61st Annual Times-News Open
2024 Qualifying Champion - Killian Kilpatrick
3-Time Runner Up
2020-2021-2022
Qualified with 16-game record of 4,106
14 of 16 games were 240+
Won the qualifier by 446 pins, surpassing the previous record of 250
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Qualifying Rounds
Round 1 – 5 games Saturday January 6, 2024
Eastway Lanes at 9:00am & 1:00pm
The Qualifier of the 61st Times-News Open was held at Eastway Lanes with a field of 179 bowlers, 4th largest.
Killian Kilpatrick, competing on the A squad, got off to a hot start with 803 (279-278-246) and then finished the round off with a pair of 253’s for a total of 1,309, breaking the record that he established in 2020 with 1,291. The total was good for a 114-pin lead over Cody Jacobs. Cody also started hot with a 276 opener and then followed that up with 205-249-236-229 for 1,195.
Kurt Cohick, who didn’t even have plans to bowl the event, got into the event on the B squad due to a couple of cancellations. He opened with 266, then a pair of 222’s and closed with and 235 and 245 for 1,190 which was the high score on the B squad. Matt Hinterberger, from the A squad, was just 4 pins back in 4th with 1,185.
Next was a two-way tie for 5th between Ned Bent (A) and Mike Dunkle (B). Both of them also got off to good starts on their squads as both shot 278 to open.
The top 10 is rounded out by; Tyler Barnes (A-1,175), Mike Sirak (A-1,164), Frank Cole (B-1,164), and 5-time champion Michael Machuga who shot 1,156 on B squad.
The top 16, which is ultimately the target for the finals, is tightly packed as only 8 pins separates the places 11-16. Those bowlers are; Nick Kighlinger, Paul Karpik, Jr., Noah Sprickman, Dave Warren, Mike Duke and Jesse Wattle. However, the next cut will come after tomorrow’s next 5-game block when the field is cut to the top 36 for the semi-finals.
Currently, a score of +105 (1,105) is in 36th place. Of the field of 179 bowlers, 98 of them averaged 200 or better. The same field returns tomorrow with the B squad bowling at 9am and the A squad at 1pm.
Buddy Malone, who passed away on Christmas Eve was recognized for his many contributions to the Times-News Open as well as his record of 51 consecutive events entered. Buddy christened the 50th TN Open by throwing out the ceremonial first ball and this year, in his memory, he opened the event with a tribute and a moment of silence.
Round 2 – 5 games Sunday January 7, 2024
Eastway Lanes at 9:00am & 1:00pm
Killian Kilpatrick widened his round one lead through 3 games on Sunday by opening with 246-277-257 but then cooled off with games of 190 and 210 to finish with 2,492 for 10 games, 19 pins short of the 10-game record.
The highest score of the day was authored by 2018 Champion T.J. Mitchell, who posted games of 278-258-268 (803) and 235-229 for 1,268 and a combine total of 2,411, good for second. Paul Marnella had the next best round, 1,235 on the strength of a 269-225-290 finish which vaulted him from 36th into a tie for 3rd with 5-time champion Michael Machuga. Machuga was steady again, finishing the weekend with all of his games above 200. Sunday’s round included 269 and 268.
Jeff Prue jumped from 20th to 5th with a round of 1,179 (2,312) while Kurt Cohick followed up his first round 1,190 with 1,116 to hold down the 6th spot with 2,306.
The top 10 were rounded out by Cody Jacobs, who was second after round 1, who shot 1,104-2,299, Matt Hinterberger with 1,107-2,293, Nick Kightlinger 1,130-2,285 and Ned Bent who had 1,096-2,227.
The top 36 survived into the semi-final round which is being held at Greengarden lanes next Saturday at 1:00pm. The score needed to make that cut was 2,179. After 6 more games in the semi-finals the field will be cut to the top 16 finalist who will compete for the title the following weekend at Eastland on Saturday and Rolling Meadows on Sunday. Currently 16th place sits at 2,238.
As always, there are many familiar faces as well as a number of new faces who advanced. The most notable new face is youth bowler Taylor Kretz. Youth have advance to the finals before, but none of them were women. She will be looking to join Shelly Ferretti and Heather Lyon (last year) as the only females to compete in the Times-News finals. She is currently in 21st place with 2,212.
Round 3 – 6 games Sunday January 13, 2024
Greengarden Lanes at 1:00pm
They say that records are meant to be broken … and they are usually correct. The Times-News Open 16-game qualifying record was a stout one, 4,087 for 16 games fror a 255.4 average. Well, that one now drops to second as Killian Kilpatrick took control of the 2024 Semi-Finals and everyone of the other 35 bowlers in the finals. He opened with 254-290-268 for 812 and then closed with 268-279-255 for 802 besting the previous 16-game record by 19 pins. It also took a record 6-game round of 1,614 to get there. Both former records were held by Hayden Stippich who shot 1,597-4087 in 2019. Kilpatrick finished with 1,614-4,106.Â
A second record that was obliterated was the qualifying title championship which was established last year by Michael Machuga who won the qualifier by 250 pins. Kilpatrick captured this year’s qualifier by a massive 446 pins. That is 28 pins per game more than his nearest competitor. He beat his nearest semi-finals competitor, Tyler Barnes by just about 40 pins per game. Not counting Kilpatrick, the field averaged 205.6 in the semi-finals compared to Kilpatrick’s 269.0, a difference of 63.4 pins per game. A bit mind boggling.
There were 35 other semi-finalists and the 5-time champion and 5-time qualifying champion, Michael Machuga, made his way to second. He started the day third and finally reached to second spot after 254 in game 5 and then held on to beat Jeff Prue by 15 pins. Ned Bent, who started 10 got all the way to third with games of 279-236-246 in games 13-14 but then dropped by to fourth, 11 pins behind Prue. Tyler Barnes rounds out the top 5. He had the second highest 6-game block with 1,376. He was 15th and right on the cut line after the first game but finished strong to jump to 5th.
Nick Kightlinger was one of the 7 bowlers to have all of their games of 200 or better. After a strong 10 games last weekend his steady round kept him well above the cut line all day. The only other former champion in the semi-finals, T.J. Mitchell, dropped from 2nd to 7th but with qualifying totals being dropped he will be back in the hunt for his second title next weekend. Garrett Clark is one of three first-time finalists and becomes the 24 father-son combination to make the finals as his dad, Beaver, is a 9-time finalist. His 3,589 total was good for 8th.
Rounding out the top 10 are Paul Marnella who makes his 7th TN finals appearance and Matt Ballard, who is bowling in his first Times-News Open tournament. Ballard was 81st after the first five games before jumping to 25th and into the semi-finals and then jumped again and now is a TN Open finalist.
The reminder of this year finalists are; Matt Hinterberger, Kurt Cohick, Chris Janazzo, Brandon Jenkins, Dan Francis, and David Warren. Jenkins is the third first-time finalist and Warren joins both his uncle Steve and his dad, George Warren, Jr. as 11-time finalists.
The qualifying totals are dropped and the finals begin next Saturday at Eastland Bowl and Sunday at Rolling Meadow Lanes. Both rounds begin at noon.
They say that records are meant to be broken … and they are usually correct. The Times-News Open 16-game qualifying record was a stout one, 4,087 for 16 games fror a 255.4 average. Well, that one now drops to second as Killian Kilpatrick took control of the 2024 Semi-Finals and everyone of the other 35 bowlers in the finals. He opened with 254-290-268 for 812 and then closed with 268-279-255 for 802 besting the previous 16-game record by 19 pins. It also took a record 6-game round of 1,614 to get there. Both former records were held by Hayden Stippich who shot 1,597-4087 in 2019. Kilpatrick finished with 1,614-4,106.
A second record that was obliterated was the qualifying title championship which was established last year by Michael Machuga who won the qualifier by 250 pins. Kilpatrick captured this year’s qualifier by a massive 446 pins. That is 28 pins per game more than his nearest competitor. He beat his nearest semi-finals competitor, Tyler Barnes by just about 40 pins per game. Not counting Kilpatrick, the field averaged 205.6 in the semi-finals compared to Kilpatrick’s 269.0, a difference of 63.4 pins per game. A bit mind boggling.
There were 35 other semi-finalists and the 5-time champion and 5-time qualifying champion, Michael Machuga, made his way to second. He started the day third and finally reached to second spot after 254 in game 5 and then held on to beat Jeff Prue by 15 pins. Ned Bent, who started 10 got all the way to third with games of 279-236-246 in games 13-14 but then dropped by to fourth, 11 pins behind Prue. Tyler Barnes rounds out the top 5. He had the second highest 6-game block with 1,376. He was 15th and right on the cut line after the first game but finished strong to jump to 5th.
Nick Kightlinger was one of the 7 bowlers to have all of their games of 200 or better. After a strong 10 games last weekend his steady round kept him well above the cut line all day. The only other former champion in the semi-finals, T.J. Mitchell, dropped from 2nd to 7th but with qualifying totals being dropped he will be back in the hunt for his second title next weekend. Garrett Clark is one of three first-time finalists and becomes the 24 father-son combination to make the finals as his dad, Beaver, is a 9-time finalist. His 3,589 total was good for 8th.
Rounding out the top 10 are Paul Marnella who makes his 7th TN finals appearance and Matt Ballard, who is bowling in his first Times-News Open tournament. Ballard was 81st after the first five games before jumping to 25th and into the semi-finals and then jumped again and now is a TN Open finalist.
The remainder of this year finalists are; Matt Hinterberger, Kurt Cohick, Chris Jannazzo, Brandon Jenkins,
QUALIFIER RESULTS PAYOUT
HIGH QUALIFIER
$200
Killian Kilpatrick
2ND HIGH QUALIFIER
$100
Michael Machuga
Strength of The Finalists For The 2024 Times-News Open
TOP 16 FINISHES & QUALIFYING TITLES
FOR CURRENT YEAR FINALISTS
PAST CHAMPIONS
2 with 6 Titles
(Machuga 5, Mitchell 1)
RUNNERS-UP
2 with 2 Runners Up
(Machuga 3, Kilpatrick 3)
QUALIFYING TITLES
3 with 7 Titles
(Machuga 5, Mitchell 1, Kilpatrick 1)
TOTAL FINALS APPEARANCES
81 in 194 TN Opens (3 First-Timers)
(Machuga 13, Mitchell, Warren 11)
Meet The Finalists
Final Rounds
Finalists at a Glance
Round 1 – 8 games Saturday January 20, 2024
Eastland Bowl at 12:00 pm
Killian Kilpatrick, who became the 2024 Times-News Open Qualifying champion in record fashion last weekend continued to dominate the 61st TN Open during the first round of the finals at Eastland Bowl. The finals’ first 8 games are in the books.
The much anticipated opening match against 5-time champion Michael Machuga didn’t go his way, but that was about the only thing that didn’t. Machuga scored a 258-229 match victory to take the lead while Kilpatrick was down in seventh. With a 267-220 victory over David Warren, Kilpatrick was in the lead and on his way to 7 consecutive match wins and a 241-pin round 1 lead.
The top of the leaderboard remained relatively close through 5 of the rounds 8 games. Machuga continued to win matches and remain close in second. After that game he only trailed by 51 even after opening in his final two frames in his 199-176 win over Kurt Cohick. Warren was still bowling well and was just 21 more pins back in third. Jeff Prue was 123 pins behind in 4th and 2018 Champion T.J. Mitchell was next 126 pins back in 5th.
Game six was when the 2024 TN Open tilted significantly in favor of young Kilpatrick. He opened the game with the first 8 before being stopped by a solid 9 pin. He finished with a 265-204 win over Garrett Clark. Down on lanes 17-18 Machuga was not finding the lane conditions to his liking and not only had several opens but was unable to strike. This all resulted in a loss to Mitchell 158-216. Kilpatrick’s lead was now 99 and Warren moved to second and Mitchell 3rd. Game seven was no better, with Kilpatrick defeating Cohick 248-171, Machuga continued to struggle although he did manage to defeat Prue 175-173. Unfortunately for Warren, he recorded his first sub-220 game in losing to Mitchell 151-191. This moved Brandon Jenkins into second, now 233 off Kilpatrick’s lead.
Jenkins stay in second was short lived as he squared off against Machuga in the day’s final game and fell 191-216. Mitchell defeated Nick Kightlinger 235-201 to jump back to second while Machuga settled in 3rd. Mitchell is 241 pins behind and Machuga is 289, Warren 304 and Jenkins 308.
The round’s highest game came in the final game of the day when Tyler Barnes strung the first 9 and finished with 279. That moved him to 8th, 1 pin behind Dan Francis in 7th.
Things will get moving quickly tomorrow at Rolling Meadow Lanes as the first game matches Machuga against Warren and Kilpatrick against Jenkins, both top 5 matches. There are only 2 other matches pitting top 5 bowlers against each other. The first comes in game 12 when Jenkins faces Mitchell and then in game 14 when Mitchell bowls Kilpatrick. Game 16 is a position round game to complete the tournament.
Round 2 – 8 games Sunday January 21, 2024
Rolling Meadow Lanes at 12:00 pm
The finals round of the 61st Times-News Open was held at Rolling Meadow Lanes and with Killian Kilpatrick holding a 241-pin entering the day it appeared that the tournament was pretty much over.
As the round got underway, Kilpatrick only solidified that appearance. He took down Brandon Jenkins in game 9 214-141, then followed up with a 268-210 win over Kurt Cohick before losing a close one to Paul Marnella 234-235. At that point his lead was 311 pins over T.J Mitchell. When Mitchell defeated Jenkins 267-206 in the 4th game of the day the lead was down to 260. Mitchell then beat Cohick 223-200 while Kilpatrick dropped his second match in 3 games (to Dan Francis 201-196) the lead was reduced to 203, the smallest it would get during the round. Michael Machuga was working hard to get back within reach and was only hurt by a one-pin loss to Ned Bent 224-223 in game 10. He was still 244 pins back with 3 games to go.
Mitchell’s last gasp effort would be in game 14 when he faced off against the leader, Kilpatrick. Unfortunately, Kilpatrick showed that no one was going to get close as he won the match 266-207. Machuga defeated Matt Hinterberger 258-191 to move back into second place, where he was after game nine but still 252 behind. His very, very slim chances were dashed when he faced a hot Ned Bent in game 15. Bent scored a 279-223 victory over Machuga and even though Kilpatrick only shot 228 he got the 30 bonus pins when his opponent, Jeff Prue had 183 in the loss.
That set the stage for the position round with Kilpatrick in front by 287 over Machuga. Mitchell was next 58 pins further back and then Tyler Barnes another 81 pins back. In the position round it was really a contest for those in 4th through 8th place as only 90 pins separated those 5 places.And those matches did not disappoint. With a bevy of strikes it was the Nick Kightlinger v. David Warren match that would finish first and set the mark for the others. Warren finished with 266 but Kightlinger still had an opportunity for 279. He struck on the first ball in the tenth but then an unlucky 7-10 left him with only an opportunity to tie the match, which he did.
Francis was squaring off against Marnella in the 5-6 match and it was close until the ninth when Francis finally put the match away, he finished with 237 and had passed both Kightlinger and Warren and then, when Mitchell finished off Barnes 226-206, he also passed Barnes. This put Marnella in jeopardy of dropping down to 8th from 5th, however, with 3 strikes in the 10th he bested Warren by just 2 pins to hold onto 7th. Kightlinger also finished ahead of Barnes by 2 pins as well. The final margin from 4th to 8th was just 26 pins.
In the anti-climactic final, Machuga defeated Kilpatrick for a second time (he also defeated him in game 1 of the finals 258-229), this time by a 278-192 margin. That allowed Machuga to shave 116 pins off Kilpatrick’s margin of victory. It is Kilpatrick’s first Times-News Open title and Mahuga’s 4th runner up to go with his 5 titles. By finishing third, Mitchell had his best finish aside from his 2018 victory. Francis finished 4th for a second time, he also has a third while Kightlinger matched his best finish of 5th, which he’s accomplished 3 times now.
2024 Finalist Group Picture
