744, Zach Seegers 710, Isiah Tolbert 688 (made it!)
3:26 PM – Round 2, game 1: Isiah Tolbert 246, running total of 934. He needs to go from 16th to 5th to make stepladder again
3:28 PM – Wallington’s Zach Seegers w/235 in 4th game, he was 9th after game 3 & only needs to pick up 4 spots
3:33 PM – Jake Rollins was 6th after first round & starts the 2nd rd w/225. Tyler Keefe was in 2nd place & just shot 200 in Game 4
3:41 PM – FYI Passaic Tech’s Isiah Tolbert is 1 of 6 lefties in the round of 18. That’s 33%, or 3 times the nat’l average #JustSaying
4:08 PM – Only the top 6 boys are still going in round 2. Zach Seegers has 1415 series, best among the 12 who’ve completed all 6 games
4:11 PM – Isiah Tolbert finished with 691 2nd-rd series (3 pins higher than 1st round), final total 1379. Great set, may not be enough
4:25 PM – The North Jersey boys scores: Rollins 744 1st rd 710 2nd, 1454; Seegers 710-705-1415; Tolbert 688-691-1379; Keefe 775-601-1376
4:28 PM – Boys stepladder finals: 5-Dan Buchman of Maple Shade bowls 4-Zach Seegers of Wallington, winner vs. 3-Kenny Ryan of Ocean Twp … 2-seed Jake Rollins of Glen Rock has bye to semis, Allentown’s Matt Russo (1535 series) has 1-seed & bye to finals
4:58 PM – Dan Buchman def. Zach Seegers, 232-228. Buchman left 7-10 split in 7th frame then closed w/5-bagger … Seegers needed X-X-5 in 10th to win & got X-9-/
5:15 PM – Maple Shade does it again, Dan Buchman def. fellow lefty, Ocean Twp’s Kenny Ryan, 254-233, to earn match w/2-seed Jake Rollins
5:22 PM – Thru 5 frames, Rollins leads Buchman, 83-77, both working off marks after each throwing an early open … [5:29] Rollins moves into stepladder final, 221-169, over Buchman thanks to a late 4-bagger.
5:32 PM – The boys final is 2-seed Jake Rollins vs. 1-seed Matthew Russo of Allentown, who averaged 255 in qualifying #BuckleUp … again, Rollins a righty… Russo a 2-handed lefty. Jason Belmonte meets Parker Bohn III, all in 1 bowler
5:42 PM – Boys final- thru 5 frames, Rollins has 5-bagger & Russo has 2 spares, 3 strikes mixed in
5:44 PM – Russo just made 3-5-7-9 split, but Rollins is perfect thru *8*
5:46 PM – Match no longer in doubt. The question now is, how high can Rollins go? *9 STRAIGHT STRIKES*
5:47 PM – 11 STRAIGHT
5:48 PM – Jake Rollins shoots 300 to win state bowling title. Excuse me a moment… !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #HolySmokes [Incidentally, this tweet got 33 retweets and 55 favorites as of 10:15 PM]
5:59 PM – You know, it used to bug me that for the 1st 10 years on this beat, I never saw an indiv. 300 in person. I’m cool now -GT
(P.S. Yes, those were 25 straight exclamation points. It was that or risk accidentally writing something that gets Taglines banned from Twitter.)
(P.P.S. Mrs. Tags’ reaction when I got home: “Let the good times Rollins.” I love that woman.)