9-ball Tournament

On Friday the 5th of February, I, along with a handful of fellow students, represented the UW and other schools in a regional 9-ball pool tournament held on campus.

The tournament began Friday morning, and due to the small number of participants, we all had the chance to play each other in a best of 7 games match. At the end of Friday's games I had won 23 and lost 12. This put me into the bracket which was to be played out on Saturday. I occupied third place, 3 games behind the leader, one game behind the runner-up.

Tournament matches were set up as a race to 5, meaning the first competitor to win 5 games advanced in the winner's bracket. Saturday morning, I arrived feeling fantastic, and it showed. I won my first three matches 5-1,5-2, and 5-2. This automatically qualified me for the final match.

I was lucky enough to have two of my brothers, Alex Keller and Leon Hardman, there to keep me company in my waiting and to cheer me on. Unfortunately, I conceded twice in the final to the opponent I had beaten 5-2 in the morning.

I was very disappointed to lose. However, not only did I beat the competitor who had demolished me all week in our practices, but I played with a research professor from the atmospheric sciences department at UW for hours after each day of the tournament. What a great shooter! Though second place wasn't exactly where I wanted to come out, it was for the best. I have met quality pool players who I will continue to practice with while I am here, and a second place finish is just the right amount of encouragement and disappointment that I need to bring my game to the next level.

It's great to be a SigEp, and here's to the next tournament,
Mike Davis