LI Roundup: NYS Bowling Championship

With their pink t-shirts and matching fluorescent Mohawks, the boys of the Section XI all-star team entered Mardi Bob Lanes on March 7 with one thing in mind: make an impression and leave it all on the lanes.

Comsewogue’s Anthony Neste, a senior bowling in his last all-star weekend, went above and beyond that call to duty when he rolled a 300 in game four of the boys’ sectional team championships. It was only the seventh perfect game in state championship history.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” said Neste of his 12th and final strike to clinch the 300. “Everyone was standing on the approach waiting for me. It was definitely a great feeling.”

Neste said while he was aware that he had a bunch of strikes, 300 was not the most important thing on his mind for the first nine frames.

“I wasn’t really thinking about shooting 300,” he said. “I was more focused on getting my team hyped up and trying to win, you know? But when I got to the 10th frame, it was right at my fingertips. I couldn’t let it go.”

Neste helped mount a comeback for the Suffolk boys, who found themselves in ninth place after two games. The team rolled series’ of 1195, 1220, 1064, and 1006 in games three through six to jump to third overall, finishing 48 pins behind first-place Section I. Its 1220 series in game four was the highest series by any sectional team for the day.

“We knew we were awesome bowlers and we worked for this all season,” Neste said of the team’s comeback attempt for first. “We just kept telling each other ‘Don’t think about anybody else; throw your ball and then come back’. We gave it a nice run, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

Ed Tuskan of East Islip finished with the high series for the Section XI boys with a six-game total of 1,268. Fellow East Islip teammate John Knieriemen was right behind him with a 1,261, while Riverhead’s Elliot Jones was a close third with 1,259. Neste finished with a total pinfall of 1,242. East Islip’s Bobby Martin and West Babylon’s Tom Nelson rounded out the Suffolk all-star team.

The girls Section XI team didn’t fare quite as well, however it still managed a fifth place finish with a total pinfall of 5,729. The team’s high series came in game two, as it rolled a 995 to put them in third place going into the third game.

Section VIII boys finish tenth; girls, eighth
The Section VIII boys all-stars, coming off consecutive second-place finishes at the state championships, found themselves in tenth place at the end of the tournament with a total pinfall of 5790.

It was a disappointing finish for Nassau, who returned only two bowlers – Bellmore-Merrick’s Ricky Hough and Baldwin’s Michael Bukovsky – from last year’s team.

“I just think we didn’t have it that day,” said assistant coach Andrew Ghirardi. “We had a lot of bad breaks and our ball reaction was non-existent. I think we could have attacked the lanes differently and looked at different lines to hopefully give us a better ball reaction.”

Hough led the team in series with a 1,214, while Bukovsky and Ryan Fiorillo of Wantagh tied for second with a 1,150 series. Anthony Pucci (Mineola), Steve Stashin (Massapequa), and Andrew Gardner (Valley Stream South) completed the Nassau boys’ squad.

As for the girls, they fared somewhat better than their male counterparts, finishing eighth with a 5,284 total series. The team’s high series came in game two, as it rolled a 940 series – one of three 900+ series it shot on the day.

Valley Stream Central’s Nicole Scher, a senior who participated on the sectional team three of four years of her high school career, said that despite the disappointing finish, it was a trip that was more than worth the while.

“The best part is the feeling of accomplishment,” said Scher, who won the Nassau County championships to make the sectional team. “You get to call yourself the best in the county.”

Sachem East boys finish fourth behind North Rockland

After a game of cat-and-mouse kept North Rockland (Section I) and Colonie (Section II) within 100 pins of each other through five games, North Rockland proved why they were there by rolling a 1,077 series in game six to take the crown in the NYSPHSAA Boys Team Championships on March 6 in Poughkeepsie.

North Rockland rolled only one game under 1,000 en route to a total pinfall of 6,314. It was more than enough to keep the competition at bay, as the Red Raiders took the title by a margin of 101.

Sachem East, the representative team from Section XI, got off to a commanding start with a 1,101 series in game one. However, the Flaming Arrows could not keep up the pace, rolling games of 983, 1072, 1078, 983, and 933 to put them in fourth place after the six games were all said and done.

The boys team from Sewanhaka proved to be the most successful team from Section VIII. The Indians, led by senior Joshua Roca, rolled a high series of 1,026 en route to an overall series of 5,880 and a sixth place finish. Roca, who has been bowling for Sewanhaka since seventh grade, tied for third with Windsor’s Tim Gaige (Section IV) for high game honors with a 266 in his final states championship.

“Josh is a fun kid to coach,” said Jay Hegi, Sewanhaka’s head coach. “His work ethic is second to none, he’s got a great demeanor, and he’s a good role model for the kids. No doubt he made everyone else around him better.”

As for his team’s sixth-place finish, Hegi, who cited difficult lane conditions as a reason for decreased success, said, “Overall I was very pleased. I was actually hoping for the top four, but finishing sixth in the state is just fine.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the school representing Section 9, finished tenth on the day. The Presidents just could not get the ball rolling, as they amassed just 5,455 pins on the day, finishing 859 pins out of first place.

On the girls side, Middle Country from Section XI went into game six with a 90-pin deficit behind first-place South Colonie (Section II). The Cougarines, despite a valiant 931 series, could not completely close the gap and finished 47 pins behind the champion Garnett Raiders.

Even though they did not come home with the title, the day was still a success for Middle Country, who had never previously reached the state tournament as a team.

The North Rockland girls were less successful than their male counterparts on the day, finishing 149 pins out of first place with a 5,415 total series. Their third place finish was in spite of a strong showing from sophomore Samantha Koch, who rolled a tournament-high game of 267 en route to a tournament-high series of 1,294.

Division Avenue, Section VIII’s representative team who has won their county title three of the last four years and has been a strong presence at states in past years, finished a disappointing ninth on the day. The team’s high series came in game five, as they rolled an 884 as part of a 4,857 overall series that put them 707 pins out of first.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Section IX) had equally as rough of a day. The Presidents, much like their male counterparts, just could not get it together as they totaled just 4,475 pins through six games.

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