'13 Narrowly Defeats '14 in O'Malley Cornhole Battle

By: Preston McClellan ('14)

On a hot August afternoon in Athens, the Class of 2013 won the first event of the O'Malley cup battle with a narrow 6-4 margin in cornhole.

Mike Dirmann kicked the event off with a questionable decision by moving the cornhole boards onto concrete during the hottest part of the day - making it an unexpectedly difficult physical challenge. The shaded area just didn't quite meet cornhole code, apparently.

The second years took a quick 2-0 lead behind Britton Spark and Martin "Smooth" Graham's impressive and decisive victory. Joe "The Goose is Loose" DeGuzman did one too many sets of calisthenics in his purple track suit the night before, and Preston McClellan failed to live up to his southern roots as the duo was defeated in what some are calling the shortest cornhole game ever recorded.

The class of 2014 wasn't going softly, however, as Nate Engelhardt and Ethan Saporito recorded the first victory of the afternoon. Trey Frazier and Matt Gottfried were locked into an intense, hour-long battle with John Bollinger and Jake Kuennen but were ultimately defeated in the third and final game.

In perhaps the biggest upset of the afternoon, Andrew Kinn and Brian Joyce took down Dirmann and Mike Wendling to even the afternoon point total to 2-2. The classes traded matches and found the point total even at 4-4 after Dave Preston and Shauna Smith frustratingly defeated Abby Peterson and Libby Ebelhar despite busting the 21 mark on four different occasions in the first game.

Kate McGowan and David Neumann were too much for Lindsae Lowrie and Carey Goodman, which gave the second years a 5-4 advantage with just one match left. In what seems like a questionable 10th-seeded team, BJ "The Merciful" Beach teamed with Clayton "One of the Gals" Zoellner and locked into an intense duel with Lucas Topolie and Anna Jensen.

Topolie, fresh off recovering from his birthday just 12 hours earlier, worked with Jensen to even the game at 1-1 and bring the match and afternoon to a third and final game. Beach and Zoellner took an early 9-4 lead in the game but Beach then busted two times in a row to keep the first years' hopes alive. Jenson continued to toss impressively and help Topolie to take an 8-5 advantage of Beach's second bust.

In the end, Beach's and Zoellner's laser like spin accuracy were too much and the second years prevailed. As the '13's celebrated, some said they could hear the first years muttering "just wait till we play a real sport" under their collective breath. And, so the 14's will await the next event schedule by Mark "XX" Rhoa so that they can begin to plot their revenge and comeback.