2006 MILLCREEK OPEN
ERIE PA - OCTOBER 28-29, 2006

A huge turnout and 20 tables made this tournament another record-setter. This year 137 competitors including the welcome addition of 22 Canadians fought it out for glory and money in 21 events including two new hardbat events.

Noteworthy was the appearance of table tennis legend John Tannehill, now competing again with sponge after many years of strictly hardbat play, where he compiled a hardbat-system rating of 2488. This vacation took a toll on John's game and, while he can still play, he was unable to make much headway here against players rated over 2200.

Also of interest was the play of 17-year old Torben Niemeier, a German exchange student living in the Akron area with the Pech family. Torben entered only one event, the U2000, which he won handily defeating Scott Dalton in the finals.

Cleveland's Ken Pinili, a native of the Philippines, finally demonstrated his potential by winning the 2200 and advancing in the 2400.

The final four in the Open division came down to Tannehill's one-time nemesis, the even more legendary Dan Seemiller of South Bend; Dan's latest star student Joe Cochran; our spring tournament Open winner Yong Ren of Buffalo; and hard-working Ohio #1 Samson Dubina, now playing out of Ottawa. Going into the final round-robin, the oddsmakers were not sure how this fairly close-ranked group would shake out.

Second-seeded Yong Ren played some close matches in the finals but may be losing some of his edge due to a lack of competition in Buffalo, and finished 0-4 in the final round. Joe Cochran is Dan's latest understudy to close in on 2400, but he was not yet ready to challenge his coach on this day, and finished 3rd with a win over Ren. Samson Dubina, fresh from his first-ever win over Dan two weeks ago in a tough 5-game match in Akron, came to Erie anxious for a repeat. But it was not to be, as Dan remained the king of Erie table tennis with a 4-0 win over Samson in the final match.

Thank you all players for making the 14th annual Millcreek Open another fabulous event.

RESULTS OF MATCHES:

U900- Finals: Casey MacClaren d. Joe Uliano 3-2.

U1600- Semi's: Junior Estoesta d. William Truong 3-0; Robert Sollish d. Ralph Prescott 3-0. Finals: Sollish d. Estoesta 3-1.
U1100- Semi's: Michael Yu d. Glen Strachan 3-0; Joe Uliano d. Casey MacClaren 3-1. Finals: Yu d. Uliano 3-2.

U1800- Semi's: Michael Zhang d. Mani Anantharaman 3-2; Jim Sealy d. Farzin Jalil 3-2. Finals: Sealy d. Zhang 3-0.

U1300- Semi's: Greg Mieckowski d. Bill Schlernitzauer 3-1; Michael Yu d. Gary Klein 3-1. Finals: Yu d. Mieckowski 3-2.

U2000- Semi's: Scott Dalton d. Jason Leung 3-1; Torben Niemeier d. Ken Roskos 3-1. Finals: Niemeier d. Dalton 3-2.

Junior U-17- Semi's: Jason Leung d. Bence Toth 3-2; Dan Seemiller Jr. d. bye. Finals: Seemiller d. Leung 3-1.

Senior Over 40- Semi's: Dan Seemiller d. Gary Martin 3-1; David Lau d. Ray Mack 3-0. Finals: Seemiller d. Lau 3-0.

3400 Doubles- Semi's: Daniel Eisenkraft-Klein/Tundi Balogh d. Jim Sealy/Harold Elson 3-1; Joe Grandalski/Jim Burik d. Ray Leung/Troy Muggah 3-1. Finals: Grandalski/Burik d. Eisenkraft-Klein/Balogh 3-1.

Open Warmup- Group 1: Dan Seemiller d. David Lau 3-0. Group 2: Samson Dubina d. Dan Seemiller Jr. 3-0. Group 3: Joe Cochran d. Ray Mack 3-0. Group 4: Chandru Krishnan d. Don Hamilton 3-1. Group 5: Tom Yost d. Mark Nordby 3-2.

Hardbat 'A'- Finals" Dean Norman d. Chad Moore 2-1.

U2400- Semi's: Samson Dubina d. Chip Coulter 3-0; Joe Cochran d. Randy Seemiller 3-1. Finals: Cochran d. Dubina 3-2.

U1450- Semi's: Richard Roman d. Jim Willitts 3-0; Daniel Eisenkraft-Klein d. CJ Brewer 3-1. Finals: Eisenkraft-Klein d. Roman 3-0.

Senior Esquire Over 60: RR Finals: 1. Neil Myers 2-0 (d. Jim Huang 3-1; d. Bill Walk 3-0). 2. Bill Walk 1-1 (d. Huang 3-0). 3. Jim Huang 0-3.

Open- Quarters: Dan Seemiller d. Don Hamilton 4-0; Joe Cochran d. Randy Seemiller 4-1; Samson Dubina d. John Tannehill 4-0; Yong Ren d. Chip Coulter 4-0. RR Finals: 1. Dan Seemiller 3-0 (d. Yong Ren 4-0; d. Joe Cochran 4-0; d. Samson Dubina 4-0). 2. Samson Dubina 2-1 (d. Yong Ren 4-3; d. Joe Cochran 4-1). 3. Joe Cochran 1-2 (d. Yong Ren 4-2). 4. Yong Ren 0-3.

Junior U-14- RR Finals: 1. Jason Leung 2-0 (d. Jonathan Mast 3-2, d. Hollie Lau 3-0). 2. Jonathan Mast 1-1 (d. Hollie Lau 3-1). 3. Hollie Lau 0-2.

2800 Doubles- Semi's: Jack Beggin/Dale Klobusnik d. Dan Barnes/Greg Soltys 3-2; Greg Mieckowski/Joe Chuong d. Gary Klein/Dan Eisenkraft-Klein 3-0. Finals: Mieckowski/Chuong d. Beggin/Klobusnik 3-0.

U2200- Semi's: Dan Seemiller Jr. d. Ray Mack 3-1; Ken Pinili d. Chandru Krishnan 3-2. Finals: Pinili d. Seemiller 3-0.

U1750- Semi's: Tom Burik d. Michael Zhang 3-1; Dave French d. Joe Grandalski 3-2. Finals: Burik d. French 3-1.

U700- Finals: Kevin Schrock d. Steven Schrock 3-1.

Open Hardbat- RR Finals: 1. Ray Mack 2-0 (d. Gary Martin 10,10; d. Ken Pinili 19, 6). 2. Ken Pinili (d. Gary Martin 10,12). 3. Gary Martin 0-2.