Spartans Spear through Regular Season

The Stuyvesant boys’ varsity bowling regular season recently came to an end. Despite not yet playing their first game of the postseason, the Spartans’ season has already been full of achievements. They have clinched a playoff spot for the sixth year in a row, proving that last season’s 6-4 record was a fluke, by winning the Manhattan AI Division with an 11-1 record. Last year, they only took the first two sets in three games. This year, they did so in eight of those 11 victories. All of this was accomplished in a much more competitive Manhattan Division, populated with notable teams like the Hunter High School Hawks and Beacon High School Blue Demons. Despite the stronger competition, the Spartans remained calm and focused on their game. “We [also] definitely improved our mental game, and we were able to pull out some clutch wins by just staying focused on what we were doing and not worrying about our opponents,'' senior Samuel Fang said. Furthermore, last season’s end brought about the loss of two senior players, leaving a gap in the “A” and “B” sets. Undeterred, the Spartans filled the gap by improving their game, and soon enough, the entire Spartans roster was able to showcase its strength.

The two most outstanding players on this roster have been Fang and senior Matthew Huang. As juniors, the two started in the “A” Sets and continued to do so this year, putting up the highest scores in nearly every game. As a result, their scores have improved tremendously over the past year, and together, they are a powerful duo. Fang finished the regular season averaging 185.07 pins, a vast difference from his 161.40 pin average last season. Huang also improved his pin average by nearly 20 pins and recently bowled a personal best of 204 pins against Hunter. One of the Spartans’ best performances this season, his showing allowed Stuyvesant to not only beat the Hawks, but also clinch first place in the Manhattan AI Division. Fang and Huang rank second and fifth, respectively, in pin averages in Manhattan, and Fang’s pin average sits 23rd out of over 300 bowlers in the entire city.

The “A” Sets have also seen players such as junior Joshua Kim, who, despite having played in only two games, has averaged 155 pins. Junior Eric Kim has been averaging 133.8 pins and holds the team’s third-best individual performance of 191 pins. Finally, senior Harshul Singh, who mostly bowled in Set “B” last year, has been a near-permanent member of Set “A,” and finished the regular season on a high note with a strong 163-pin game.

This is not to disregard the bowlers of the “B” Sets. Senior Jackson Ngo has improved the most on the team, and has gone from averaging 92.6 pins last year to averaging 130 pins. He also had two games where he put up scores above 150. Several other bowlers such as senior newcomers Andy Weng and Yu Hin Yu have been consistent in their performances, and both hold high scores of over 150. If there was a theme with the team this year, it would have been improvement. “With a few more talented members getting picked on the team this year and our returning players scoring quite a bit higher than last year, it allowed our A and B team to dominate the division,” Fang said.

The Spartans’ talent is reflected in their playoff seeding. They are currently ranked 11th in the city, which is the highest that the team has been in the last four years. The Spartans have been unable to get past the round of 16 in recent seasons. This year, they just recently beat Goldstein, which occupies the 22nd seed, and they have advanced to the round of 16 matchup against sixth seed Midwood. “Making it past Midwood will definitely be a challenge, but if there was any year we could do it, it would be this year,'' Fang confidently said. Nevertheless, regardless of how far they go, this season will be remembered as one which the Spartans dominated Manhattan.