Born to bowl: Kilpatrick brings hot hands, desire for first title into Times-News Open Finals

Twenty-one year-old Killian Kilpatrick says that bowling is his true passion.

“It’s my favorite thing in life, definitely,” Kilpatrick, 21, said after he had just breezed to a record-setting performance while capturing the qualifying championship of the 61st annual Times-News Open last weekend.

After the skills and tenacity that he displayed while running away with his first-ever qualifying title, that shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Kilpatrick’s parents will tell you it’s as if he was born to bowl.

“It was like he was born with a bowling ball in his hands,” Killian’s mother, Mary Beth Kilpatrick, said. “His first league was when he was three, then we had the little plastic bowling sets at home, and he played with them constantly. He’s been bowling forever.”

Fans in attendance and fellow bowlers alike were in awe at the ease in which Kilpatrick, a two-handed lefty, captured the qualifying championship. He was absolutely relentless in the semifinals, where he averaged an incredible 269 in six games, and ended up winning the qualifier by a record 446 pins over runner-up Mike Machuga.

“Phenomenal bowling,” was how five-time T-N Open champion and professional bowler Machuga described Kilpatrick’s performance in the semifinals at Greengarden Lanes on Saturday.

“Nobody would have beaten him today,” Machuga said after Kilpatrick had posted a record-setting 4,106 and 256.6 average over the 16-game qualifier.

Two-handed approach since the beginning

Kilpatrick started bowling two-handed when he was old enough to lift a ball, his dad said. As he got older, it sometimes didn’t sit well with others, though.

“When he was young, nobody knew what two-handed was, and you’d hear complaints and jeers in the background,” Jarrod Kilpatrick said. “But he kept at it, and always scored high and did well bowling that way.”

“That was the only way I could pick up a ball when I was little, and then I never stopped doing it,” Killian Kilpatrick said. “I got good at it, and I just kept doing it. I could bowl one-handed and probably be good at it, but I’ve gotten so good at two-handed that there’s no reason to change.”

Kilpatrick said that he’s learned about the two-handed style by watching successful two-handed professional bowlers.

“I’d take him bowling with me when he was two, and he’d get frustrated with me grabbing the ball out of the ball return to put it on the wooden rack, he had to do it himself," Kilpatrick’s father, Jarrod Kilpatrick, said. "We had to drag him out of the bowling alley for years.”

But how did Kilpatrick hone his unorthodox style?

“I watched (seven-time PBA Player of the Year) Jason Belmonte a lot, and I watched a lot of (Swedish bowler) Jesper Svensson when he went on tour. He was one of the first lefty two-handers, and he got me learning how to play the gutter better," Killian Kilpatrick said.

'Future of bowling'

“Two-handed bowling is the absolute future of bowling,” local bowler Darren Kretz, the father of two-handed youth bowling star Taylor Kretz said. “Jason Belmonte is the best bowler in the world, and young people everywhere are taking up that style because of him.”

Machuga agrees.

“The two-handed style is the new way. It’s much more powerful, and when you master it as well as Killian is doing, you can do some amazing things," Machuga said. "And what we’ve witnessed these past two weekends is pretty incredible.”

Machuga, who has been Kilpatrick’s mentor since he was very young, said that watching him develop has been a joy.

“I got to watch Killian grow up and mature,” Machuga said. “He’s become quite knowledgeable and he’s gotten a lot of experience, and I think he’s learning how to win.”

Even though Machuga will be battling with Kilpatrick for the tournament championship this weekend, he is happy about his success, and looks forward to knocking heads with him. But win or lose, he looks at it as another step in the ladder of learning for his prized student.

“I got beat by 446 pins by a kid I used to call ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle,’” Machuga joked. “He’s very hungry, and the way he’s been bowling, I’m definitely going to have my hands full. But one of the reasons I’m still competing is that I’m not going to let him win it, he’s going to have to win it, and to do that he’s going to have to beat me.”

Three times a runner-up

Kilpatrick will be the No. 1 seed and Machuga No. 2 when the 16-game, 16-bowler match-play finals take place on Saturday at Eastland Bowl and Sunday at Rolling Meadow Lanes.

“I feel less pressure in this after bowling in PBA events, and I’m always calm,” Kilpatrick said. “But I’ve been second three times now, and I want to win this badly.”

Although he may be calm, his parents won’t be.

“I’ll be nervous,” Mary Beth Kilpatrick said. “I look like I’m calm, but inside I’m always nervous every time he bowls. For the lack of nerves that he has, I have all the nerves.”

“I get nervous, but he comes up to me and says, ‘Dad, I’m all right,’ which calms me,” Jarrod Kilpatrick said. “It’s just a great enjoyment watching him bowl.”

T-N Open finals

• When, where: Saturday, noon, Eastland Bowl; Sunday, noon, Rolling Meadow Lanes.

• Number of bowlers: 16, including 13 former finalists with 61 previous finals between them, and 2 former champions with 6 championships between them.

• Format: 16 games of match play (eight on Saturday, seven and one positional round on Sunday); 30 bonus points awarded for each win. All bowlers start finals anew.

• Finalists/seeding: 1. Killian Kilpatrick; 2. Mike Machuga; 3. Jeff Prue; 4. Ned Bent; 5. Tyler Barnes; 6. Nick Kightlinger; 7. T.J. Mitchell; 8. Garrett Clark; 9. Paul Marnella; 10. Matt Ballard; 11. Matt Hinterberger; 12. Kurt Cohick; 13. Chris Jannazzo; 14. Brandon Jenkins; 15. Dan Francis; 16. Dave Warren.

• Former champions: Mike Machuga (1997, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), T.J. Mitchell (2018).

• First-time finalists: Garrett Clark, Matt Ballard, Brandon Jenkins.

• Qualifying champion: Killian Kilpatrick (4,106, qualifying record).

• 2023 champion: Mike Shady (4,025 in 2023 finals; not entered this year).

• Online: www.tnopen.org, or on Facebook under “Times-News Open”; live leaderboard can be seen at tnopen.org/live/live-q/

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Times-News Open bowling: Kilpatrick approaches finals with title goal