Long Island Summer Bowling Tour!

"I'm going against one of the big boys of long island. i will learn from this and take the lumps. learn from the best. that is how i see it right now".  

Louis Dalessio, sound beach, seconds after being defeated by East Meadow's Mike Wodzinski in the junior scratch division

East Islip NY - June 14, 2002 

The Long Island Summer Bowling Tour visited East islip lanes for stop #2. As expected, tremendous scores highlighted the evening and history was made, not once...but twice!

Junior scratch division:  

Mike wodzinski enjoys bowling in the a2Z tournaments. the east meadow native does not have to admit he does, it is just that he cashes in just about every tournament a2Z runs. wodzinski blew away the competition in the 4-game qualifier by rolling a 925 (231.25), easily finishing ahead of his competitors. the number two seed however needed to make every pin count. craig lindahl, ridge, and louis dalessio, sound beach battled the first 3 games with lindahl (673) holding a 10 pin advantage over dalessio (663). in critical game #4, dalessio managed to squeak into the finals by rolling a 205 while lindahl managed just a 191. wodzinski and dalessio to the finals.

wodzinski has enjoyed success on the a2Z circuit. he has cashed in many a2Z events. wodzinski also placed high in a2Z's Very first tournament, the New Years Eve Scholarship Tournament held at the very same east islip lanes in december 2000. wodzinski offered "This place (East Islip) has been very good to me over the last few years. I always score great here". he would not let his guard down either. wodzinski smothered dalessio with an ambush of strikes in the middle frames and won the game easily 228-148 to take home top honors. dalessio, looking tired and battle tested, took the loss as a step in the right direction. "I'm going against one of the big boys of long island. i will learn from this and take the lumps. learn from the best. that is how i see it right now". 

for wodzinski however, he has taken his lumps along the way for a few years now. there was not a need to feel sorry for dalessio. afterall, the school of hard knocks is how the good ones become great. just ask mike. 

Adult Scratch Division:  

steve garcia, east islip felt right at home. garcia who bowls out of east islip lanes wasted no time in establishing the tempo for the night. the talented and powerful young man went front 10 during game 1 in route to a 288 first game. "4-pin. Got the ball out too far on the lane. Never had a chance for a strike" garcia explained about his 11th shot. he also rolled a 233 in game two that gave him a very impressive 521 halfway home. in game 3, garcia ran into trouble. shooting a 172, garcia watched in horror as paul molnar, commack, shot right past him into first with a 3-game block of 704. garcia however, quickly put the bad game behind him and went right back into the top spot with a solid 258 in game 4 giving him a 951 (237.75). molnar managed a 205 for a 909 (227.25) that easily placed him 29 pins ahead of 3rd place finisher joe evers, hicksville at 880 (220.00).

the final game between garcia and molnar was a good one. garcia, with the exception of game 3 in the qualifier, was outstanding the whole night. however, in the championship game, garcia "left 2 2-pins by sending the ball to far onto the lane" those 2 frames cost garcia the match. molnar kept out of trouble and defeated garcia 235-217. 

molnar was pleased with the victory. "I had fun the whole night. bowled 4 deuces (210, 237, 257, 205) and was fortunate to have won. I really had a great time". 

whether or not garcia had a good time or not is still up for debate. 

Adult handicap division: 

Answer: Jess figueroa, east islip, kathy wodzinski, east meadow and anne herd-Quarry, bethpage!

question: name the three ladies to become the first stepladder finalists on the a2Z tour? 

answer: mike wodzinski and kathy wodzinski!

question: name the first mother/Child combination to make the finals of an a2Z tournament on the same night?

that is correct! history was made this past week as a2Z not once, but TWICE!

but not before some anxious moments.

history part I

the all ladies finals!

figueroa, bowling in her first a2Z event as an adult, rolled an outstanding 663/717 for the first three games. however, as incredible as it seems, the former east islip HS 3-time state champion was locked into 7th place, 43 pins behind the leader quarry-Herd at 595/760. making the road more difficult for figueroa was the fact that spots 2 through 10 were only separated by 29 pins with ed vandervoort, moriches in second at 615/738 and vinnie zambito, shirley, at 577/709. zambito was bidding to become a finalist for the second consecutive week. 9 bowlers competing for 2 spots to advance with one additional spot to cash. in the end it was figueroa who put an end to the tight battle. while the others all seemed to be feeling the pressure of game 4, it was the pretty teen-aged girl, 2 weeks shy of hS graduation that would jump ahead of the entire field. figueroa rolled a 268 scratch that powered her to a 931/1003 (232.75/250.75) series and seeded her first. 

meanwhile, kathy wodzinski would finish the night with a 193/256 that would seed her second at 739/991 (184.75/247.75). anne quarry-Herd 763/983 (190.75/245.75) was able to squeeze by vinnie zambito 792/968 (198.00/242.00) and ryan neary, west islip, 888/968 (222.00/242.00)  

in the semi-final game, wodzinski would have just enough as she defeated quarry-Herd 187/250 to 171/226. and for the second time of the night, a wodzinski was in the finals.

history part II: wodzinski and wodzinski in the finals! Thats right! while junior bowler mike wodzinski had just completed his championship match in the junior scratch division, he was able to watch mom compete for the handicap title! 

except jess figueroa was about to spoil the party.

spotting wodzinski 35 pins, figueroa made some good shots early, and although wodzinski had some early frame problems, figueroa had some catching up to do by frame 5. that is until figueroa went to work on the lady from east meadow. figueroa threw a strike in frame 5 and did not stop until they turned the lights out for the evening. wodzinski on the other hand, just could never get untracked in the final game. she very gamely and sportslady like finished with a 147/210, but it was way too little as figueroa lit it up with a 257/275. 

tournament co-director Ken Zagorski (Poppa Z) offered this to a smiling but disappointed wodzinski. "If you think you are the first person that jess has done this too..... We need to do some serious talking. and bring a case of 2-liters of soda, cause its gonna be a LONNNNNNNG, LONNNNNNNNG talk!".

whether wodinski knew it or not, jess figueroa has just completed a stellar 6-year career at east Islip HS bowling for the lady redmen. she holds numerous records throughout Long Island and New York State. quite possibly, she could be the best ever to compete at a HS level for girls bowling in new york state. she will attend briarcliffe college and compete at a collegiate level in bowling starting in october of this year. there are about 15-20 young ladies who have competed on Long island at a high school level during the time period of the last 10 years. they all deserve a tremendous amount of credit in establishing the sport of girls bowling and laying the groundwork for others to walk on. the name jess figueroa should be mentioned among them. and she should be mentioned as one of the best ever. 

congrats to jess figueroa on her first adult title.    

Junior hdcp division:  

if there are two issues about a 4-game tournament, it gives you SOME breathing room for error and it can absolutely suck that air right back when it wants to. just give it that chance. 

after 3 games of qualifying this past friday night at east islip, the junior handicap division looked like this: spots 3-9 separated by 46 pins. peter smith, brentwood, looked as though he had things under control after bowling a 277/322 in game 3. he had moved up to 4th place, all the way from 13th place after game 2. however, bowling giveth, bowling taketh. smith all but fell apart in game 4 with a 146/191 that dropped him to 12th place. and while derek vandervoort, mastic, did his best in game 4, with a 263/308 to reach the finals, it was also vandervoorts 161/206 in game 3, that made it difficult for him to advance. and while all the other competitors seemed to have the ups and downs all night, it was jason moss, commack , krystal olivieri, east islip, and kate nazaro east islip who would make up the final three. 

moss and olivieri were just sensational in qualifying. moss averaged 173.50 scratch and 265.50 with handicap that put him in the #1 seed. olivieri came in at 177.75/258.75. nazaro was very respectable with a 167.00/249.00. 

the semi-final game was unique. it was not so much that both girls came from east islip. it was unique that both girls are teammates for the perenial powerhouse east islip hS girls varsity bowling team. nazaro an 8th grader and olivieri a freshman come september 2002. while one could assume that having teammates compete for scholarship money against each other could be nerve rattling, both girls said the experience was "fun". and it showed on the lanes. however, being a member of a major HS bowling program, the desire to win was present as well. 

niether girl gave in to the other during the semi-final match. matching strike for strike and spare for spare through 9 frames, it was olivieri who finished first. spotting nazaro 1 pin, olivieri rolled a 169 scratch, forcing nazaro to mark and fill in the 10th frame. nazaro, showing no emotion whatsoever, rolled her first ball in the 10th and left the 5-9 spare. as cool as can be, she converted the spare easily. now needing 7 pins to tie and 8 to win, nazaro threw a 9 count and won the match 171-169. that set up the final match of nazaro and moss. 

in the championship game, moss broke out of the gate early and never looked back. moss showed a little fatigued and moss took advantage. moss had little trouble, and he defeated the young lady from east islip 182(+10) - 146 (0). it was the first title for moss on the a2Z. 

a total of 42 entries participated. next on tap? SAYVILLE BOWL, JUNE 21, 2002 9:00 PM!

Adult 300 game Jackpot for Sayville Starts at $70.00 + entry count!

Junior 300 game Scholarship Fund for sayville starts at $191.00 + entry count!

Standings after Qualifying

Payout