Opening Ceremony
Skydivers dropped in, the Lake Highlands Band performed, the teams marched in, the flame was lit and the games began. TI placed 3rd in the exhibition of Punt, Pass, and Kick. Then it was on to the relays for the Track and Field event (below). The highlight of the evening was the relay featuring 8 Special Olympians. The enormous crowd was on their feet and cheering.
Punt Pass and Kick (5th place - 3 points) Event Results
This new event for 2004 “kicked” off the challenge. There were only a few feet separating 2nd from 5th and unfortunately we ended up the short end of the measurements. Captain Dave Rothenbury teamed up with Allan Manning, LaKeisha Gildon, and Cleestress Purvey competed for TI
Bowling (1st place) Event Results
Craig Boyle, Mary DeLaCruz, Glenn Peters, Ann Powell, Frank Pranito, Jim Roundtree, Michael Sorrels, Cissy St. John, Gary Studer, and Ann Tran won by 577 pins (5790 to 5213). Yes, that's a 3-game average score of 193 for 4 women and 6 men. Great job by team captain Joe Scott to organize the team.
Racquetball (1st place - 10 points) Event Results
I didn't make it over to racquetball, but they apparently didn't need me cheering them on. They swept the Mens (Bill Breden & Steve Enty), Womens (Maria Mott & Jacque Pyle), and Mixed (Julie England & Eric Jubin) games and dominated the event. Great job!
TI won the Track relays on Friday night, but the other events were postponed by rain. After the opening weekend and 3 events TI was up by a point over Nortel (23-22)
Horseshoes (4th place –5 points) Event Results
The Men’s Team (Bob Graham and Gary Acklin) took the silver. The Mixed Team of Elisa Lindeman and Stephen Spriggs) took the bronze. The Women (Mary DeLaCruz and Elisa Lindeman) finished 7th to give us an overall 4th place and 5 points. Nortel won.
At the labor day weekend break Nortel led TI by 4 points (32 to 28).
Miniature Golf (2nd place - 8 points) Event Results
First the Men (Dan Munn and Jerry Swan) tied with Sprint and lost the tiebreaker (but Nortel took 4th). Then the Mixed team (Marylou Manning and Jerry Swan) tied with Sprint and again lost the tiebreaker (but Nortel took 6th), then finally the Women (Marylou Manning and Andrea Munn) teed it up. They took 5th to give us the overall 2nd place and 8 points. Good job by captain Randy Andrews as the team went from 6th place in 2003 to 2nd in 2004.
Tennis (1st place - 10 points) Event Results
RISD edged the TI men (Josh Bates and captain Ajay Patel) in the first match, but the men fought back through the elimination bracket (including a win over RISD) to reach the finals against Nortel. They pounded them in the first match (8-0) and lost a tight match (8-7) for the gold medal. The Women (Sandy Vanlandingham and Nancy Martin) won the first match, but then lost to Sprint. In the elimination bracket they knocked out Nortel and went on to capture the bronze medal. The Mixed team (Ajay Patel and Nancy Martin) opened with a win over Nortel and moved on before losing their 3rd match to RISD. They met RISD again in the elimination round and won to meet Sprint in the final. That victory was absolutely critical as it assured us no worse than a tie for the overall tennis victory. They lost the gold medal match to Sprint, but overall TI finished tied with RISD for first for 10 points.
Softball (3rd place - 6 points) Event Results
The TI team wore out their bats in the first game beating Fujitsu 30-4. They could have used a few of those runs in game two as they lost to Alliance 13-4. The TI Team fought through the elimination bracket beating the City of Richardson 13-10 and knocking out Nortel 18-1. They lost a close game to RISD 11-7 to take home the bronze medal. 3rd place, 6 points.
5K ( 1st place - 10 points) Team Score Individual Results
We had excellent attendance - old and young, fast and fun runners. On the competitive side we had a deep field of men and a small group of females. When the 3 leaders rounded the corner all wearing TI shirts it looked like we would build some cushion for the females. Luke Luo, Steve Money, and John Glotzbach finished in 17:34, 17:36, and 17:45 to build a 3 minute lead over the Nortel men. The top 3 TI females were Beth Michalak, Dianna Sulser, and Sadie Fraleigh at 23:15, 24:51 and 24:56. The 3 Nortel women each edged our 3 TI women, but the Men had indeed built a sizable cushion and we won the team title by 2 1/2 minutes.
After the third weekend and 8 of the 21 events complete TI moved into a 6 point lead (62-56) over Nortel.
42 (Dominos) (3rd place – 6 points) Event Results
The two TI Teams (Bob Graham/Richard Mach, Jim Barr/Pam Barr) took 4th and 5th for a total of 8 points. Sprint took a 1st and 7th and Nortel took a 2nd and 5th to tie for the gold medal with 11 points each. Our 4th & 5th place finishes overcame the combination of bronze medal and 9th place finish for RISD. The two TI teams went head-to-head at the same point in the bracket where the two Nortel teams also went head-to-head. The winning TI and Nortel teams then played each other in a game to 10. It was tied 9-9 before Nortel won the last hand.
Soccer (2nd place – 8 points) Event Results
The TI Soccer Team was won their pool, then defeated RISD to reach the final. Nortel had several close games, but battled their way back to meet us in the final. It was 0-0 for most of the match until Nortel scored with about 5 minutes to go to take a 1-0 win. It’s amazing how close we have been with Nortel in almost every contest. One kick, one domino hand, one runner can be the difference.
Badminton (1st place – 10 points) Event Results
The Mixed Team (captain Adrian Chan and Vivian Zhu) lost to Alliance in the semifinal and battled back through the elimination bracket by beating Nortel to reach the final. They had to beat Alliance twice to win the gold and that's exactly what they did. The Women's team (Vivian Zhu and Yanni Chen) went straight through the brackets undefeated to take the gold. They were fun to watch. The day before the match one of our men (Raj Talluri) broke his arm playing tennis. Umesh Shirsalker substituted for him and teamed up with Adrian Chan. The men lost to Nortel in their first game, but got on a roll in the elimination bracket. They met Nortel in the final and beat them once, but lost the final game to take the silver. Still, 2 golds and a silver meant the Badminton team title and 10 points was ours. Nortel took 2nd.
Bike Race (1st place - 10 points) Team Score Individual Results
The top 2 men and top 2 women times are added together for the team total. 7 of the top 11 men were TIers including the overall winners Dirk Fruhling and Jason Cook from TI. Team Captain Kelly Stark was the 4th OVERALL finisher and first female. Right behind her was Martha Parks and Cari Ossenfort. Excellent teamwork with some of the men working with the women to help them slice through the wind. We have some great female bicyclists who made the difference. The TI Team won by 4 minutes over Nortel.
With of 12 the 21 events complete we hold a very slim 4 point lead over Nortel (96 - 92).
Track and Field (1st place - 10 points) Event Results
At opening ceremonies Track and Field started off well on Friday night and won BOTH the 4x100 and 4x400. Excellent teamwork and runs by Mariquita Gordon, Terra McCreight, Benjamin Sarpong, and Aaron Hall on 4x100 and Beth Shockley, Beth Michalak, Joe Rule, and Patrick Taylor on the 4x400. Saturday morning's open 100 and long jumps were postponed due to weather. When we resumed the team swept the competition and won all 6 sub events for a perfect score of 60 points. Benjamin Sarpong and Patrick Taylor won the Men’s 100m, Jackie Crutchfield and Terra McCreight won the Women’s 100m, Aaron Hall and Patrick Taylor won the Men’s long jump, and Terra McCreight and Beth Shockley won the Women’s long jump. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Billiards (1st place – 10 points) Event Results
We got off to a good start on Tuesday when captain Tom Martin and Jen Smith won the Mixed competition. On Wednesday, the Women's team of Michelle Boyer and Celita Ewing took the bronze. On Thursday, the TI Men's team captured the gold. The City of Richardson also had good teams and we ended up in an overall tie for the gold and 10 team points. Nortel finished 5th.
Golf (1st place – 10 points) Event Results
Neal Waygood accepted my challenge to improve our golf team for 2004. Some of these players already made a big difference by playing in Miniature Golf and scoring strong team points for us there. They delivered again - big time. In golf we were 7th in 2002, 6th in 2003, and now we are the golf gold medallists for 2004! In the morning round the team of Todd Jochim, Joan Nichols, Jerry Swan, and Neal Waygood shot at 57. In the afternoon Allan Manning, MaryLou Manning, Daniel Munn, and Mike Saltamachia shot a 59. Those were the overall two best scores of the day giving us a decisive overall victory. Nortel finished 4th after loosing a 3 way tiebreaker.
Volleyball (5th place – 3 points) Event Results
Melanie Murdock gathered some good players from TI but they got unlucky draw and took on the 2003 champions (Alliance) in game one. Alliance went undefeated into the gold medal game this year, so you can guess that we had to work in the elimination bracket. TI defeated the City of Richardson and moved on to play Nortel. We lost to Nortel who went on and beat Alliance twice to take the gold medal. We had a 5th place finish with a tough draw.
With 16 of the 21 events complete TI held a 14 point lead over Nortel (129-115).
Darts (1st place – 10 points) Event Results
The Darts Team swept the Men’s (Steve Gagnon & Max Simpson), Women’s (Patricia Bohn & Suszi Gagnon), and Mixed (Suszi Gagnon & Max Simpson) brackets to win the overall gold for the 3rd straight year. Great work by TI Team Captain Tom Form. Great job again. Nortel was 3rd.
Swimming (1st place – 10 points) Event Results
We lost our best female swimmer from last year (a spouse) when her employer (RISD) entered the competition this year. We had to swim against her and some very strong teammates. Just look at the swimming results and you’ll see that it was an exciting match. After 7 events involving 16 legs of swimming we pulled out the match by a single point (57 – 56) over RISD. We edged out Fujitsu in the final relay by 39/100ths of a second to secure the win. See all the names on the results page. Special thanks to captain Scott Summerfelt (who won a pair of gold medals) and Greg Treadway for the great coaching.
Flag Football (4th place – 5 points) Event Results
Three years ago Flag Football was the final event and we needed a win to tie Nortel for the overall gold. The team came through and won by mere inches. Last year the pressure was off and they finished 4th. Looks like we went in with too big a lead again this year and ended with another 4th place finish. Nortel won.
With 19 of the 21 events complete TI held a 18 point lead over Nortel (154-136).
Table Tennis (2nd place – 8 points) Event Results
The 3 teams were very consistent. They finished with a pile of silver medals, each time losing to Nortel in the finals. George Fang and Nam Luu for the Men, Haibo Zhang and Jin Lou for the Women, and Mouli Vaidyanathan and Jin Zhou for the Mixed. Thanks to Mark Ma for putting together a solid team.
Basketball (2nd place – 8 points) Event Results
The basketball team hadn’t lost a game in the previous 2 years of RCC play. They moved through to the finals, but RISD brought in some big reserves after we beat them once and ended our streak, leaving us the silver this year. Great job by team captain Dan McKeon to put together another solid team.
And the 2004 Overall Winner is . . .
For the 3rd year in a row - Texas Instruments
Overall Standings
After 21 events over almost two months TI captured their 3rd consecutive title with new RCC records for points (170 points) and margin of victory (21 points). They also tied their previous record for gold medal teams (11).
Most importantly, the TI athletes donated over $3,500 to Special Olympics.
TI Team Coordinator: Paul Westbrook
