MPC's Klemencic wins BPAA national championship

Mount Paran Christian’s Erin Klemencic won the 2022 Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, Inc. U18 Girls Division Junior Gold bowling championship this summer.

Klemencic defeated Annalise O’Bryant of Ball Ground 223-210 as the top seed in the finals. She just missed a top-ten finish during qualifying from a pool of 569 bowlers, and then she went a decisive 4-0 to advance to the finals. As the only remaining undefeated bowler, Erin had to be beaten twice to lose the title in the Junior Gold’s true double-elimination format. She needed only eight pins in the final frame against O’Bryant to claim victory.

“It was nice to have that extra game if I needed it, but I knew that I could get it done in one if I just stayed true to my game and focused on what I had to do,” Klemencic said.

Bowling since she was 4-years-old, Klemencic said she had never experienced a win of this magnitude before.

“It was surreal,” Klemencic said. “It was a big moment. I had never won anything like that.”

She says her favorite moments in her young bowling career would be winning this Junior Gold National Championship and making Junior Team USA, which is a group of top American boys and girls who represent the U.S. Bowling Congress in international bowling competitions. The USBC sanctions these aforementioned events.

She said she looks up to professional bowlers such as Liz Johnson and Kelly Kulac.

Klemencic’s brother, Ethan, also advanced from an initial pool of 1,208 bowlers in the U18 boys division, averaging 202.56 per game. He ultimately finished the tournament in 147th place.