The finals of the 63rd Times-News Open is now in the books and Nick Kightlinger has become the event’s 35th Qualifying Champion by holding off the 2013 Qualifying Champion T.J. Mitchell by 3 pins. Kightlinger began the day 47 pins in front of Mitchell, a lead he would see cut to 22 after 3 games but still maintained it at 21 heading to the final game. Both bowlers had their lowest games of the day, Kightlinger 206 and Mitchell 224, leaving Mitchell 3 pins short of his second qualifying title and Kightlinger with his first.

While others chased, it was a bit from afar with Brandon Wachob finishing 3rd, 74 pins back. Wachob used 279, 275 and 288 in games 1, 4 and 6 to fuel the third highest 6-game block of the day. Both Jeff Prue and Dalton Kaliszewski held onto their respective starting positions, 4th and 5th with their totals of 1,404 and 1,406. Rodrick Baird fashioned the high score of the day, 1,512 which included an 814 on games of 258-257-299 in games 2-4 allowing him to move from 16th to a tie for 5th. The second high block of the day went to Hayden Stippich who started 46th after 5 games to move all the way into the finals in the 7th position. Stippich was the qualifying champion in 2019 and just 9 pins separated 4th from 7th.

Killian Kilpatrick, the 2024 champion finished 8th and hopes to make another run at the title after having his title defense cut short last year we he failed to advance to the finals. David Warren’s 9th place finish means he’ll be appearing in the finals for the 12th time in 33 events, the most by any finalist. The top 10 is rounded out by the defending champion, Michael Machuga. His title last year was number 6, trailing only Lee Eighmy Jr’s 8 and Mike Shady’s 7. Shady is still in the mix to tie Eighmy for the title record, he qualified 14th.

There are 4 first time finalists this year and three of them qualified 11th, 12th, and 13th. Taylor Kretz is 11th, she becomes the event’s 3rd female finalist, hoping to surpass Shelly Ferretti’s 12th place finish in 2005. Cody Jacobs was the only bowler who began the day outside of the top 16 to advance to the finals. He was close last year, finishing 18 but this year finished 12th. Next was D.J. Thompson, he was also a semi-finalist last year and used a 300 in game 4 to break back into the top 16 after dropping out the game before. He held on to 13th.

As almost always is the case, the chase for the final spots got a bit intense with several bowlers scrambling for them. Ryan Park hovered around the cut line all afternoon and was 15th with a game to go with a 43-pin cushion over 17th and his 217 finale gave him all he needed as the others near the cut line weren’t making many moves … except for Alex Ulrich. Ulrich had dropped to 25th with 2 games to go after shooting 165-180 in games 3 and 4 but bounced back with 269 and 246 to finish, the latter including converting a 6 count washout in the final frame to put the pressure on his pursuers. Sami Strebel and Paul Marnella were two with a chance but neither had the kind of game needed to make the jump. The final man standing was Jeff Wieser. With Ulrich already finished, Wieser needed a double in the tenth to hold onto the 16th, where he entered the final game. He came in light with his first toss and nearly carried the shaker, but it was not to be. Ulrich took the final spot with Wieser being relegated to alternate, a position he also held back in 2009 after losing a rolloff for the final spot.

The 16 that survived will head to Westway and Eastland next weekend for the head-to-head match play finals. Qualifier pinfall will be dropped as all will start the finals back at zero. Both rounds begin at noon.