BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK — Karen Grygiel and Hope Bucci can boast of graduating from Brick Township with something only five other high school bowlers in state history can claim — three consecutive NJSIAA championships.
Tracy Ganjoin, who also reached the individual stepladder round before losing in the semifinals, shrugged off a slow start in the team tournament to smash a 222 in the third game, while Kristin Hayes belted a 207 and Bucci hit a 204 when Brick Township dramatically held off charging Woodbridge by 22 pins, 2,894-2,872, last Wednesday at Carolier Lanes.
Bucci led the way with a 613 series.
Brick Township had to wait while Woodbridge slowed down its pace so that it could finish after Brick Township and see what it needed to finish first.
With the possibility of clinching a tie, its final bowler left a pin up, ending the threat.
“It was the longest two or three minutes of my life,” said Grygiel, a team co-captain who felt the pressure more than the others when she struggled with the drying oil on the alleys in the third game with a 159. She had bowled a 205 and a 220 in her first two games and finished with a 584 series.
“It’s a great feeling, a great way to leave the team,” said Grygiel. “I hope they continue to keep the run going.”
“Karen was very aware of that chance for us to be only the second team to do this,” said coach Linda Sarraf.
“Doing this is an especially profound, excellent feeling. It’s a testament to the talent of this team.”
Brick Memorial also surged at the end to finish in fourth place with 2,649 pins, right behind Jackson’s 2,712. Amanda DeCarlo, a junior, had the high series of the tournament — a 651 — off a 241 final game that was fourth highest. DeCarlo hit strikes in the second through eighth frames of the final game.
She opened the day with a 187 and followed with a 213 while qualifying for the stepladder individuals where she finished seventh, just two spots off the five finalists.
“This really did surprise me,” said DeCarlo.
“I did not expect everybody to do as well as they could. We kept getting more excited [as we went along], and that helped.”
DeCarlo and Grygiel will compete in the Junior Masters Gold Tournament in Indianapolis, Ind., in July. Grygiel goes on to a college scholarship career at Vanderbilt.
But the day again belonged to Brick Township, which is best among 107 teams in the state with a lineup that replaced two starters.
“This is probably the most gratifying [championship],” said Sarraf. “The competition was much more difficult this year, and I was not sure how it would turn out.”
Bucci, a team co-captain who is headed to Hofstra, where she said she does not expect to bowl competitively and will major in biology, felt her team could three-peat as state champions
She felt that way especially with the emergence of Kristin Hayes, who led the Green Dragons to their first Shore Conference championship in five years and cracked a 600 series on Wednesday.
“Even though we were off with that fifth spot, I felt pretty confident. I knew we had the capability,” said Bucci. “And I was able to bowl well. I had a clear head.”
Freshman D’Anna Farmer came through in that fifth spot with a 193 in that crucial third game. She did not start but came into the match in the fourth frame of the first game, when the starter there struggled.
Bucci, who also competed in the individual stepladder tournament and was eighth.
“Hope has been consistent, through and through,” said Sarraf. “There was never a time when we needed her and she didn’t do it for us. She also is very calm and relaxed.”
Grygiel, meanwhile, finished 14th in the stepladder tournament.
“Karen did not bowl as well as she normally does, and it had an impact on her, said Sarraf. “I told her that she was in the stepladder finals but she was more concerned that, with her third game, she may have lost the title for the team. It’s a testament to her as a person.”
It’s not only the talents of Bucci and Grygiel but their leadership that the Green Dragons will have to replace next season.