A lighter moment featuring 3 of the 4 winning Hokies
The Virginia Tech Team Pool Championship (VTTPC) came to a close on March 21st after three grueling days of tough intercollegiate competition. For the first time in the history of the VTTPC, Virginia Tech hosted a full field of 16 teams from 11 schools:
Duke University
Pennsylvania State University
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia University
University of Michigan
Emory University
Radford University
Mansfield University
Old Dominion University
Virginia Tech
The tournament consisted of four events: Modified Straight Pool, Team 8-Ball, individual 9-Ball, and the Break Contest. Teams earned points for placing well in each of these three events. Players could also earn bonus points for their team by completing break and runs and making the 8 or 9-ball on the break.
Modified Straight Pool
In Modified Straight Pool, each shooter on a team has ten innings to run out as many balls as he or she can. When there is one ball left on the table, the fourteen pocketed balls are re-racked, and the shooter continues. An inning ends after the shooter misses or fouls. The Virginia Tech's A team, the “Hokies,” took first place with a team score of 219, anchored by the highest score of the event, 80 balls, from team captain and tournament MVP Brock Walker. TK Fukuda from Penn State also had an impressive round, shooting 75 balls, with the highest single inning run of 35 balls.
Modified Straight Pool Results
Place Team Score Points Earned
1st Virginia Tech Hokies 219 150
2nd Penn State University 145 100
3rd University of Michigan 124 75
4th West Virginia University 121 50
Team 8-Ball
Team 8-Ball was played using a double elimination bracket. The format follows the BCA 4 vs. 4 league format. Each shooter on a team played one game of 8-ball against each player on the opposing team. For a win the player received 10 points and for a loss the player was awarded one point for each ball pocketed. The Virginia Tech Hokies were knocked into the loser's bracket early after a tough loss to rival school, University of Michigan. The Hokies fought their way through the loser's bracket, beating University of Michigan in the semifinals. The Hokies then met the “Fighting Gobblers,” Virginia Tech's B team, in the championship. The Hokies came out strong, beating the Fighting Gobblers twice in a row to capture their second event of the tournament.
Team 8-Ball Results
Place Team Points Earned
1st Virginia Tech Hokies 150
2nd Virginia Tech Fighting Gobblers 100
3rd University of Michigan 75
4th West Virginia University 50
Individual 9-Ball
The VTTPC individual 9-ball competition is an Association of College Unions International (ACUI) “independent qualifier,” offering students an additional opportunity to be invited to the ACUI National 9-Ball Championship, to be held in July. The top finishers in the 9-ball qualify for nationals and earn points in the team standings for the VTTPC. This is a major attraction for teams vying for a place at the Championships who did not play well – or at all - at their regional events held a month earlier.
The 9-ball tournament started on Saturday morning with 64 players and 8 qualifying spots for the ACUI National 9-Ball Championship. The tournament format was double elimination, race to seven in the winner's bracket and race to five in the loser's bracket. The finals, which were a single race to thirteen, came down to TK Fukuda from Penn State and Anthony Nguyen from VCU. The race went hill-hill, and in the final rack, TK broke and ran a very difficult rack to win the 9-ball event. This break and run gave Penn State just enough points to pass University of Michigan for 2nd place overall. Brock Walker and Mike Robertson of the Virginia Tech Hokies placed third and fourth respectively.
Individual 9-Ball Results
Place Name School Points Earned
1st TK Fukuda PSU 100
2nd Anthony Nguyen VCU 80
3rd Brock Walker VT 60
4th Mike Robertson VT 40
5th/6th Jamie Kilgore UM 20
5th/6th Dale Murphy WVU 20
7th/8th Mark Lacson VCU 10
7th/8th Orin Yue EU 10
The Women's 9-Ball tournament had 5 participants and two ACUI National 9-Ball Championship qualifying spots. The event followed a round robin format, where each participant played five games of 9-ball against each player. Aileen Nguyen from Emory University took first place, and Karen Macauley from West Virginia University took second.
Break Contest
The final event was the Break contest, run by Mike Bellavance, a Billiards Club member at Virginia Tech. Each player broke ten racks of 9-ball. Three points were scored if the player made the 9-ball, and one point was scored for any other ball pocketed. New Jersey Institute of Technology took first place scoring 20 points for their team. Scoring 10 points, Old Dominion University took second place, and rounding out the top three was the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Overall Results
The Virginia Tech Hokies took first place with an impressive 510 points. The team was made up of four players: Brock Walker, Mike Robertson, Joshua Keys, and Corey Sykes. “On Cue,” from Penn State, placed second, scoring 225 points. In third place was the Hokies' perennial foe, the University of Michigan “Wrecking Crew,” with 220 points. Rounding out fourth place was Virginia Commonwealth University with 130 points.
Overall Team Standings
Place School Points
1st Virginia Tech Hokies 510
2nd Penn State University 225
3rd University of Michigan 220
4th Virginia Commonwealth University 130
5th Virginia Tech Fighting Gobblers 125
6th West Virginia University 105
The tournament's Most Valuable Player title was awarded to Brock Walker of Virginia Tech. Brock had the tournament record for Modified Straight Pool with a score of 80 balls, the highest 8-ball points per game average with 9.22, while recording a streak of sixteen straight games won. Brock placed 3rd in the 9-Ball contest, while leading the Virginia Tech Hokies to become VTTPC champions. Honorable mentions for MVP were TK Fukuda (PSU), Mike Robertson (VT), and Anthony Nguyen (VCU).
The Virginia Tech Billiards Club would like to thank its sponsors: McDermott, PoolDawg.com, CueBux.com, CutThroat CueSports, Nick Varner Cues, Cuetec, and Dr. Dave from Colorado State University for donating over $1200 worth of gift certificates, t-shirts, instructional videos, and cues. These donations were used as prizes and raffle items during the tournament. The Club would also like to thank Betsy Sundholm from the University of Michigan and Michelle Smith from ACUI for all their help organizing the tournament, as well as Adam Joerger, a Billiards Club member at Virginia Tech, for directing the tournament. Without the aid from sponsors and ACUI, the tournament would not have been such a great success. For more information about the Virginia Tech Team Pool Championship, contact Club President Joshua Keys at joshkeys@vt.edu.
