A surprising -- and very satisfying -- season came to an end for the South Brunswick High School boys bowling team this past Saturday.
"Overall, I thought it was a very good season," South Brunswick Coach Brian Burniston said.
The season ended for South Brunswick when it was unable to capture one of the top two spots in the Central Jersey Group IV Tournament, held Feb. 12 at Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick. East Brunswick and Hunterdon Central were the two teams that advanced to the state finals. South Brunswick placed sixth.
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"We were about twenty pins out of second place after the first game," Burniston noted. "We struggled in the second game. We had a decent third game, but it was not enough to move on (to the state finals). It was just an off day for us."
Alex Neer bowled games of 194, 148 and 158. Dominic Anghelone bowled games of 175 and 221 (several different people combined to finish a game of 117). Kyle Aumack bowled games of 211, 181 and 163. Steve Krier bowled games of 211, 222 and 210. David Krier bowled games of 185, 159 and 198.
Find out what's happening in South Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Steven Krier was just 14 pins short of qualifying for the individual state championships.
South Brunswick finished the season with a record of 10-5-2. The last match was a 2-1 loss to Colonia in the quarterfinals of the Greater Middlesex Conference championship on Feb. 7.
"It was a strong year, but I'm a little disappointed we lost to Colonia," Burniston said. "I thought we were better."
The GMC featured a best-of-three game format. Each team used six bowlers for each team game, dropping the lowest score. South Brunswick opened with a 1,056-1,033 win. Unfortunately, it lost the next game 1,000-952.
"The killer was the second game," Burniston said.
South Brunswick lost the decisive third game, 1,149-1,132.
"There was a lot of good bowling in that game," Burniston said. "We bowled very well in the third game. They just bowled a little bit better."
Dominic Anghelone bowled games of 232, 181 and 214. Davie Krier bowled games of 246, 224 and 212. Alex Neer bowled games of 145, 160 and 139. Kyle Aumack bowled games of 199, 202 and 220. Steve Krier bowled games of 234, 185 and 221. Marc Beaudry bowled games of 157 and 265.
While Burniston would have liked to have seen his team advance farther in the GMC and states, it wasn't hard for the coach to put the season in the proper perspective.
"The improvement we had from the start of the year to the end really allowed us to have a very good season," Burniston. "I'm proud of what the boys were able to accomplish."
