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WE WON! Carleton edged out the U. of Chicago to top a seven-team field at the first "Deep Bench" format tournament to be held for several years. Going into the final round, Chicago held a 3 point lead over Carleton, thanks in part to our alumnus Jack Rousseau (now playing for Iowa) giving Carleton's Pat Hope his only loss at #1 singles. Pat tied for 1st at #1 singles with team alumnus Gabe Lyon, now with Wisconsin, going 5-1. At 2nd singles, Richard Leavelle went 4-2. At 1st doubles, Garrett Ryan and Ted Kuhn went 5-1. At 2nd doubles John Morse and Max Parrish were undefeated at 6-0. And at 3rd doubles, Peter Berry and freshman Benjamin Zivan, making his Carleton team debut, went 5-1. Since Chicago was doing equally well though, and in fact 3 points better, Carleton needed to win both of the head-to-head matches with Chicago at 1st and 2nd quads to win the tournament--and we did, with 1st quads (Pat, John, Max, Peter) coming from behind and scoring 30 points on each of the last three bonuses to nip Chicago 335-330, while 2nd quads (Richard, Garrett, Ted, Benjamin) was winning 360-295. Exciting!
We won, handily. Account by Garrett: Garrett, Pat, Max, John Morse, John Krakum (playing in his first tournament), Richard, Peter, and Alum Neal Schuster journeyed across the plains of Iowa to win TTGT11 VIII: Spinal Tap Takes Manhattan. In a fine showing of academic finesse and panache, Carleton dominated the tournament, posting an average victory margin of over 200 points. The tournament's theme packets allowed our team members to showcase their niche knowledge, especially in the realm of trash; fun packets included those on Video Games, Internet Phenomena, and Comedy Movies. (Garrett, however, was pleased by the appearance of a Roman History packet.) In the lightning rounds, Pat, Garrett, and Max made it to the finals, which Pat won. We returned to Carleton on Sunday, our lust for trivia temporarily sated.
Carleton's three teams entered in this tournament for new players or close to new players included 11 persons playing in their first tournament for us. We brought over 2% of Carleton's Class of 2010 to this event! A U. of Minnesota team went undefeated, but one of the Carleton teams -- Chris Burke, Danny Wells, Nathaniel Snell, and Joe Sigrin, took 2nd place, going 7-2 before losing the final to Minnesota. The team of Hannah Breckbill, Emily Kawaler, Peter Ladner, Jordan Smith, and Jolene Mork finished in a three-way tie for 3rd, with a record of 5-4. The final Carleton team of Rebecca Palmer, Tommy Garcia, Benjamin Zivan, and Nathan White went 4-5 to tie for 6th. Not a bad day for the 16 of us (also including Eric, Garrett, and John M. as moderators), capped by stopping for ice cream at the Grand Ole Creamery before leaving St. Paul.
All hail Pat, who won his second consecutive MUT playing solo (12-1 overall). Carleton entered six teams in a field of 22; five posted winning records, and four made the eight-team playoffs. Three of our teams finished divisional round robins with 9-1 records. Those were, in addition to Pat, the duos of Max and Richard, and of Garrett and Ted. Also making the playoffs were the duo of John and Peter B. (6-4). The frosh quad of Benjamin, Chris, Nathaniel, and Rebecca also finished 6-4, but were not a playoff team, and the second frosh quad of Joe, Jordan, Nathan, and Tommy survived being warned by their coach that they were probably going to get trounced a lot in this tournament, to go 3-7. In playoff quarterfinals, Pat ousted Max/Richard 390-350, Garrett/Ted lost to Drake, and John/Peter lost to St. Olaf. Pat then went on to beat Minnesota (460-255) and Drake (365-330, in a match tied going into the last tosssup) to take the title. Patrick, Garrett, and Max were the tournament's top three individual scorers, with John 6th and Richard 8th. Rebecca survived having to travel on laps as the 6th person in a five-passenger car.
The day after MUT, several of us returned to Minneapolis to have some pop culture fun at a trash tournament. John, Pat , Peter B. and Tommy, playing as "The Octagon," did the best, finishing 2nd in their division to make the four-team playoffs, where they were ousted by the experienced "Tia and the Trashmen" team of Univ. of Minnesota alumni. Pat was a tournament all-star, finishing 4th in individual scoring. In the "they also played" category was an all-frosh Carleton team of Joe, Jordan, Nathaniel, and Rebecca, and a team combining two frosh, Danny and Emily, with coach Eric Hillemann and friend of the team trashmistress Gail Celio. Fun, fun, fun.
Our top five players and coach flew to Michigan for the chance to get in some particularly tough competition, which we certainly got. As Carleton A, Patrick, Garrett, John, and Max went 7-2 in preliminary rounds to earn a spot in the top bracket for playoffs, where they won once to finish a very respectable fourth in the tournament. Richard combined with Eric and also non-Carl Julie Stahlhut to form "Carleton B," which went 5-4 in the other division, and 6-4 overall after winning their only playoff game. Eric was 4th and Pat 6th in the tournament's individual scoring, with Garrett also among the leaders.
It was a Carleton and ex-Carleton fest at Drake. Of 18 teams entered, six were comprised of current Carls, while three others were ex-Carls playing solo. This group accounted for six of the eight teams making playoffs, and all four making it to the semifinals. In one semifinal, Ezra Lyon '04 beat Pat, who had been undefeated (9-0) up till then (including an earlier win over Ezra). In the other semifinal, Gabe Lyon '02 beat Garrett and Ted, who had been 8-1 until then, and had just beaten John and Peter (5-3 till then) in a quarterfinal. Thus, the ex-Carl Lyon brothers played solo against one another in the finals, with Ezra prevailing. Ezra beat yet another Carleton team in the quarterfinals, Max and Richard (7-1 till then). Two all-frosh Carleton teams competed, with Chris, Joe, Nathaniel, and Rebecca going 3-5 and being part of a four-way mini-playoff for the last playoff spot -- losing to Chad Kubicek -- and the team of Danny, Emily, Jordan, and Will Levine (making his intercollegiate debut) going 1-6-1. Ex-Carl Ted Salk '01 also played solo in the tournament, adding to the Drake event's strong Carleton-connectedness. John kept intact his streak (now at 2) of leaving something behind whenever he stays in an Ankeny, IA motel, this time his cell phone. (Later retrieved.)
Here we won our sectional's Division I title for the 3rd time in the past four years, with our "A" team of Pat, Garrett, Max, and John recovering from an opening round loss to Wisconsin to stay perfect the rest of the way -- 13-1, with a narrow win over Wisconsin (12-2) in a repeat match. Our Div. 1 "B" team of Richard, Peter, and Ted placed fourth at 7-7. Five of the top six Div. 1 individual scorers were either Carls or Carleton alumni: 1. Ezra Lyon (playing solo as Minnesota), 2. Pat, 3. Gabe Lyon, now of Wisconsin, 4. Richard, and 6. Garrett. Our all-frosh Div. 2 teams didn't place as highly as we might have hoped for this one, with the team of Rebecca, Chris, Emily, and Nathaniel winding up 11th (8-4; missing the cut for the top bracket of 10, but then running the table in the consolation bracket) and the team of Danny, Jolene, Nathan, Tommy, and Will going 4-8 and finishing 16th of 18 teams.
Competing without benefit of Pat, a Carleton foursome of Garrett, Max, John, and Richard went 7-4, placing 5th in a field of 12. Garrett was 6th in individual scoring for the tournament.
All the trophies stayed in Northfield this year, as Carleton and St. Olaf filled the top four positions in a field of 17. Pat, playing as Pericles, Prince of Carleton, went undefeated through the full round robin to become CUT's first three-time champion (the only three times he played in it, having served as a reader his junior year), and CUT's first solo champion. Much Ado About Carleton (Garrett and Tommy) tied for second with a St. Olaf team at 14-2, while Two Gentlemen of Carleton (John Morse and Max) took 4th at 12-4. Also playing for us on the home turf were The Merry Wives of Carleton (Chris, Emily, Nathaniel, Rebecca), 9-7; Troilus and Carleton (Richard, Ted), 8-8; The Merchant of Carleton (John Kracum, Nathan and Will, and Andrew Roberts -- playing intercollegiately for the first time), 3-13; and Rosencrantz and Carleton Are Dead (Hannah, Peter Berry), 3-13. Another note about Mr. Hope: As a freshman playing on a four-person team at CUT 6, Pat lost his first CUT match, to St. Thomas's Paul Drube. Three years later, he's never lost another one, while winning 43 straight -- going 15-1 on a four-person frosh team to win CUT 6, 12-0 on a two-person sophomore team to win CUT 7, and now 16-0 solo as a senior to win CUT 9.
We placed 5th in a 27-team field at ACF nationals, the highest ACF nats finish ever by a Carleton team. Pat, Garrett, Max and John got off to a great start, clobbering Yale 310-20, and won their first six games in divisional play, including a nice 55-point win over always dangerous Michigan, before dropping games to Chicago A (the eventual champion; undefeated on the day), and, with the help of 5 negs, to Texas. Carleton then defeated Texas in a tiebreaker rematch to make it into the top six-team bracket for playoffs, going on to lose to Virginia Commonwealth and Texas A&M, but to beat Illinois and Brown for the fifth place finish. Pat was the tournament's top undergraduate scorer.
WE WON THE UNDERGRADUATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! Pat, Garrett, Max and John pulled it off, and get to savor (forever!) the sensation of being national champions. The team went 7-0 in preliminary rounds, beating Oklahoma State, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia, Florida, Grinnell, and Amherst, prior to playoffs among the top eight overall, in which they lost to Virginia Commonwealth, Brown, Illinois, and the overall champions, Chicago, but beat Rutgers and UCLA to finish 5th for the overall title -- Carleton's best finish ever, and one of the best for any all-undergrad team. In the finals for the undergrad national championship Carleton faced Harvard, which had finished 10th in the overall competition, and prevailed 305-205. Pat was the top undergraduate scorer in the country for a second year in a row. Our B team of Richard, Peter, Ted, and Adam Carr went 3-10 to finish 28th in the overall competition and 9th among undergrad teams. We all celebrated post-tournament with a fine, and extraordinarily happy, dinner at the Macaroni Grill in Burnsville. Nice work, team!!
A good strong 3rd-place finish (10-2) for Carleton A (Pat, Garrett, Max, John) behind the twin powerhouses that are Chicago A and B when Andrew Yaphe is on one team and Seth Teitler on another, but ahead of excellent teams such as Illinois and Minnesota. In 6th, behind that group, was Carleton B (Richard, Danny, Ted), at 7-5, and Carleton C (Chris, Nathaniel, Emily, Rebecca) finished a respectable 4-8, tied for 9th, in a tough field for an all-frosh team. We're very happy to see Madison return as a tournament venue after a few years absence from the circuit schedule!
Well, after a week-plus, the hosts have posted no results, but we remember that Garrett, Richard, Ted, and Chris Logel in his debut tournament, playing as Sir Gawain and the Carleton Knight(s), finished 2nd in a field of 7, losing twice to the Iowa duo of Paul Drube and former Carleton player Jack Rousseau, who went undefeated. Le Morte d'Carleton (Benjamin, Emily, Nathan, Nathaniel) won some and lost more. In the add-on trash tournament played on Sunday, we had two teams -- 2007: A Carleton Odyssey (Emily, Nathan, Nathaniel, Tommy), and Portnoy's Carleton (John, Peter, Richard). Results aren't entirely clear, but both teams lost more than they won.
