Scotch Plains Bowlers Just Miss in Individual Championships

It has been an amazing ride for the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High bowling team.

The rolling Raiders were runner-up in the county tournament, second in the state sectionals, which qualified them for Saturday's team championships and, they had three of their top bowlers qualify for Wednesday's individual championships, a very impressive feat.

With the pressure on, and with the best bowlers from all over the Garden State in attendance, the Raider trio of Mike Tufaro, Peter Citera and Katarina Nier more than held their own, but eventually, their series were not strong enough to crack the top 18, ending their collective dreams of making the individual finals.

Still, it was a great experience.

"It's shocking for me to be in the presence of such great bowlers," Citera said. "The top 51 bowlers in the state of New Jersey. I never considered myself here before and it's an accomplishment just making it to this tournament."

"This was my goal, to get here and farther," Tufaro added. "I made it here so I can't be mad at myself for that. I would have liked to have bowled better. Just recently, when the counties started, I began to bowl better again and it came at the right time."

Nier, who qualified for the girls tournament, acknowledged that she had a rough start.

"It was all oil," she said. "I found a line, but the ball wasn't really getting there. But I enjoyed being here and I'm happy I made it. I just tried my best."

Tufaro is closing out an outstanding season, having bowled a 300 earlier in the campaign. The junior was averaging 225 at one point, but fell off a bit before picking up his game at the state sectionals last week.  

Citera rolled a 636 series, which put him right underneath the top 18 cutoff.

"I feel I did the best I could," he said. "The last game I had a couple of bad breaks, a couple of splits. But I picked up a lot of spares, only had a few open frames, I had a really good time with the bowlers in my lane. It was overall a great experience."

Watching amongst the large crowd was SP-F head coach James Mason, who no doubt had to be all smiles to see his bowlers come so far.

"I'm just very proud of them," he said. "I'm proud of the fact that they were able to get this far. It says a lot for them. It says a lot about what we're trying to do with our program here at the school."

Each house is different when it come to lanes and ball movement and the SP-F crew may have a slight advantage going into Saturday's state team final with three games under their belts at Carolier Lanes.

"These lanes break down a lot quicker and they get dry a lot quicker than the lanes we usually bowl on," Tufaro said. "You're bowling with the best in the state and they throw a lot of revs and they're on the same spot as me, so I have to move around more often than I usually do, so it's harder making more transitions."

Now, it's time to focus on the next task at hand, and that's to win a team championship.

"I think this is the first time we've moved on to the second round and we really have a chance," said sophomore Nick Stawicki, who was on hand Wednesday to cheer for his teammates. "I'm hoping we go far. Making the second round is beyond what we expected this year. I'm more excited for the team. It would be a great overall experience winning as a team than as an individual. All of us have been together three or four years, so a win would culminate all we've been through and cap off the successful season we've had."

The team finals will get underway at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick.