Nicole Nardiello and the Brick TownshipH igh School’s girls bowling team are headed back to the NJSIAA championships on Monday at Carolier Lanes, North Brunswick, in search of a second straight title.
And they join a familiar rival — Brick Memorial High School.
For Nardiello, it’s a rare, fourth straight trip to the state finals as her team got the second qualifying spot coming out of Group III South Jersey on Saturday behind Brick Memorial, which reeled off 3,025 pins. Brick Township had a 2,846 pinfall.
“For me, it’s being very focused. It’s my senior year and I want to go out with a bang,” said Nardiello, who is joined by three other returnees, including Katarina Kiseli, Caitlyn Dorey and Ashley Lane and her freshman sister, Kaitlyn. “I think experience definitely does help. In my freshman and sophomore years, I never had that understanding.”
And the Nardiello sisters also advanced to Wednesday’s state individual championships, along with four of Brick Memorial’s five bowlers, an astounding feat considering only 18 bowlers from the 13 teams in each section qualify.
Kaitlyn Nardiello had a 667 series, the third best of the day, with games of 211, 220 and 236. Nicole was 13th with a 604 series, boosted by games of 204, 185 and 215.
To add to their excitement, they competed earlier in the week in the Shore Conference Tournament that Brick Township also won last year.
Kaitlyn Nardiello qualified for the Shore Conference individual tournament with a 204.56 average that was the third highest in the conference. Only the top three averages qualify. Finishing just shy of a spot in fourth place was Kiseli with a 202.74 average. Nicole Nardiello also finished narrowly out of the running for a spot.
The Green Dragons last Friday dramatically secured their spot in the Shore Conference team tournament in their final match of the season in A South when they swept top dog Manchester behind a 644 series from Kaitlyn Nardiello and a 640 series from Kiseli to force a two-way tie for first place.
“It seems like we’ve been in first place and second place in these things forever,” said Brick Township coach Linda Saraf, whose teams have won four state titles since 2003. “I’ve been blessed with kids who have talent and who enjoy bowling.”
It also showed recently when the Brick Township High girls and boys teams swept the Ocean County tournament championships.
Nicole Nardiello isn’t the only one well familiarwith state finals. Her friend at Brick Memorial, Jess Abrecht, is returning to the state finals after her team last year finished just out of a spot in the state sectionals in third place. Abrecht, who competed in the Shore Conference championships earlier this week with an A South-leading 208 average, also anchored the team two years ago when it finished second in the state finals after winning the Group IV and sectional titles. She also again qualified for the state individuals championship after falling just five pins shy last year.
Abrecht has a lot of company with three other teammates, who powered Brick Memorialwith games of 1,013, 991 and 1,021. Katelyn Christie led her team with a 658 series off a trio of 200 games topped by a 237 middle game. Brittany Morris reeled off games of 211 and 213 en route to a 617 series. Abrecht closed off her 609 series with a 217 game and Jordyn DeMont capped her 600 series with a 216. The effort eased the pain of the team’s missing the Shore Conference Tournament with a third-place finish in A South.
“Last year, the cutoff was a 530 series, and this time, it was a 570, which says something about the talent out there,” said Brick Memorial coach David Thompson. “It’s great because this is basically the same team as last year. It’s funny that we started with back-toback splits, and I said that this is no way to start a tournament, and as the first game went on and they started marking, it started building. They had momentum from the first frame.”
Thompson said Christie’s key was her consistency. “She stands way inside and lets the ball hook back into the headpin. She missed maybe two spares,” Thompson said. “It’s great to see each girl during the season had her moment to do something special.”
Although Kim Icker fell short of being the team’s fifth state individual championships qualifier, Thompson praised her efforts throughout the season and the opportunity she may have to help the team win a state title.