Charleston, WV Table Tennis

Harry Sands Memorial Teams Tournament 2013

February 26, 2013

 

 

The Harry Sands Memorial Team Tournament featured a total of 7 teams from throughout the State.  Competition was strong and a good day of table tennis was had by all participants and spectators.

The team from Beckley (The Ball Bashers) featured 3 new players to competitive table tennis:  Mike Sloan, Jeremy Pizzino and Brandon Blake.  They fought hard, ate even harder and left with their first taste of WV teams table tennis.  Despite their admirable efforts, they left with a 0-6 record.  We expect to see them next year as a much improved team.

The first of 3 teams from the CTTC featured William Miller, Frank Ma, Shawn Fore and former Club and State Champion Tom Carpenter.  After a bruising last match with the Princeton Spinners, the best they could muster was one win on the day and finished 1-5.

The Princeton Spinners whose first appearance in the tournament came last year were made up of returning players Alan Tinia, Joey Mencias and featured newcomer Kayla Anderson.  After threatening a first match upset of the number 2 CTTC team, they finished with a disappointing 2-4 record.  Many players from the other teams commented on how much they have improved in only a year.  We expect a win, place or show from this team in next year’s tournament.

The second of the three CTTC teams featured Ryan Robinson, Gretchen Workman and current top club player Mike Corica.  They finished in a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the round robin event but were edged out of the 3 team playoff by the first tie breaker win percentage.  They ended the day with a 4-2 record and a nice win against the eventual runner up.

The defending teams champion from Lewisburg made up of Mike Butts, Jim Boyrer  and current state singles champion Alexey Domakhin could only manage a 3rd place finish this year.  The eventual champion beat them in a close match 3-2 and then their fate was sealed as they lost 3-1 to the 3rd CTTC in the semifinals.  They would finish the day with a 4-3 record overall.

The runner ups of the tournament were CTTC’s very own “InterTeam,” made up of Ron Wilkerson, Igor Kappel and Arky Myatezh.  After beating the defending champs in the semi finals they had to face a red hot Huntington team for the second time in less than 2 hours.  Despite 3 very close matches 1-3, 2-3 and 2-3 they just could not muster enough to beat the heavily favored Huntington squad and finished the day 5-3.

The story of the day was the Juggernaut that was the Huntington Team.  They not only had 4 time State Champion Jay Nelson, up and coming player Royce Zuniga as well as a former CTTC most improved Zack Smith, but they also added 2 highly rated players from Portsmouth OH, Thomas and Paul Yost.  They managed to roll through the field only dropping a few matches and finished undefeated at 7-0.

The CTTC is very happy to have once again hosted the Teams event and look forward to doing it again next Winter.

R. Robinson