Luke Jovans, Commack boys bowling leave no doubt in delivering Suffolk title
Commack wins the Suffolk boys bowling team championship on Feb. 7, 2026, in West Babylon. Credit: Kelvin Loarca
For the second time in three years, Luke Jovans and the Commack boys bowling team walked out of the Suffolk County championship with the title.
But this time, it was no surprise to any of the 16 teams at AMF Babylon Lanes.
The Cougars became the first wild card team to win the county championship in 2024 after finishing the regular season fourth in League III.
Commack entered Saturday’s tournament with a 16-0 regular-season record and the League III title. Jovans bowled a 785 series in the morning and a 685 series in the afternoon to lead the Cougars to another first-place finish in Division I with 7,050 total pins.
“Two years ago, it was unexpected,” coach Brian Gasser said. “This year, it was expected, so the pressure was a little bit higher, but the talent was there, too.”
The 2024 team had no seniors and Jovans was one of several freshman on the team.
“The team is more consistent now,” Gasser said. “It’s mostly the same individuals, but they’ve just gotten better with experience. They’re bowling clean. They didn’t leave that many spares out there. Shooting 7,000 at counties is unheard of.”
“Two years ago, we put our pedal to the metal and never looked back and we did the same thing this year,” said Jovans, a junior. “It means everything. We get to represent Section XI twice upstate. I’m really proud of that.”
Commack will compete in the Division I state championship on March 15 at Strike ‘N Spare Lanes in Syracuse.
The Cougars held a 201-pin lead over Comsewogue after the first three games and came out of the hourlong lunch break ready to roll. Led by Leo Recine’s 299, Commack took 1,258 pins in Game 4 for the highest team total in a game all day.
“I felt like I needed to get my pins back because I didn’t do as well as I wanted to in the morning because of a ball issue,” Recine said.
The senior said his mother, Susan, went home and grabbed a different ball.
“She came back with it and I felt immediately that I was going to be locked in and I just didn’t stop striking,” Recine said.
All six of Commack’s bowlers, including Liam Schiede, Steven Iannicello, Ryan Salcedo and Andrew Schaefer, posted a six-game series over 1,300.
“It’s unbelievable,” Jovans said. “I never thought we would’ve accomplished that.”
East Islip finished second with 6,542 pins and Comsewogue took third with 6,520.
Jovans and Schaefer — the county singles champion from Jan. 28 — will compete in the state individual championship on March 14 alongside North Babylon’s Nick Vuono and Ethan LeBlanc and Eastport-South Manor identical twins Logan and Alex Silbert.
Logan Silbert stole the show in Game 5, when he bowled his first 300 of the season. The senior’s last 300 came on Jan. 21, 2025.
“I wasn’t able to break 270 all season,” Logan Silbert said. “I just really wanted to finish off strong. This is my last day bowling for ESM, since we represent the section upstate.”
His 802 series in the afternoon session was the first 800 series of his career.
“I wish my ball could go through the pins the way his ball did,” Alex Silbert said. “He had control of the lane. It was his game and I was just watching. That’s all I could do.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
