trans america [Updated October 2006]  

2006 WBC Report     

 2007 Status: pending December Membership Vote

Tony Vickery, BC

20006 Champion

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Event History
2004    Kevin Wojtaszczyk     44
2006    Tony Vickery     48

 Laurels

 Rank Name             From Last Total
   1. Ken Gutermuth     TX   06    24
   2. Tony Vickery      BC   06    20
   3. Kevin Wojtaszczyk NY   06    20
   4. Kathy Stroh       DE   06     8
   5. Fred Minard       PA   04     8
   6. Andy Latto        MA   06     6
   7. Sean McCulloch    OH   04     6
   8. Patrick Shea      VA   06     4
   9. William Duke      MD   04     4
  10. Aurora Pack       CO   06     2
  11. Katherine McCorry VA   04     2

2006 Laurelists

Ken Gutermuth, TX
2nd

Kathy Stroh, DE
3rd

Andy Latto, MA
4th

Patrick Shea, VA
5th

Aurora Pack, CO
6th

Past Winners

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2004


 Eric Brosius (left) gets in one last fix before the ride home. The quick playing Trans America was the last event to start at WBC.

 Kathy Stroh gets some moral support in the Final but it wasn't enough to overcome Tony Vickery's four connections.

ducat to travel light ...

As the 2006 WBC drew to a close, 48 train engineers signed up to try and build the best routes through America and Europe in Transamerica. Games consisted of a fixed number of turns, one for each player in the game, to offset the perception that there is a disadvantage to being the first player in a turn. Ten first round games included nine games of Transamerica and the lone Transeuropa game of the tournament. There were eight 5-player and two 4-player games in the first round.  The ten winners advanced to two 5-player semi-finals with the top pair from each game advancing to the Final.

In the opening round, Ted Simmons, Tony Vickery, Ted Mullally, Jason Levine, and Andy Latto advanced by being the first to connect on three turns with Ted Simmons accomplishing the feat in a four-turn game. Jason's third completion in the last round was the only third turn completion that was necessary to advance with him barely defeating Bryan Berkenstock.

Aurora Pack, Arthur Field, and Ken Gutermuth advanced on the strength of two first completions with Arthur's being in the other 4-player game of round 1. Ken's victory was in the lone Transeuropa game.

Patrick Shea and Kathy Stroh advanced with only one first completion. Kathy hung on by a point in the last round as Brendan Tracey made a late charge. Patrick's game was the closest as he entered the last round a point behind GM Lisa Gutermuth. However, Cheryl Merica was able to complete her connections very quickly and that vaulted her into a tie with Patrick after the last round and leaving Lisa behind as she scored nine points. Patrick edged Cheryl out in the tie-breaker by only having gathered one point when he was 1st player compared to Cheryl's three points as 1st player.

As the semi-finalists gathered, talk about playing an AOR game for one of the semis started as six of the ten semi-finalists were also Age of Renaissance regulars. In the first semi to complete, Ken Gutermuth rode three strong starting turns with only one point and Tony Vickery overcame a poor start with four excellent turns of only two points to advance. Both were able to exploit Aurora's tendency to take the most direct route even if it was through cities she didn't own.

In the second Semi which seemed like a marathon, Kathy Stroh's consistent scores including being first to complete once allowed her to advance. Andy Lotto and Patrick Shea tied on points in both the last turn and the game to force a tiebreaker to see who our last finalist would be. Both players scored two points while being first player but Andy's completion as the second player earned him the coveted last seat in thr Final.

The Final was close despite Tony's completion of track in Turns 1 and 2 as Ken had just two points, Kathy four, and Andy five. Tony, however, proved that he was the best engineer as he continued his strong performance by being the first to complete in all four rounds, earning him the wood for Transamerica. Ken Gutermuth once again fell short in a Final and for the third straight year went home woodless.

Congratulations to Tony on a well deserved win as he was the first to complete his connections in nine of the 14 turns he played.


 Adult "coaches" are always sorely needed in the Juniors events.

 Today's beginners are tomorrow's champions in the making.
 Trans America Junior

The 2006 TransAmerica tournament for the juniors saw 17 little engineers playing four initial games. At Table 1, Brian Sherwood finally won over Hannah Navolis, Morgan Christie, and Joshua Weintraub after six rounds. At Table 2, on the other hand, Nicole Pysnack triumphed over Aurora Park, Caitlin Jaeger, and Wes Lewis in only two rounds. At Table 3, April Gardner beat Megan McCorry, Dan Lewis, Brian Pappas, and Erin Treadway. And finally, at Table 4, Jaclyn Sands beat Willow Barbera, Kaleigh Jaeger, and Annie Frattali.

For the Final, our four Round 1 game winners: Brian Sherwood, April Gardner, Nicole Pysnack, and Jaclyn Sands met for the wood. The first round was won by Brian. The second round was won by Nicole so convincingly that Jaclyn's scoring train was at the 1-point spot - and the others weren't far behind. The third, and last round, was won by Jaclyn, saving her from "falling off the board", but Brian and April were not so lucky. Nicole ended up winning the game, thanks to her good showing in Round 2. She was followed by Jaclyn Sands, April gardner, amd Brian Sherwood who finished second through fourth respectively.

 GM      Lisa Gutermuth  [1st Year]   NA
    NA   NA

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