Days after winning a pair of Essex County bowling titles Rykel McFarlane described the events of this past week as “unreal.”
While both might have been unexpected, it doesn’t change the fact that Belleville’s girls bowling team had arguably the biggest 48-hour stretch in program history last week.
On Tuesday, the Buccaneers earned their first county title, in any sport in more than a decade when Belleville took first in the Essex County Girls Bowling Team Tournament with surprising ease at Hanover Lanes in East Hanover.
Then, two days later McFarlane became what is believed to be just the second girls individual champion in program history when the senior won the Essex County Girls Bowling Individual Tournament.
“It feels very crazy. It doesn’t feel real,” said McFarlane. “I could never imagine this happening.”
Belleville had been playing well heading into Tuesday’s team tournament, going 7-3 in duals. Once the tournament started, everything clearly started to click up and down the lineup as the Bucs built a huge lead after rolling a 712 in the first game and never looked back.
In the end, Belleville finished with an overall team score of 2,086 as it easily outdistanced runner-up Irvington by an eye-opening 382 pins.
“(On any given day, anyone could be the star), it doesn’t matter,” head coach Ryan Sheridan said. That’s just the best part of it. They all pick up each other. They all fill in the spots and work together. That’s what I couldn’t ask for a better group of five solid girls.”
Senior Roslyn Almodovar, best known for her record-breaking career on the soccer field, had the individual high series on the day with a 511. McFarlane was fourth with 445 and sophomore Zoe Arroyabe took 11th with 403 to all qualify for Thursday’s individual tournament.
Senior Daisy Rodas and sophomore Emily Anuscavage rounded out the quintet, all of which are rolling an average of 121 or better, a sign of the team’s depth this season.
While Alomodovar had the high series on Tuesday and Arroyabe has the highest season average at the moment at 145.27, Sheridan considers McFarlane his most consistent bowler and has her in the anchor spot.
On Thursday, McFarlane smashed that average with the strongest overall day of bowling in her high school career. During the preliminary rounds, McFarlane set a new personal best for a high series when she rolled a 502, highlighted by the second game where she rolled a 192.
McFarlane’s performance gave her the top seed for the five-bowler step-ladder tournament and with it, an automatic bye all the way to the final.
“Thursday was when Rykel completely came out of her shell,” Sheridan said. “The second game was when she started getting zoned in and even the other coaches came up to and were like, wow, she’s locked in.”
“At first I was nervous. I had to make sure I was calm and collected, not overexcited,” said McFarlane. “I made sure I was focused.”
McFarlane had to sit and wait for more than an hour until her final against West Orange’s Nina Alvarez.
While Alvarez is considered one of the top bowlers in the state, McFarlane was able to gain an early lead thanks to a stretch of four consecutive strikes. Alvarez remained in striking distance the entire time, but ultimately, McFarlane never relinquished the lead and ended up winning, 191-187.
“When I realized I won, I was very excited, ecstatic,” McFarlane said. “There were no words to describe how I felt in the moment. It just didn’t feel real.”
Also on Thursday, Nutley’s Brooklynn Robinson rolled a 478 in the preliminary round to earn the third seed in the step-ladder tournament, ultimately finishing fourth.
On the boys side, Nutley had two bowlers among the five who qualified for the step-ladder tournament as Ben Johnson earned the second seed after a preliminary round series of 675 and Jackson Veneziano took fifth with a 651. Johnson went on to finish in third and Veneziano claimed third.
Led by Johnson and Veneziano, Nutley finished second in the 18-team field to Seton Hall Prep in Tuesday’s team tournament with a score of 2,906.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.