Intramural Dodgeball hits final round
Tech intramural dodgeball has entered in to the championship rounds.
Intramural dodgeball has amassed nearly 45 different teams this semester of men, women and professional fraternities and religious organizations. Students have their own personal preference of why they play dodgeball and what attracts them to it.
“I like hitting people with the ball,” Leeroy Johnston, member of Fork Truck, and fifth-year senior at Tech, said. “It’s a good form of anger management.”
There are times when the games can get heated and tempers can flair in the heat of a match, especially when a player says a ball did or did not make contact.
The team known as “Fork Truck” defeated “Cracker Stack” Feb. 16, but this match didn’t go without controversy.
“The game we just got through playing was pretty intense,” Cameron Grey, member of Fork Truck and fifth-year senior at Tech, said. “He said the ball didn’t touch his hand but it did when I slung it at him.”
Some teams like to just play the game and do its best, while others take it more seriously and like to develop a strategy and practice it before playing its opponent.
“Our team practices regularly, probably twice a week,” Grey said. “The face-offs are really big.
“If you have three balls on your side of the court you want to try and get the opponent to throw their ball so your team has all of the balls and you can launch them away at the other team.”
“If you throw two balls at the same time at a player they usually can’t handle it and won’t catch it,” Johnston said.
Games are played between two teams of four players. There are four balls placed at the middle of the court, and at the beginning of the match there will be a face-off where the two teams will run to the middle to try and get a ball before the other team does.
Players must touch the wall behind them with the ball before they can throw it; this can be done by throwing the ball at the back wall or running to the wall with the ball and then touching the wall. Games are won by the team that wins the best out of five games and it is double elimination.
Intramural dodgeball is played during the spring semester at night on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Fitness Center.
Women’s golf team earns second-place result in seasons’ first play, at Ann Rhoads Invitational
Tech’s women’s golf team finished second out of 16 teams at the Ann Rhoads Invitational.
The two day tournament, from Feb. 19 to Feb. 20, was hosted by Birmingham Southern College. This was the first rounds of play for the Golden Eagles in the 2012 season.
At the end of the first round, Tech’s Amanda Randolph and Brandy VanEtten were one shot behind the leader in a two-way tie for second place. The Golden Eagles, as a team, were also tied for second with a combined score of 337, while the University of Indianapolis led the play with a score of 336.
“It was a struggle for all of us because the conditions were so bad,” VanEtten said. “I have never played in such bad weather in my life, but we toughed it out and played our hearts out.”
VanEtten scored 82 back-to-back in the two rounds, securing her 10th place in a field of 84 golfers. This marked the sophomore’s best finish in her collegiate career.
All five of the Golden Eagles finished within four strokes of one another. Amanda Shephard ended in a tie for 14th overall, while junior Katherine Bell finished in a tie for 17th. Randolph and Katy Beth Glover both tied for 21st, with a score of 168 after two rounds of play.
“Our next tournament isn’t for a couple of weeks,” VanEtten said. “That gives us time to work on what we are struggling with. By the time conference rolls around there is no doubt in my mind that we will improve by leaps and bounds.”
The Golden Eagles next tournament is scheduled for March 19-20 at the Pinehurst Challenge in Pinehurst, N.C.
