Lindenwood Captures Midwest Regional
An NCTTA Feature - March 2012

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chair

Lindenwood University, the school from the Show Me State, showed out at the NCTTA’s Midwest Regional Championship.

When all was said and done, Lindenwood finished No. 1 in the men’s/coed team competition with Governors State taking the second spot. Based in Saint Charles, Mo., Lindenwood also captured first in the women’s division, and scored solid triumphs in singles play.

In men’s singles, Fernando Yamazato and Venkat Ramesh were the top two finishers from Lindenwood, with teammates like Everton Wilson II, David Cabera and Munkhbold Bayarsaikhan rounding out the top five. In women’s singles, Lindenwood’s Karin Fukushima was No. 1, followed by Kangkang Huang of DePaul at No. 2, and Leine Agata and Michelle John of Lindenwood taking 3rd and 4th. Luwen Zhang of Wichita State finished 5th.

Wichita State deserves mention for being fierce road warriors. Their team made a whopping twelve-hour drive from their university in Kansas. And that’s just one way! Wichita’s table tennis team featured a pretty unique father-son combination, Don and Kyle Beckstrom.

But the talk of the tournament, besides the amazing play by Lindenwood had to be GSU’s dynamic camera crew. GSU brought six cameras for a live video stream of the team competition on Saturday. The two-day event took place at the fabulous Recreation and Fitness Center on the University Park campus near Chicago.

NCTTA leaders Ed Hogshead and Linda Leaf contributed commentary and insight to the video. Hogshead is the longtime events manager for the NCTTA championships, while Leaf serves as the Midwest Region director. Hogshead was simply amazed by GSU’s extraordinary level of media coverage. “This is the most sophisticated filming of college table tennis teams I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Among other coed teams playing their hearts out at the Midwest Regional, DePaul finished in third -place, Wichita State came in 4th, the University of Illinois was 5th, Purdue took 6th and Northwestern ended up 7th.

The 2012 collegiate season is far from over. Look for teams like Lindenwood and Governors State to keep their table tennis battles going in the NCTTA national championships in Plano, Texas. Strong singles players from the Midwest will also take their games to the national stage in the Lone Star State April 13-15.

Watch the video of the Midwest Regional Championships on YouTube.

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