Blizzard Sizzles To Top

Mendoza In A Good Place

Meh Pops Up Again

Is Winn Winning or Losing?

The incomparable Blizzard T. Huskey, often described in these pages (charitably, of course) as a tournament savant, is your Day One king of the mountain. Huskey is no stranger to Chippens competitions. He’s won a couple of them in his storied past. As for the Tournament Challenge, he’s the 2009 Champion and the 2006 runner-up. He’s also the Ultimate Man, but you’ll have to ask someone who was in Cadillac in the early 2000s for that story.

Huskey only recorded one loss on Day One, and plowed to the lead after Buffalo snowed under Arizona. Huskey was one of only 13 players to presciently pick the Bulls over the pathetic Wildcats. The Blizz, a/k/a “Nicky No Two Bites” and “The Winking Wonder,” has a Big Ten heavy bracket—his Final Four includes Purdue, Michigan, and Michigan State—but there’s a method to his March madness.

There must be, right? After all, he is the Challenge’s 9th-ranked player and has 7 top 30 finishes in 12 tries. He also has the record for most points in a single tournament. Perhaps the secret lies in his indomitable will and willingness to sacrifice body and mind for a title. (He earned that name “Nicky No Two Bites” the hard way, folks.)

Day One runners-up status goes to Jason Mendoza and meh. Mendoza finds himself in a good place after going 14-for-16 on the day and, along with meh and Blizz, correctly picking Buffalo over Arizona.

Mendoza, f/k/a Pooty Lederhosen, is in his sixth year of competition. His best season was his rookie campaign, in which he finished 26th place. He followed that up with a forking terrible 119th place finish in his sophomore campaign. A championship this year would be just heaven for the baseball and shuffleboard aficionado.

Meh is tied for second. It’s apparently taken meh four years to recover from his explosive 2014 campaign, in which he regrettably won the title, but he’s standing tall again in 2018. Meh needs Buffalo to go one for two against Wildcats. Buffalo plays the Kentucky Wildcats in their next game, and meh is one of just three players with Kentucky advancing to the championship game.

Seven players are tied for fourth place with 16 points apiece, including Challenge rookie Winner of 94 (Brenda Winn). Winn hopes to win by losing, so by winning she’s actually losing. Classic rookie mistake.

Winn, once the proud owner of not one but two Buick Encores, will need some upsets on Day Two to achieve a successful encore performance Friday. She has both 12 seeds winning, along with Providence over Texas A&M.

Good luck to all. Standings will be updated as close to live as possible on Friday and throughout the weekend.