The main reason the state team finals for boys bowling were postponed for two weeks — first from Feb. 14 to 15, then to this Thursday, Feb. 27 — was that Carolier Lanes was booked from Feb. 18-23 by the PBA. The pro tour held the annual USBC Masters tournament there for the second year in a row, meaning high school bowlers had to wait an extra week for their next major competition.
Or did they? …
I was emailing back and forth with Glen Rock coach Bonnie Zimmermann about Jake Rollins’ state-championship 300 early last week, when she sent the following comment: “Jake been inundated with well-wishers and congrats from his bowling people. Now he’s focusing on the Masters tournament this week at Carolier.”
My initial reaction: Wait, is Rollins going to the Masters to compete, or just to watch? But the answer dawned on me before Zimmermann even responded to confirm it — he was there to bowl.
The bad news is that Taglines couldn’t make it to Carolier last week. The good news is that the PBA had a sweet online setup that allowed “viewers at home” to track the event. (The link is at carolier.meriq.com, although there’s not much to see now that the tournament is over.)
So here is a by-the-numbers breakdown of some USBC Masters fun facts, observed from afar:
3 — The number of NJSIAA individual champions in the field of 468: Rollins (Glen Rock, 2014), Diante Fields (Kingsway, 2012) and Greg Ostrander (Wall, 2008). Ostrander finished 44th in qualifying, which consisted of three days of five-game series held Tuesday to Thursday, for a total of 15 games. That put him into the match play Round of 64 (Friday-Saturday), where he went 1-2 in the double-elimination bracket.
Rollins, meanwhile, shot a 954 in Tuesday’s five-game session, a 980 on Wednesday (with a 233 high game) and an 889 on Sunday for a total of 2,823. If you think about it, the format is comparable to a standard three-game high school tournament, except it’s one bowler shooting 15 games instead of five. And you thought the Bergen County boys tournament was a marathon… ooh, speaking of which:
4 — The number of Bergen/Passaic County individual titles won by 2014 Masters competitors. Rocco Ilaria of Rutherford shared high series at the 1998 Bergen tourney, Emil Dudas won the 1989 Passaic County title at Clifton, and Tony Ament was a two-time Bergen champ at Fair Lawn (1985 & 1987).
That’s what the Aces’ all-time Bergen and Passaic County champion lists say, anyway… per PBA.com, Dudas now lives in Toms River and Ament in Monroe Township. In the event we’ve made a mistake, please email Taglines to help correct it.
4/5ths — The percentage of this year’s NJSIAA stepladder finalists in the field: Rollins, runner-up Matt Russo of Allentown, third-place Dan Buchman of Maple Shade and fourth-place Kenny Ryan of Ocean Township. Russo had the best 15-game qualifying series (3,108) of the quartet and finished 95th.
18 — The sum of digits in the qualifying scores of both Will Vidulich (2,871) and Alex Prell (2,790). Both were NJSIAA singles tournament qualifiers as high school seniors — Vidulich at West Milford in 2008 and Prell at Wood-Ridge in 2010, when he finished third in the state stepladder finals.
116 — The finishing place of Fairleigh Dickinson alum Danielle McEwan, second-highest among the dozen women in the event behind Union’s Kelly Kulick. McEwan, who earned Most Outstanding Bowler honors in helping FDU to the 2010 NCAA women’s championship, had a 247 high game and 205 average for the Masters.
133 — Amount of career 300 games thrown by Wayne’s Jim Hosier, at least when Record bowling columnist Chuck Pezzano last checked in with him in 2012. Hosier’s best game last week was 247 in Thursday’s five-game qualifying set, when he shot 1,051 (210 average) to finish with an overall average of 199.
2 x 300 — Frank Mockenhaupt and Dan Wurhman are two of the many bowlers on the all-time North Jersey 300 List… but their brothers were the ones in the spotlight at the Masters. Robert Mockenhaupt, a 1988 Rutherford grad, had a high game of 241 and averaged 182.7 for the tournament. Mike Wuhrman, Park Ridge Class of 2011, had a high game of 210 and a 173.4 average.
$1,038 — Amount of prize money won by 2010 North 1A sectional champ and Queen of Peace alum Andrew Suscreba for being the highest-finishing North Jersey entrant. He averaged 209 in qualifying and finished 80th, just 24 pins away from the top-64 cutoff.
3,169 — Qualifying score of 66-year-old Jackson resident (and regular spectator at NJSIAA tournaments) Johnny Petraglia, who advanced as the No. 58 seed and went 3-2 in Masters match play. He came up a few rounds short of the televised stepladder finals but made a guest appearance in the announcer’s booth for Sunday’s ESPN telecast.
1965 — The last time a bowler had successfully defended his USBC Masters title, before Australian two-hander Jason Belmonte did so on Sunday. The 2013 PBA Player of the Year went in as the No. 5 seed and climbed the entire stepladder, defeating reigning Rookie of the Year E.J. Tackett in the final, 221-177.
Taglines suspects that Belmonte’s success may have something to do with the rise in the amount of two-handers among North Jersey varsity bowlers, but that is a topic to explore another time. We’ll leave you with a look at some notable Masters results, including the finishes of all the North Jersey entrants (highlighted in green). All results courtesy of PBA.com:
2014 UNITED STATES BOWLING CONGRESS MASTERS
[Feb. 17-23 at Brunswick Zone Carolier Lanes, North Brunswick]
STEPLADDER FINALS (Sunday)
Match One: 5-Jason Belmonte def. 4-Ryan Ciminelli, 227-214
Match Two: Belmonte def. 3-Tom Smallwood, 202-173
Match Three: Belmonte def. 2-Michael Haugen Jr., 235-234
Championship: Belmonte def. 1-E.J. Tackett, 221-177
N.J. MATCH PLAY QUALIFIERS (Double-elimination matches on Friday-Saturday)
25. Matthew O’Grady, South Amboy, 3,235 in 15-game qualifying series (215.7 average); 2-2 in match play
32. John Furey, Freehold, 3,217 (214.5); 1-2 in match play
44. Greg Ostrander, Freehold, 3,191 (212.7); 1-2 in match play
55. Stephen Pavlinko Jr., Sewell, 3,174 (211.6); 2-2 in match play
58. John Petraglia, Jackson, 3,169 (211.3); 3-2 in match play
QUALIFYING ROUND RESULTS (15 games; Cutoff to advance to Round of 64 = 3,159)
80. Andrew Suscreba, Clifton, 3,135 (209.0 average)
86. Kelly Kulick, Union, 3,129 (208.7)
95. Matt Russo, Millstone Twp./Allentown H.S., 3,108 (207.2)
101. Parker Bohn III, Jackson, 3,099 (206.6)
116. Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 3,078 (205.2)
187. Jim Hosier, Wayne, 2,985 (199.0)
209. Justin Puchalski, Towaco/Montville H.S., 2,962 (197.5)
230. Kenny Ryan, Ocean Township, 2,936 (195.7)
236. Diante Fields, Middletown, Del., 2,926 (195.1)
263. Rocco Ilaria, Rutherford, 2,890 (192.7)
285. Will Vidulich, Hawthorne, 2,871 (191.4)
313. Jake Rollins, Glen Rock H.S., 2,823 (188.2)
333. Emil Dudas, Toms River, 2,805 (187.0)
341. Alex Prell, Wood-Ridge, 2,790 (186.0)
371. Robert Mockenhaupt, Rutherford, 2,741 (182.7)
385. Danny Buchman, Maple Shade H.S., 2,723 (181.5)
404. Tony Ament, Monroe, 2,676 (178.4)
424. Mike Wuhrman, Park Ridge, 2,601 (173.4)
300 Games – ROUND 1: None. ROUND 2: Kyle King. ROUND 3: Josh Blanchard, Jason Belmonte.
See you ’round the lanes…
—GT