2006 PENNSYLVANIA OPEN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
MARCH 18-19, 2006
AT PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, STATE COLLEGE, PA
This was a classic 3-on-3 team tournament played over 2 days at
the main campus of Penn State University. Penn State offers table
tennis as a for-credit gym elective class that enrolls around 50-60
students per semester. Students must pass written tests, join the
USATT, and participate in at least one sanctioned tournament to
pass the course. Program director Hank McCoullum deserves a lot
of credit for putting the program together and also for securing
the use of the gym for this tournament.
A total of 124 players competed in 6 divisions for $2000 cash and
trophies. In the 'E' division, Penn State team #13 came out of
nowhere to take first place. Who rated these guys anyway? Class 'E'
was more straightforward with Penn State 6 scoring a mild upset
over Penn State 5 to win.
In the 'D' division two undefeated teams met in the finals, where
Penn State 2 eked out a 5-4 win over the Nanticoke Coal Crackers.
Both 'C' and 'B' groups had a lot of closely-rated teams meaning
several long tense matchups. In 'C', Ron Arcaro's Northeast Ohio
team survived several close matches to capture first over the top
seeded Buffalo Blasters. In 'B', South Park 3 (Pittsburgh)
dominated for first place while three teams beat each other up
for 2nd. When the dust settled it was Gaithersburg capturing 2nd
over Penn State Penhold by a single match.
The 'A' group promised a tough finals match between the Dan
Seemiller-coached South Bend Juniors, and Dan's alma mater South
Park 1. Also of interest was the occasional play of Christoph
Teille, rated 2260, who plays a bizarre game of short pips rolls,
blocks, and counters with an occasional fast loop. Christoph
moved to Pennsylvania from Germany last year and is employed as a
Lutheran minister in the Allentown area so he cannot attend
tournaments on a regular basis. But he competed here Saturday and
Sunday afternoons and managed to daze and confuse Chip Coulter
and Mike Walk before Randy Seemiller came out gunning to hand
Christoph his only loss of the tournament.
In the final match between South Bend and South Park, the South
Bend juniors came out smoking (figuratively!) and jumped to a
shocking 4-1 lead over the ex-juniors when Joe Cochran downed
Randy Seemiller 3-0. But South Park was down but not out. Chip
Coulter engineered a methodical 3-1 win over Cochran leading to a
9th match meeting between Mike Walk and Dan Seemiller Junior. Dan
tried hard but this time around was outmatched, and South Park
took home the gold.
Special thanks to Brenda Brewer, Chip Coulter, and Fred Kistler
for their organizational efforts, and to Etta Kong and the Penn
State club for facility management.
Division 'A':
1. South Park 1 (Chip Coulter, Randy Seemiller, Mike Walk) 5-0 (Hey,
What's Lowry doing in that photo??)
2. South Bend Juniors (A.J. Brewer, Joe Cochran, Dan Seemiller Jr.)
4-1
3. South Park 2 (John Ramirez, Dan Walk, Charnchai Tangpong) 3-2
4. Young & Old Pottsgrove (Steve Lowry, Tommy An, Scott
Grimes) 2-3
5. Erie C & L (Gary Martin, Sam Steiner, Harry Hawk, Miklos
Balogh) 1-4
6. LV Bad News (Christoph Teille, Don Feltenberger, Fred Kistler,
Ron Albright) 0-5
Division 'B':
1. South Park 3 (Bob Panahiazar, Jerry Schaub, Bchara Janadri) 5-0
2. Gaithersburg MD (Julian Waters, Jimmy Pappadeas, David Jarrin)
3-2 (8-7)
3. Penn State Penhold (Renmo Zhang, Ying Shan, Ing-Chao Lin) 3-2
(8-8)
4. (J)OHPA (Rod Peffer, Chip Saxe, Gary Podis) 3-2 (7-8)
5. Rochester Classics (Guy McLean, John Van Duerson, Alan Estill,
Ralph Prescott) 1-4
6. South Park 4 (Scott Rodgers, Rich Moss, Bob Cox) 0-5
Division 'C':
1. Northeast Ohio (Ron Arcaro, Jim Zimmerman, Bryan Simcox) 4-1
2. Buffalo Blasters (Ray Nagel, Joe Grandalski, Ray Gutowski,
Farzin Jalil) 4-1
3. Penn State 1 (Will Humber, Karl Ostermann, Adam Jones, C.J.
Brewer) 3-2
4. South Park Choppers (Dennis Kaminsky, Harold Elson, Doug
Debelak) 2-3
5. Crossover TTC (Lester Putt, Dan Stadden, Mark Fryberger, Jeff
Stadden) 1-4
6. LV Trials & Tribulations (Frank Roth, David Dickson Jr.,
Joe Clark, Noga Nir-Kistler) 1-4
Division 'D':
1. Penn State 2 (Ed Shub, Adam MacNeill, Vinnie Stout, Joe Caione)
5-0
2. Nanticoke Coal Crackers (Sam Russel, Jack Livingston, Ken
Russel, Ron Pajor) 4-1
3. Penn State 3 (David Ho, Ming Hui Sun, Wei Xiong Chen,
Cheungyuan Peng) 2-3
4. LV New & Improved (Steve Newmann, Andrew Snyder, Jason
Ginsberg, Paul Nam 2-3
5. Penn State Seniors (Steve Williams, Joe Tarantino, Dan
Waugaman, Ted Shal) 1-4
6. Penn State 4 (Xuan Si, King Fung, ShuTu Li, Tian Xia, Niraj
Parikh) 1-4
Division 'E':
1. Penn State 6 (Dan Ritterman, Scott Horowitz, Adam Glass) 3-0
2. Penn State 5 (DeJian Fang, David Blumberg, Ryan Cooper,
Brittany Vincent) 2-1
3. Penn State 7 (Joe Ho-Pan Chung, Ya-Ting Hsu, Jimmy Yao, Haisu
Lai) 2-1
4. Penn State 9 (Shawn Sutton, Michael Zalewski, Chris Ciamacca,
Rich Vande Visse) 0-3
Division 'F':
1. Penn State 13 (Yen-Rung Chen, Chieh-Ting Lin, Tzu-Tzer Lin,
Shou-Ju Chu) 4-0
2. Penn State 10 (Nick Kotun, Rich Rizzo, Li Jones, Steve Holland)
3-1
3. Penn State 11 (Tom Callahan, Tim Dunn, Shakira Nelson, Heather
Bennett) 2-2
4. Penn State 8 (Tzu-Heng Huang, Shih-Chieh Lin, Yi-Hsuan Lee, Yu-Hsin
Chen) 1-3
5. Penn State 12 (Yu Zhang, Miao Yu Chen, Zue Yi Zheng, Qun Zhao,
Yan Tong Wang) 0-4
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