Just Chillin’ Is Winnin’

Beast Looking To Make His Mark

Jungle Cat Lying In The Weeds

Just Chillin’ (Khalilah Muhammad) froze out the competition Saturday, going 8-for-8 on the day and rising four spots to take over the lead. Khalilah led a group of 12 players who recorded perfect Saturdays.

Mama (Leta Corwin), the #5 ranked Challenge player of all-time, also had a perfect Saturday to advance 10 spots up the standings to second place. Though according to her daughter-in-law, Izzypup, “she won’t stay there for long” (and, yes, I received permission to print that. . . though I am sure I will still regret it). Izzypup was also 8-for-8 Saturday. She climbed 24 spots and now sits in 5th place, just three points behind Just Chillin’.

Scott T (Scott Thompson) really made his Saturday count, plowing through the competition to move up an impressive 47 spots to 17th. Only Piotr Dabrowski improved more (52 spots to 26th).

In the Tourney Preview, I said to look out for Beast (Don Tepsa), a player getting his Five Year Ring this year. He’s currently tied for 13th with Bay Breezes (Bryan Duling) and Diagnosticator (Chris Schumacher), one of the Challenge’s lost sheep. All three moved up 33 spots Saturday. Beast is one of a very small number of players who still has all of his Elite 8 teams alive, and he leads the projected standings. If he continues to perform well, he could earn a spot on the All-Time list in his first year of eligibility.

At the bottom of the standings . . . excuse me while I take a minute to scroll that far down . . . we find none other than the mighty Jungle Cat (Doni Jackson). But I’m informed that Jungle Cat is just in a stealth, crouching position, ready to pounce at any moment.

Indeed, Jungle Cat is in a great position because she has Xavier and Florida advancing to the Sweet 16 whereas almost everybody else has Duke and Missouri. Jungle Cat is one of only four players with Xavier, and she’s only of only 14 players with Florida. If she wins those two games, she would move all the way up to 96th place.

JT is another player at the bottom of the standings with a chance to gain on the rest of the field. While his fiancé, Julie Koz, sits in 7th place, JT is currently in 95th (he’s well-trained already). BUT, only JT, Reno Envy (Jeff VanDellen), and The Bryman (Bryan Timm) have USF in the Sweet 16. They will be battling for those precious three points against Voltaire (Rodney Dawson), who is the ONLY player that picked Ohio to advance. Three points would move Voltaire into the top 7.