Bowling: East Brunswick girls, Monroe boys each capture their first GMC team titles

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Stay with MyCentralJersey.com for complete coverage of the high school sports winter season. Joe Martino | Wochit

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The East Brunswick girls bowling team poses after winning the GMC Tournament on Feb. 6, 2018.(Photo: Staff Photo/Andy Mendlowitz)Buy Photo

WOODBRIDGE – For all their bowling successes, one key thing was missing.

Both the East Brunswick High School girls and the Monroe boys teams had never captured a county title. Really, you’d have to scroll down the list just to be sure.

Tuesday, that all changed.

Sixth-seeded East Brunswick won the girls Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title with a 2-0 win over top-seeded South Brunswick. For the boys, third-seeded Monroe defeated No. 5 Edison 2-0. Both teams cruised in the first game and then pulled out a tight second game for the clincher at Majestic Lanes.

“They had said, ‘Oh, it was the first one’ and I almost didn’t believe them,” Monroe junior Ryley McKiernan said. “I went, ‘Thanks for pulling my leg. It’s cute.’ …I didn’t realize the boys had never done it before. We’ve had good boys teams. I just figured it had happened at some point and we were going for whatever number down the line it was for the school. That was kind of like the cherry on top to the whole thing.”

McKiernan compared his team’s run to the Philadelphia Eagles upsetting the New England Patriots in last weekend’s Super Bowl.

The 20-team boys tournament included state powers East Brunswick and Woodbridge, who were seemingly headed for a duel in the finals. On Feb. 3, Woodbridge won the NJSIAA Central Group III title and East Brunswick, the defending Tournament of Champions winner, won Central Group IV.

In Monday’s semifinals, however, Monroe beat second-seeded Woodbridge and fifth-seeded Edison shocked top-seeded East Brunswick. Anything can happen in those neighborhood battles.

In 2017, the Monroe girls team won its first-ever GMCT title by beating Edison in the final. This winter, it was the boys turn. In fact, the Monroe boys team never even reached a final since the tournament started in 1986-87.

Through the years, Monroe has been in the conversation. Just last season, the Falcons won the NJSIAA Group III championship with one senior. Tuesday, their experience and moxie were on display.

“They have really good chemistry,” said Monroe coach Samantha Grimaldi, who is in her 10th season. “They have great magic and they bowl well as a team and that’s the most important part. … I think the boys came in really focused. I think that they came in very confident knowing what they’re capable of and they know that I expect a lot from them, so they really bowled their hearts out.”

Monroe and Edison tied in the regular season, adding to the drama.

Monroe won the first game 1069-998. Grimaldi said they expected Edison to bounce back in the second game, but she noted the Falcons’ motto is “finish out.”

That they did.

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The Monroe Boys bowling team poses after winning the GMC Tournament on Feb. 6, 2018. (Photo: Staff Photo/Andy Mendlowitz)

Three bowlers for each team competed on lanes next to each other. Monroe's Lou Folgore and McKiernan were the last to bowl for their team.

“Lou asked me, he’s like, ‘Are we out of it?,” Grimaldi said. “And I said nope. And he threw me three strikes.”

To the right was McKiernan. Unlike his teammate, he didn’t ask about the situation.

“He didn’t know – thank goodness, and he’s a numbers guy,” Grimaldi said. “So normally he runs it in his head, but I think he just wanted to go out there and throw his shot. He did a great job.”

McKiernan threw a strike on his first shot and said it “was actually almost perfect, and I almost didn’t believe that. I went oh wow, it wasn’t supposed to be that good.” He followed up with another strike on a good break and then an eight that sealed the 1063-1056 win and the championship.

“My two anchors really pulled through for me today,” Grimaldi said. “The whole team really did, honestly. If you look at the scores, that last game we had four games over 200, a 196. They did really well. They pulled through when they needed to.”

Folgore led the way with a 255 and 218. His teammates were McKiernan (249, 204), Tyler Kresan (191, 243), Zac Waynor (188, 196), Devin Maddox (186, 155) and Joe Hoehler (127, 202).

Edison put up a fight led by Jason Smith (279, 258), Wyatt Buchany (216, 238), Jose De La Barrera (156, 202), Joe Banwer (169, 202), Raleigh Gough (178 and 162) and Troy Began (125, 139)

Monroe finished fifth in the recent Group IV sectional tournament, so this was an ideal bounce-back moment.

“Today was some vindication,” McKiernan said. “I think we were hungry. I think we really wanted some redemption.”

Grimaldi said, “We had high hopes for this season so it was nice to end our season with a conference championship.”

Confident Bears pull it out

While East Brunswick was the sixth seed, they had beaten four of the five teams ahead of them in the regular season. That included a split with South Brunswick.

“We knew that we were able to compete with anybody,” East Brunswick co-coach Doug Spishock said. “The girls know that on any day that they have enough talent to win. So every match they went in with confidence. They never thought like they had an impossible feat to overcome. So they just went in, stayed level-headed and made good shots and were able to take everybody down.”

That included third-seeded Carteret in the quarterfinal and No. 2 Woodbridge in the semifinal.

Enter No. 1 South Brunswick.

“We knew that we could beat them, but it was just a matter of if we were going to have a good day or not,” senior Madison Steinbeck said. “The louder it is and the more we cheer for each other, the better we usually do. We were all just cheering each other on and really working together. And we were making our spares and we were working as a team.”

The Bears captured the title with wins of 901-823 and 831-793. The lineup included Steinbeck (187, 237), Catherine Attia (159, 125), Alicia McLaughlin (177, 204), Manisha Parthasarathy (178, 134), Sydney Ramos (154, 106) and Rebecca Reitano (200, 131).

“I think the key was definitely consistency, keeping those consistent shots and working through the rough patches to overcome and win,” East Brunswick coach Amy Frohm said.

South Brunswick's lineup included Kirsten Thorne (195, 188), Jillian Kwock (184, 147), Rachel Guida (151, 170), Shibani Athreya (146, 148), Sanjana Senthil (147, 140) and Katelyn Schwab (144, 125).

Before Tuesday, the Bears reached four finals (1997, 2004, 2008, 2016). Now, they get their GMC-winning plaque.

“It takes a lot of hard work,” Spishock said. “We’ve come close a couple of times. Last year, we didn’t win the GMCs, but the girls made it to the state finals. So there’s been a lot of times where we’ve gotten very close to accomplishing our ultimate goals, coming up just short. So it feels really good after all that hard work over the course of the season that they were able to bring home a championship.”

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