Since the day seniors Kai Strothers and William Cunningham joined the St. Joseph (Met.) bowling program, they wanted to stamp their own mark in the history books of St. Joseph and the N.J. boys bowling landscape.
On Friday in North Brunswick, the two seniors led the charge to St. Joseph capturing something no boys bowling program in the state has ever done.
Win four straight state championships.
“Coming into St. Joseph my freshman year, my goal was to lead the team to a state championship each year,” Strothers said. “Seeing that goal get completed feels really nice.”
Cunningham and Strothers each cemented their legacies with great performances to lead top-seeded St. Joseph roll to a 2-0 victory over three-seed Nutley in the finals of the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament.
Strothers bounced back from shooting a 197 in his first game of the Group 3 final with a high game of 249 in the clinching game to give him a high series of 446.
The senior began the last game of the final with eight straight strikes and finished with nine in the game.
Cunningham, who was battling a wrist injury sustained during the state individual tournament on Thursday, left no open frames in his first game of the Group 3 final to record a 223. He finished the state final with a two-game set of 434.
During the state tournament, Cunningham averaged over 224 pins, while Strothers racked up an average of 235 pins per game in the state playoffs.
Duncan Williams | For NJ.Com
Both seniors, who are preparing to bowl for Lawrence Tech University, ended this winter with a 232 average on the lanes.
“It feels good that I did my part and the team came together to help us win four championships in a row,” Cunningham said. “It’s feels really good.”
Heading into this season, Lawrence Tech was regarded as the No. 1 men’s college bowling program in the country by United States Bowling Congress.
Just like they did when they walked through the doors of St. Joseph, Cunningham and Strothers are looking to stamp their mark on the lanes at Lawrence Tech and bring a new era of great bowling to the college stage.
They hope others that come up the ranks at St. Joseph and in the N.J. boys bowling community will do the same.
“I hope people will look up to us and want to do better,” Cunningham said. “It feels pretty good to know I was able to accomplish something great during my high school career.”
Sophomore Ethan Brucato and juniors Joey and Josh Lamoreaux each helped St. Joseph tally 1,997 total pins in the Group 3 final.
St Joseph’s starting lineup averaged 1,052 pins per game during the state tournament to help them record a two-game sweep in each one of its five state playoff matches.
The Falcons went 22-2 on the lanes this winter. The 2025-26 campaign included St. Joseph winning the Greater Middlesex Conference Team Tournament and earning head-to-head wins over both Middlesex and Monroe, who each won a state title of their own on Friday.
“They have the weight of the world on their shoulders always and still find a way to strive,” St. Joseph head coach Rusty Thomsen said. “They’ve earned everything they have gotten. I’m very proud of them.”
In his 11 years at the helm of the St. Joseph bowling program, Thomsen has helped the Falcons win 11 sectional championships, one Group 1 and Group 2 title, and now two straight Group 3 championships.
Over the last four years, Thomsen, along with his duo of Cunningham and Strothers, led St. Joseph to an 87-3 record.
St. Joseph had already become a fixture in the N.J. boys bowling scene under Thomsen.
The program rose to new heights with the additions of Cunningham and Strothers, becoming the standard of boys bowling in New Jersey.
A standard that rose to even greater heights on Friday with St. Joseph winning its historic fourth straight state championship.
“When everyone hears of St. Joseph, they think of top of the line and gold standard of bowling,” Thomsen said. “They [Kai Strothers and Will Cunningham] set the bar really high.”
