By: James McKeever
On a big stage, Eric Wysokowski showed everybody in the GMC how good of a bowler he has been this season.
The Monroe High School senior finished third in the GMC Individual Tournament on Wednesday, adding another chapter to his impressive credentials this winter.
"Obviously I would like to have won it," Wysokowski said. "But I’m pretty pleased to finish third."
"We’re very happy and quite proud that Eric did as well as he did," said Monroe coach George Packard. "It’s quite an accomplishment."
When the tournament started last week (Jan. 12) Wysokowski bowled a three-game set of 703, good enough for second place among all bowlers. The top 20 advanced to the second round, which was held Wednesday.
That group of bowlers then rolled three games on Wednesday and the five bowlers with the highest pin totals from the six games combined advanced to the stepladder finals.
"Last year I just missed qualifying for the round of 20 by 15 pins," Wysokowski said. "So coming into this year’s tournament that was my goal. I expected to be in the top 20, but was surprised to come in second. That gave me a lot of confidence going into (Wednesday)."
Wysokowski opened with a 194 and a 192, which he knew was not good enough to put him among the top five scores. Spotting something in his delivery, he then made a technical adjustment. Wysokowski moved his feet three boards to the right but stayed on his original target. The move paid off in his third game, as Wysokowski rolled a 248 to finish the day with a 634 series.
Added to his first-round 703 set, Wysokowski’s six-game total was at 1337, pushing him into fourth place and a spot in the stepladder finals.
The stepladder format matches No. 5 vs. No. 4 for one game, with the winner playing No. 3. The survivor there faces No. 2 and that winner plays No. 1 for the championship.
His first test was No. 5 Peter Boros of North Brunswick. Wysokowski defeated him 206-192. Up next was No. 3 Mike McGlynn of Edison. In a high-scoring affair, Wysokowski outrolled his opponent 257-238. That sent the Monroe senior up against East Brunswick’s Matt Hage.
Bowling his sixth game of the day, Wysokowski recorded a 191. Hage, on the other hand, was bowling his fourth game and burned up the lanes with a 267, closing it out with 10 consecutive strikes.
"I started to get a little fatigued, but I felt confident that I was still bowling good," Wysokowski. "I made only two bad shots. I only missed where I wanted to be twice. Four or five times I hit the pocket solid and left the 10 pin."
Hage went on to lose to North Brunswick’s Dan Knopf in the final, 239-184."All I wanted to do was make it to the top five. So I’m pretty happy about the tournament overall," Wysokowski said.
"We felt his chances were very good," Packard said. "I told him if he put up anything in the 600 to 650 range he’d be in top five. This means a lot to the program."
Monroe’s match-play season resumed yesterday (Thursday). The boys took a 19-1-2 record into a confrontation with St. Joseph. The girls team (7-14-1) went up against Mother Seton.
Next Tuesday the Falcons bowl against South Plainfield and Wednesday the regular-season ends with a tri-match with Edison and Carteret.

