Kuhlkin’s quest to be bowling’s best
The bad weather may have stopped the mail but it didn’t stop Liz Kuhlkin. One of the top bowlers got to the gym, practice and even survived a whiteknuckled, fivehour round trip drive to Mechanicsburg, Pa. With so many bowling balls in her SUV, the ride with her dad was stable: “I’m not going to fishtail that much with this much weight in the back.”
Backed by Ebonite International and on staff with Hammer — “an honor and a privilege” — Kuhlkin, 23, is preparing for the new season of the Professional Women’s Bowling Association that starts in a
month.
“I’d say right now my favorite ball is the Track Kinetic (Emerald) which is actually the ball that I shot 879 with,” Kuhlkin said. “I like it so much I actually drilled two more recently. Honestly there’s a lot of great stuff out there right now and it’s really a privilege to try all of them out.”
She hit 879 last month. She went live on Facebook and tried to finish an unprecedented 900-string in the Reis Group Kim Brown Memorial League at Towne Bowling Academy in Rotterdam. It was not uncharted waters. Four months earlier, in the same league, with a Hammer Scandal Pearl, she opened 300-300 and (live on FB) wound up with a 290. She wears an “890”
necklace to mark the highest three-game series any woman has ever achieved.
“Literally the next day I couldn’t even use my phone very much because it was just absolutely going off the hook of people messaging me,” Kuhlkin said of the 890. She’s looking to become the first woman to hit a USBC approved 900-series. There have been 32. The first was in 1997 in Lincoln, Neb.
Ironically, that’s where Kuhlkin was an All-American when she led the Nebraska Cornhuskers to two NCAA National Championships (2013, 2015). The Schalmont High School graduate was honored in Troy in 2009 by Joey Schmidt with the highest average (nationally) as a junior bowler.
She got a lot of positive messages like, “You inspire me; This is amazing; I watched it with my kids on the couch,” she said. “When I had an opportunity
to shoot 900 again I couldn’t pass up that opportunity to go live. It reaches out to so many people. The power of Facebook is amazing...social media outlets are so important nowadays to gain notoriety and grow your fan-base.”
All this comes after a very real and raw reveal on Facebook about how she faces her career and health. She is now practicing and exercising more and doesn’t want her talent or career to fizzle.
“I’m trying to take it a little bit more seriously, per se,” she said. “I don’t want to say that I wasn’t taking it seriously but I’m taking it the next step up to really become the best athlete that I can. I hope that pays off for me.” For more of my interview, go to my Bowling notes on the web.
DONATO
Kuhlkin lost in the first
round of the stepladder finals of the 15th annual Donato Tournament. Ryan Galli won the event and earned $2,800. He beat Robert Rowe III ($1,400) 221-190.
In the Capital District Youth Scholarship Tour at Hometown Lanes on Saturday, March 18, Hunter Kempton (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) shot the highest four-game series of the season, 966, and won his fourth title this year.
OLYMPIC HONORS
There have been 22 perfect games and seven 800-series this season in the Rensselaer County Men’s League at Olympic Lanes in Menands. Steve Malette posted the league’s first 12-strike game on Sept. 12. He also had 300s on Feb. 6 and Feb. 20. Four times there were two bowlers who hit on the same night: Nov. 7, Ron Gardner and Robert “Traxx” Taraskiewicz
(another Jan. 9); Nov. 14, Shaun Bargy and Dwayne Coonradt both did it; Feb. 13 brought 300s from both DJ Bigness and Kevin Fairbairn; March 6, Tyler Senecal (also Feb. 20) and Paul Dumas, Sr. both had a 300 games.
OTHER 300s
Joe Bifaro Jr. (9/19), Greg Sears (9/26), Brandon Bigness (10/3), Ed Troicke (10/17) and Paul Dromazos (1½8) each rolled 300s. Chad Sutliff recorded his first adult 300game Jan. 16 and Josh Lafontaine had his first 300 Jan. 23. Chris Lee, brother of Chad, recorded one Jan. 30.
GREAT 800s
Ken Plue, Jr. has the season’s first super-triple, 259-289- 255=803 (9/26) and Brandon Bigness rolled 299-245279=823 (10/17). On Dec. 5, Bill Dowen shattered the house record with a
34-strike 865 and Justin Carhart posted 247-287268=802. Mark Coonradt nailed his first 299, adding 244-266 for an 809 (½3). On Feb. 6, Malette recorded his second 300 of the season after starting off 236-266 for his 802 and a month later, March 6, Senecal hit his first-ever honor series with his season’s second 300- 268259=827.
OTHER NUMBERS
Bobby Cox hit his career high game, 258, in the Best Fire Mixed (March 9) at Olympic; at Barbecue Recreation, Wayne King hit 300-707 in the Thursday American (March 16) after leading the week before 289-727; in Sunday Mixed (March 12), Tim McCart notched his 20 th 800-triple (834).