USU Students preparing for nationals
Many USU students fared very well in the Region 13 Association of College Union International (ACUI) games, hosted at the Utah State campus earlier this year, now those students will have a chance to compete on the national level.
ACUI games consist of men’s and women’s table tennis, men’s and women’s billiards nine-ball and a college quiz bowl. Region 13 consists of nine teams from five states: USU, University of Utah, Weber State, Arizona State, Wyoming, New Mexico State, New Mexico Tech, Colorado Springs-Colorado and University of Colorado-Denver.
The event marked the first time in 16 years that Utah State hosted the ACUI games.
Utah State finished first overall in the College Quiz Bowl event, where they are asked random questions from any field. Led by team captain Kevin Webb (ASUSU), the team members were Ben Pollock, Trevor Grant, Kimberly Campbell and Lance Pflieger.
Rick Skinner, who teaches all of the billiards classes at Utah State and is also the Region 13 coordinator for ACUI, said he was very impressed with the turnout to this year’s event.
“For billiards we had 43 players, which is the most in ACUI history – the average is usually 20 to 25,” Skinner said. “This year for some reason we had a lot more players.”
USU’s Mike Hancock took fourth place out of the 43 in men’s billiards nine-ball. The top five in each event get to go to nationals which will be held at Illinois State University July 21, 22, and 23. Hancock will join multiple Aggies that qualified.
“That’s a pretty big deal, because if they win at nationals they actually get a shot to go professional,” Skinner said.
The men’s billiard participants from USU were Hancock, Jeff Fulmer, Ben Johnson, Chris Kelton, Ben Knecht, Jeremy Frint, Trevor Knudsen, David Verable, Mark Glade, Tim Worthen and Nickolas Frost, with Skinner as the captain.
Nickoli Hambly led the women’s side of things for USU billiards nine-ball. She finished second out of 13 competing, and qualified for nationals as well.
Hambly was joined with Torri Bills, Brittany Stainbrook, Amanda Young and Brittany Packard for the women’s.
The Aggies fared very well in men’s and women’s table tennis as well. The men’s team had the second- and third-place finishers. Jennifer Jones finished first in women’s table tennis. Each qualified for the national event.
William Marsden, Van Tran, Nathan Orton, Matt Innes, Christian Ivins, Cris Jepsen, Jay Bickmore, Larry Bucio and Kevin Crouch rounded out the men’s table tennis team, while Jennifer Jones and Whitney Hammond were the only women’s competing for USU.
All of the events were held on the USU campus. The billiards was held in the bullpen of the Nelson Fieldhouse, the table tennis was in the HPER and the college quiz bowl in the TSC.
The ACUI also holds “I-lead” and “You-lead” programs where students are given scholarships to go to places like Hawaii and others to learn how to be leaders of groups.
“Last year it was up in Washington state and there’s quite a few people that go but we’ve never had anyone from USU go, and it’s usually because of funding,” Skinner said.
For the games it is a $60 entry fee for each participant, and most of the students pay their own way. The university was able to pay for some of them until they ran out of funds. When the students travel they have to pay to rent a van, pay for gas, rent a motel and anything else they do.
“It would be great to get regular funding from different sponsors or the university if possible,” Skinner said. “In the past ASUSU has helped in sponsoring us a lot.”
Those USU students who are preparing to go to nationals at Illinois State in July are still in need of funds, and donations would help them immensely with their trip.
“It’s something that the students really enjoy, they really enjoy getting out and meeting students from other schools. The competition is excellent for them, but also the camaradarie.” Skinner said. “There are people that have played each other for three or four years, they look forward to meeting each other again each time.”
–chet.gardner@aggiemail.usu.edu