Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Photo By meghan see

Tommy Popomaronis is the current leader of RecX Tournament of Champs

By jed lynch

jelynch@vwc.edu

RecX has had an on-going tournament for a large part of the Spring semester. It is called the Tournament of Champions, and one Marlin has recently been dominating the field. Tom Popomaronis is that Marlin. “Tommy Pop,” as he is more commonly referred, is a senior on the VWC tennis team.

With a stellar performance in the ping-pong round he came out on top. However, in a hard-fought game of racquetball, Popomaronis could only muster second place to Charles Baker, son of Jim Baker, computer services technical services coordinator. Due to class and tennis conflicts, Popomaronis missed the third and fourth events of arm wrestling and a 1 vs. 1 basketball tournament, but he still sits comfortably as the points leader.

“Even if I don’t participate I probably still won’t lose,” said Popomaronis confidently.

The Tournament consists of a racquetball tournament, a ping-pong tournament, arm wrestling, 1 vs. 1 basketball, ladder golf and rock climbing. The last two have yet to be played. The top prize has yet to be determined despite Popomaronis’ efforts for a Wii.

“I wrote Jason [Seward] an e-mail explaining why [the prize] should be a Wii,” said Popomaronis.

Popomaronis admits that he knows a Wii is a bit of a stretch for the grand prize. But Popomaronis continues to fight in the hope that the “Wii could still be there.” However, he acknowledges that some of the excitement is gone.

Dealing with the disappointment of his Wii dreams being crushed, Popomaronis says that, “I think it makes me stronger.”

And it is not just the other competitors that Popomaronis battles within the Tournament. The men’s tennis coach, Frank Early, not so subtly objects to Popomaronis’ participation in the Tournament of Champions since it takes away from his training off the court.

“[Racquetball] is the worst sport to play if you play tennis,” admits Popomaronis. “But I am just utilizing my resources at VWC.”

The Tournament continues on Apr. 30 with ladder golf and again on May 5 at the rock climbing wall in the Batten Center.