trans america  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report     

 2010 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Roni Breza, VA

2009 Champion

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Event History
2004    Kevin Wojtaszczyk     44
2006    Tony Vickery     48
2007     Ken Gutermuth     47
2008     Laurel Stokes     56
2009     Roni Breza     55

 

 Laurels

 Rank Name             From Last Total
   1. Ken Gutermuth     TX   09    56
   2. Roni Breza        VA   09    20
   3. Laurel Stokes     NJ   08    20
   4. Tony Vickery      bc   06    20
   5. Kevin Wojtaszczyk NY   06    20
   6. Matt Calkins      VA   08    14
   7. April Gardner     VA   08    12
   8. Scott Nerney      RI   07    12
   9. Sean McCulloch    OH   07    10
  10. Edward Fu         NY   09     8
  11. Karen McCulloch   OH   07     8
  12. Kathy Stroh       DE   06     8
  13. Fred Minard       PA   04     8
  14. Eric Monte        NY   09     6
  15. Virginia Colin    VA   08     6
  16. Andy Latto        MA   06     6
  17. Norman Rule       MD   09     4
  18. Janet Ottey       PA   08     4
  19. Patrick Shea      VA   06     4
  20. William Duke      MD   04     4
  21. Ben Gardner       VA   09     2
  22. Daniel Ottey      PA   08     2
  23. Michelle Hymowitz MD   07     2
  24. Aurora Pack       CO   06     2
  25. Katherine McCorry VA   04     2

2009 Laurelists                                               Repeating Laurelists: 0

Ken Gutermuth, NC
2nd

Edward Fu, NY
3rd

Eric Monte, NY
4th

Norman Rule, MD
5th

Ben Gardner, VA
6th


Past Winners

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2004

Tony Vickery, BC
2006

Ken Gutermuth, NC
2007

Laurel Stokes, NJ
2008

Roni Breza, VA
2009

Ben Gardner topped Rich Shipley and Marilyn Flowers to advance from this table making his early Sunday rise worthwhile.

Michael Shea, Carol Strock, Kevin Wojtaszczyk, Jennifer Peat, and David Platnick all rose early for a last shot at wood to no avail.

Like Mother, Like Daughter ...

A large part of the convention packs up and starts the trek home early Sunday morning. 55, however, decided to put off the packing for a little bit longer, and joined the TransAmerica tournament for a last shot at wood.

Many consider it a disadvantage to go first in a round, so the "house rules" for the tournament require each player to go first for one round. In the case of a tie, the player who scored the fewest points when he or she went first would win the tie. If there is still a tie, the scores in the second round are compared, and this process continues until there is a clear winner. We had eleven 5-player games in the first round, with winners and seven seconds advancing based on their difference from the winner's score. This way, there were three 6-player semi-final tables, with firsts and seconds advancing to a 6-player Final. Seating was completely randomized after the first round - only in the first round were families and friends purposefully seperated.

Chad Gormly won his first round game with the lowest score all day, three points, by going out in three rounds. Janet Ottey also went out first in three of her rounds to advance, as did Ben Gardner. At Ben's table Debbie Gutermuth managed to advance with a close second. A tie at the table with Cally Perry and Eric Monte resulted in both advancing. Only Paul Rubin advanced from his table, the first game to finish the first round. Both Norman Rule and Jeff Cornett advanced from their table. Unfortunately for one table, there was a three-way tie for first. Since only firsts and seconds advanced, Edward Fu and Pam
Gutermuth were the only ones to advance. With 10 points top laurelist Ken Gutermuth and Patrick Shea advanced. Dave Bohnenberger and Brian Mongold advanced with 10 and 13 points, while former champ Kevin Wojtaszczyk won his table with 10 as well. Despite scoring nine points in one round, Chris Trimmer still managed to win his game, with Roni Breza advancing as a close second.

At the first semi-final table, it looked like Ken Gutermuth and Chris Trimmer were running away with the game until the fifth round - scores were 6 and 8 for them, 13, 17, 18, and 15 for the other four at the table. Chris, however, hit a speed bump of 11 points in the fifth round. Ken Gutermuth did advance, but Ben Gardner is proof that you're never out of the game! The second table was a close race, with no one ever being completely blown away in a round. Roni Breza won this table; no surprise since she went out half the time. Eric Monte and Dave Bohnenberger sadly tied, with only one allowed to advance to the next round. It turned out to be Eric, with zero points in his round as first player, compared to Dave's one point. At the last table, Norman Rule seemed set to come in first, with the other players not too far behind, until he earned six points in the final round. Fortunately for Norman, this was enough to tie him for second - a tie that had to be resolved by looking at the second starting position. Edward Fu went out in the final round to earn first and make it to the Final.

As the top laurelist in TransAmerica, Ken Gutermuth was the clear favorite since none of the other finalists had ever laureled in the event. After the first three rounds, however, it was Norman Rule on top. Then, in the fourth round, Eric Monte dealt a painful blow to his opponents - going out when they were 5, 5, 6, 8, and 12 away from their cities. Unfortunately, Ben Gardner couldn't recover from such a blow. After five rounds Eric and Norman were leading with 11 and 12 points respectively, with Ken, Edward Fu, and Roni Breza all following with 14 points. In the final round, Roni went out just before Ken, winning the final plaque of the convention - and more importantly - keeping pace with her daughter who won the junior version. I reckon they play a little Trans America at home.

Final Standings: Roni 14, Ken 15, Edward 16, Eric 16, Norman 17, Ben 26

Edward Fu advanced from this table.

Finalists go after the last wood of the week.

 Trans America Junior

There were 27 little train travellers this year. Katie Breza refused to be upstaged by her mom winning the adult version and took home Juniors wood. I wonder who taught who how to play? Other accomplished train riders were

2nd: Aiden McNay

3rd: Jeremy Rice

4th: Brett Fox

5th: Greg Breza

6th: Sam Seulowitz

 GM      Lisa Gutermuth  [3rd Year]   NA
    NA   NA

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