Greenwich Bowling Team Ranked No. 1 In State

The Greenwich High School bowling team, which is ranked No. 1 in the state, will take on Notre Dame of Fairfield on Tuesday for the championship of the Connecticut Interscholastic Bowling League. The match is set for the Nutmeg Lanes in Fairfield at 3 p.m.

The CIBL is comprised of 14 schools throughout the region and is the only high school bowling league in the state, according to Greenwich coach Wayne Gioffre. Bowling is not a CIAC-sanctioned sport.

While there are certainly more than 14 high schools in Connecticut who offer bowling, many of the teams compete only on an intramural basis.

But that isn't the case at Greenwich, which takes a 13-0 record into Tuesday's match.

"We have a very diverse group and they are all very competitive," said Gioffre, noting that the squad is comprised of football, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball and softball players.

Junior Ricky Okazaki is the starting catcher on the Cardinals' baseball team while junior Mark Bernstein, a JV bowler, is the starting halfback on the Greenwich football squad.

Another JV bowler, junior Sean Dunster, is a lacrosse starter and the brother of Jim Dunster, an all-American lacrosse player at the University of North Carolina.

The Greenwich bowling team is coed and features junior Maria Ceci, who starts on the Greenwich girls lacrosse team, sophomore Virginia Stewart, a starter on the varsity softball team, and freshman Lindsay Pecora, who will start this spring on the Cardinals' freshman softball club. All three are among the top-five female bowlers in the CIBL.

Greenwich's top two bowlers are junior Packy Hanrahan (190.4 average) and junior Tiael Gookool (190.2), who are second and third overall in the CIBL, respectively.

Chris Ragusa, the only senior on the team, sports at 185 per-game average, followed by sophomore Dom Moniscalco (175) and Okazaki (165).

Junior Christian DiRusso, who was recently promoted from the JV team, is averaging 180 per game as the Cardinals'  alternate.

During the regular season, all 14 teams in the CIBL play each other in a full round robin schedule with the top two finishers in the league earning the right to play in the championship match. Next week the CIBL will conduct a tournament to determine the individual singles and double champions.

Tuesday's match will consist of five players on each team competing against each other in a series of three games, but that won't be the only action going on at the Nutmeg Lanes.

Gioffree says all 50 lanes will be occupied as Greeenwich has four junior varsity teams comprised of 20 total players.

"I had 50 kids try out," said Gioffee, who is in his seventh season as the Cardinals' coach. "They take this very seriously. It's very popular."