Better Ideas, Better Life

Final Standings

That slogan pretty much describes Amwau these days after she won the 2011 Chippens NCAA Tournament Challenge. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, our new Grand Champion is none other than rookie player Amy Boven, an athletic club manager from Kalamazoo, Mich. Boven was the only player in the pool to correctly pick Connecticut as the champion.

Amy’s success story is unlikely, to say the least. As I’ve already detailed, she barely got her picks in, and yet, the whole time, it just seemed like there was something extra special about the bracket she submitted. Upon first seeing Amy’s bracket after she—finally—managed to submit it, I was like the hero in one of those action movies who, in the moment of great peril, responds to the “silly” character’s escape plan by saying, “It’s so crazy, it might actually work.” 

And, miraculously, it did actually work. Amy put only three teams into the Elite 8, but none of that mattered. VCU took out Kansas, and Duke and Ohio State both lost early, clearing the way for UConn, which never had to play an equal or higher-seeded team the whole tournament.

Now the glory is all Amy’s. She can parade around work with her new t-shirt, flaunting it in front of Hot T. and WHAC, her less fortunate co-workers. She’ll be wearing it when she takes out her Pilates pad and assumes the half lotus to commune with the Almighty, who no doubt whispered UConn into her ear. On the inside she’ll be the picture of serenity, and on the outside she’ll be a giant roaring grizzly bear telling the world who’s #1.

Other Notable Finishes:

• Mike Stump’s fourth place finish—his fifth straight top 20 finish—pushed him to the top of the All-Time Average Place list.
• Cotter pulled a bit of a coup. His 7^th place finish (he took out Bucephalus on a tie-breaker) helped him move up to 3^rd on the All-Time Average Place list in his first year of eligibility.
• Lisa Corwin’s run of four straight years in the top 14 came to an end with her 79^th place finish.
• For only the second time ever, Ben DeHaan beat his father. Ben finished in 3^rd place and will receive a prize.
• In the battle of the spouses, the wives finished 6-1 against their husbands. That makes Passion Buckets the tournament’s only wife beater.

The All-Time Records are updated! See if you made the list!