From the desk of Jordy Barksdale, Director of Campus Life & Ministry:

The Student Center is full of students every day, with most of them focused on the ping pong table in the middle of the room. The group of students that rotate playing have often trash-talked about who’s the best player at Brook Hill. There was only one way to actually determine who the best was: a single elimination tournament. Twenty four competitors signed up to compete in the 2015 Ping Pong Championship this year. The bracket was set up with twelve players on each side, with the winner of each side slated for the championship match. The pairings were randomly determined by drawing the names of all of the competitors and the first eight to sign up received a bye the first round. The games were played over a seven day period and took place during the Campus Life block and after lunch.

The first game matched Reid Hill with Zoe Hayes, one of the two girls competing in the tournament. Zoe represented the female students well by advancing to the second round. The other female, AD Kuechle also drew some attention when she advanced to the second round in the male-dominated field. That was the last of their luck as Jordan Wyatt beat AD and Tagen Parma got the best of Zoe, both gentleman advancing to the third round.

Experience wasn’t enough for the three seniors that entered the tournament. Freshman Connor Livesay topped Seth Brasher in the first round of play and Chipper Adams and Brooks Garner both dropped out of the tournament after losing in the first round to Campbell Fletcher and Alec Kitt respectively.

The first semi-final match consisted of Freshman Sawyer Hayes against classmate Conner Livesay, with Sawyer pulling ahead to the championship game. The second semi-final game matched Sophomore Sam Nechi with Freshman Caleb Hopkins. Hopkins proved more dominate, getting the chance to play for the top prize, a $30 gift card to Racquet and Jog. Sawyer proved to be too much on Tuesday when he dominated Caleb in the championship game.

The trash talk can continue, but the Brook Hill Fall Ping Pong Champion is certainly Mr. Sawyer Hayes.

Results:

Advanced to Round 5:

Sawyer Hayes and Caleb Hopkins

Advanced to Round 4:

Conner Livesay and Sam Nechi

Advanced to Round 3:

Tagen Parma, Jared Johnson, Jacob Yeager and Jordan Wyatt

Advanced to Round 2:

Zoe Hayes, Campbell Fletcher, Alec Kitt, Logan Langford, Logan Mimms, Parker Galbraith, Jacob Johnson and AD Kuechle

Competed to Round 1:

Reid Hill, Chipper Adams, Brooks Garner, Colton Drennan, Mac Rose, Seth Brasher, Jordan Christopher and Peyton Adams.