Bowling Taglines: 2014-15 Major Tournament Review

The original plan was to sync up the Aces’ end-of-season bowling blogs to coincide with the publication of our All-North Jersey features. Well, All-North Jersey got moved from last weekend to this one, and so did the blog finales. In hindsight, it probably would have been helpful to post that on Twitter… then again, Taglines was able to tweet more bowling updates this season than ever before, so let’s pick things up from there.

One of the most useful and sometimes misunderstood features of Twitter is the hashtag, which is made by typing phrase or string of characters after a pound sign/number symbol, #likethis … as opposed to chopping up Saturday’s corned beef & cabbage leftovers for Sunday morning breakfast, which would make Tags hash #rimshot.

Hashtags are popular for spreading catchphrases, as Lyndhurst did on its team feed with #dynasty (appropriate for a four-time sectional champ), or just trying to be clever, as above (appropriate for cornball writers and little else). The useful part is that you can click on a hashtag and Twitter will list every tweet that includes it — basically, it’s a sorting tool.

So, to review any of Taglines’ 2014-15 bowling tournament coverage, you need only visit our feed, click on the “Search Twitter” bubble at the top, and type in one of the hashtags listed below. STANDARD DISCLAIMER: The Aces have no control over content outside of our own feed, i.e. search results, so click with care. Here now are some Hashtag Highlights that didn’t make the papers, plus links back to everything that did…

Bergen County girls tournament (Jan. 17)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — Paramus Catholic, Westwood girls primed for tournament
RECAP — Westwood wins Bergen girls title
THE EPIC BLOG — 2015 Bergen County girls tournament review

* Have to be honest, that blog entry pretty much covered everything. But here’s a sample Hashtag Highlight from #BCTGirlsBowling …

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@VarsityAces #BCTGirlsBowling CORRECTION Westwood won 1st Cty title but is not 1st in sports history to win a 7-gm series 3-2. They won 4-3

Yeah… it was a long day. Even simple arithmetic gets fuzzy when you crunch that many numbers.

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Passaic County boys/girls tournament (Jan. 23)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at the Passaic County tournament
RECAP — DePaul’s Joe Malyack hangs on to win Passaic County title
PAST CHAMPIONS LIST — Scroll to bottom of page

Other reading on northjersey.com:
West Milford posts best finish in school history (Suburban Trends)
Pangaro scores a 200 as Clifton High School takes second at PCT (Clifton Journal)

Hashtag highlights (#PassaicBowling):

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The freshman ended up with the third-high game for the tournament, but I never did found out if Camryn is any relation to Vinny (even if it’s as a cousin. Ahem). Fortunately, with underclassmen, there’s always next season. And, fortunately, there’s also a way to email the Aces if you have any such info and feel inclined to share.

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Bergen County boys tournament (Jan. 31)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — Expect big scores at Bergen tourney
RECAP — Indian Hills sets record, captures Bergen County crown
PAST CHAMPIONS LIST — Scroll to bottom of page

Other reading on northjersey.com:
Record-setting Indian Hills No. 1 in Bergen tournament (Franklin Lakes/Oakland Suburban News)
Paramus, River Dell well-represented at counties (Town News)

Hashtag highlights (#BCTBoysBowling):

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At last check, this had gotten 26 retweets and 64 favorites, making it one of the most popular Aces bowling tweets all season. Paramus really did evolve into the Bowling Borough this winter, we saw lots of good stuff from the Spartans and Paramus Catholic.

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FYI, that tweet was posted before Mormando shared his story about the ball he used to win the county title, so the phrase just seemed to be a natural fit for the lead to that Suburban News story linked above.

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North girls sectional (Feb. 7)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — Big North yields many contenders
RECAP — Kristine Verbeke sparks Wayne Valley

Other reading on northjersey.com:
Ridgewood scores soar in tournaments (The Ridgewood News – includes boys/girls sectionals)

Hashtag highlights (#NorthGirlsbowling):

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A check of the archives showed that this was actually the second sectional tie in North Jersey in the last five years. Kearny and Union City tied for the Group 4 title at the North 1B boys tournament in 2010, but since both were in the top two anyway, both advanced to states. More on the Bergen Tech/Hackensack resolution below…

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North 1B boys sectional (Feb. 12)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at the North 1B boys sectional tournament
RECAP — Jeremy Scott’s 685 carries West Milford

Hashtag highlights (#North1Bbowling):

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West Milford’s Group 3 sectional title was big for the Highlanders on two fronts: 1.) Sparta beat them out for the second and final transfer spot to the state finals last year; 2.) Their 3,053 was No. 1 in the house, meaning they outscored in-county rival Passaic Tech for the first time all season. Junior Matt Goldberg said afterward that their primary goal was to beat Sparta, since their score versus Tech didn’t matter in the Group 3 title chase. Senior Jeremy Scott did add this, however: “To know that you lost to [Passaic Tech] basically all year, then beat them in the state tournament – even though it really doesn’t matter, it still matters to us.”

For Pompton Lakes, I’d interviewed senior Julieanne Kornberg, who’d been somewhat of an unsung hero for the Cardinals all season. The subject of girls on boys/coed teams not being eligible for awards at the Passaic County tournament has been addressed on this blog before, and it affected Kornberg again this season, as she had the second-best series by a girl but did not get any individual recognition. Yet she said something on the topic after the sectional tournament that solidified her “unsung hero” status for Taglines: “In the end, I’m not really here for me, bowling, it’s just like here for my team.” We don’t have any medals to give, but that attitude definitely merits an Aces shout-out.

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North 1A boys sectional (Feb. 14)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at the North 1A boys sectional tournament
RECAP — Record-setting day for Lyndhurst in winning North 1A sectional title

Other reading on northjersey.com:
Lyndhurst Bears, North Arlington Vikings earn trip to bowling finals (South Bergenite)

Hashtag highlights (#North1Abowling):

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#North1Abowling Group 4 final: Paramus Catholic 2971 (2nd straight title), Demarest 2803 (another possible 1st-time state qualifier)

11:45 AM – 14 Feb 2015

#North1Abowling Group 4 final: Paramus Catholic 2971 (2nd straight title), Demarest 2803 (another possible 1st-time state qualifier)

11:45 AM – 14 Feb 2015

Something that didn’t really get mentioned about the North 1A tournament… A week or so beforehand, I got an email that the entrants in all four groups were set and made up scoresheets for the event accordingly. Becton ended up being a last-minute addition to the Group 1 field, so the dominoes fell thusly: Glen Rock bumped up from Group 1 to 2, Fort Lee went from 2 to 3, and Demarest went from 3 to 4.

Well, Fort Lee wound up shooting 2,762, which would have been good for the 2nd and final transfer spot to the state team tournament in Group 2… but in Group 3, it got them third. Meanwhile, Demarest shot 2,803, which would have left the Norsemen third in Group 3, but in Group 4, it earned them second place and a trip to Carolier Lanes. Somewhere, the Dave Matthews Band was playing “Funny the Way It Is.”

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State girls team finals (Feb. 13)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at Friday’s girls state team tournament
RECAP — Westwood wins Group 1 crown, first Bergen school to win state title
PAST CHAMPIONS LIST — 2015: Westwood (Group 1) … Hey, gotta start somewhere

Hashtag highlights (#StateGirlsBowling):

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At last, the explanation promised in the sectional tiebreaker blog entry (the result of the match was tacked onto the end of the North 1B boys sectional recap story). According to Larry White, the NJSIAA official who was on site that day, there is a rule on the books about only two teams advancing out of each group in each section. It is listed in the boys tournament regulations — article No. 4 on page 7 — and was never copied over to the girls document. Seriously? No, seriously?? He did say that the “typo” would be corrected in next year’s girls regulations document… maybe when Doc Brown arrives in Hill Valley from the year 1985 in a few months, we can borrow the flux capacitor and go back to fix this whole mess beforehand. #WishfulThinking

On the positive side, the fact that Bergen Tech won the tiebreaker and made it to sectionals was a nice feather in the cap for the Knights, who had four seniors on the team — Amanda Haye, Nicole Rodriguez, Jessica DePippa and Aimee Balleza — and all of them got to bowl at the state finals. It’s always nice to upperclassmen get to Carolier Lanes once before their careers end, although sophomore Olivia Wank pointed out that the state team tourney was actually their second trip to North Brunswick in nine days — Bergen Tech also won the State Vo-Tech girls tournament at Carolier on Feb. 4, with Wank shooting the third-high game (202) and second-high series (517). And since she’s going to be around for two more seasons, let’s square away the pronunciation now: it’s like “Wonka” without the “a” on the end.

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Aside from finishing undefeated in both points (98-0) and match win-loss (14-0), Wayne Valley deserves some serious props for a third-place showing in the same group with Brick Township, which won its 8th straight Group 3 title, and North Brunswick, which was bowling on its home lanes. The Indians were actually paired with Brick for the third and final game and shot a 946. “I think that made us step up a little, because our last game was our best game,” junior Kristine Verbeke said. Although Taglines did learn this season that she isn’t a huge fan of interviews, so here we’ll give the last word to senior captain Dawn Hansen: “I’m so proud of our team this year – undefeated, county champs, I’m so happy, honestly.”

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State individual finals (Feb. 18)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at the state singles finals (boys/girls)
RECAP — Pompton Lakes’ Nick Cilento wins state title
PAST CHAMPIONS LIST — Scroll about 2/3rds of the way down the page

Hashtag highlights (#StateBowling)*:

*One quick note here… this was the one tournament where I couldn’t really come up with a concise, original hashtag, so there may be some other states mixed in there if you try to do a search.

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Oh yes, and the annual updated 300 list will be part two of the season blog wrapup later this week…

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Taglines’ annual tradition of going around to interview all the North Jersey qualifiers at the state tournament unintentionally got put on hold this year, since there were so many qualifiers who did so well, which frankly is a good thing. Still, a few quotes of note:

Westwood senior Marissa Rivers was the only Cardinal to make it down to Carolier for this one (school days, you know) and didn’t quite reach the number she put up at the state girls team tournament (605). “It’s different not having your team behind you,” she said.

Hackensack junior (the paper was wrong, I know) Janina Santoro will have another chance to qualify next year, and she did snag a “prize” in the form of an NJSIAA tournament T-shirt: “I got the shirt, that’s all I wanted… they had the names [of the state qualifiers], and my name was actually on it and spelled correctly.” Hey, no typos! That’s progress.

Paramus Catholic senior James Kane ended up with a 33rd-place 579 on the boys side in his first state singles appearance. “I’m upset that I didn’t do well, but how upset can I really be, considering I’d never even made it here before? So, it was a new experience, and I’m happy it happened.”

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Wayne Valley senior Josh Spiegel shot the cutoff score for the boys and wound up going from 14th to 18th in the second round, finishing with a six-game 1,219. “Thinking about these guys today, knowing how good they are, I thought the cutoff was going to be 650. But I started hearing rumors that it was 625, and I didn’t believe it at first,” he said.

And I didn’t believe three North Jersey bowlers could make it into the stepladder finals. But it happened, and the nice part was, they all got quoted in the story. Oh, and getting to cover the state champ for the second straight year was pretty cool, too, not going to lie.

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State boys team finals (Feb. 20)

The Record/Varsity Aces coverage:
PREVIEW — A glance at the boys state team tournament
RECAP — Lyndhurst wins TOC team title

Other reading on northjersey.com:
Suburban News H.S. Bowling Roundup: Indian Hills boys pick up three major titles
North Arlington bowlers had a good season too (South Bergenite)

Hashtag highlights (#StateBoysBowling):

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Somehow, this was the last update on North Arlington all day, which I cannot believe looking back at it. By now you’ve probably seen that the Vikings ended with a sixth-place 2,718… the irony here is that I made it a point to talk with NA coach Dan Farinola afterward since I hadn’t all season, so the team was far from forgotten. And there was plenty to talk about, since most of his bowlers had at least one big game during the tournament — junior Lou Davio 224, freshman Matt Zarro 234, junior Tom Ferrie 247, and of course standout Tyler Keefe tied for second-high game with a 269.

Interesting note on Keefe: He transferred from Howell two years ago, and according to Farinola, “Athletically, he’s a senior, academically, he’s a junior… it had something to do with our school taking credits in [from Howell]. He should have graduated this year, but they didn’t take all of his credits.” So, when I listed him as a sophomore basically all throughout last year, that was technically correct. His athletic sophomore season was 2012-13 at North Arlington, when he appeared in about 10 games, then his 2013-14 North 1A title-winning campaign was as a junior, so this season was his swan song. Unfortunately, he was slowed by illness for part of the year and didn’t quite have the tournament finishes for which he’d hoped, but he gets kudos from the Aces anyway on an outstanding career.

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Coach Brianna Balkin noted that her team has had a history of bad breaks, but that was literally the only one all day. I mean, they got all kinds of good breaks, messenger pins all over the place, and all this did was delay the celebration maybe 2-3 minutes. In fact, it set things up so that as soon as Jordan Lopez threw the final ball (fittingly, a strike), the rest of the Golden Bears all rushed the approach and the group hugging began. Keefe, their league mate, even hung around to offer congratulations, which was neat to see.

(P.S. How about this year for the NJIC Meadowlands? Lyndhurst is state champ, North Arlington got to Carolier as well, and half of Group 1 at the North 1A sectional was populated by teams from the division, including Wallington, Becton, St. Mary’s and Hasbrouck Heights. Be sure to give Vince the Meadowlands Scorekeeper a pat on the back if you see him.)

Nick Cilento @cilento_nick

@VarsityAces Frank magyar shot 735 to lead the Cardinals to 2nd seed

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@cilento_nick I stopped in a bagel shop next to Magyar Bank this a.m. Then Frank Magyar throws 3rd-best series of day #SignsSignsEverywhere

4:24 PM – 20 Feb 2015

Yup, it was that kind of season…

—GT