2009 Recap: Thai Me Down Claims Victory

In 2003, Lynda Kalinowski and Dave Nelson joined forces to create a bracket that they named "Ass Kickin Donkey Lovin Snicky Snacks." That bracket proceeded to dominate our pool and took the 1st place prize - finishing 13 points ahead of the 2nd place bracket. To date, that's the largest margin of victory that our pool has ever seen.

This year, Lynda and Dave joined forces to create two brackets: "Thai Me Up" and "Thai Me Down." Five years after their first victory, Lynda and David can claim bragging rights once again, as the "Thai Me Down"bracket has won our pool with 103 points. Despite the fact that they didn't finish 13 points ahead of the field, I'm confident that Lynda and Dave are happy to claim the $1,125 first place prize. They are the first people to ever win our pool twice.

Lynda and Dave's bracket correctly predicted that North Carolina would defeat Michigan State in the title game. Only five brackets in our entire pool can make that claim. Interestingly, the "Thai Me Down" bracket is the only such bracket that finished in the money this year.

With 100 points, Josh Moser's bracket took 2nd place. The leader of our pool the entire 2nd weekend of the tournament, Josh correctly predicted the Tar Heels' championship. In fact, every bracket that won money in this year's pool had North Carolina winning.

Here's the quick list of our six money winners:

1. Thai Me Down - 103 pts ($1,125)
2. Josh Moser - 100 pts ($565)
3. Nick Blasnig - 98 pts ($425)
4. David Hokeness - 94 pts ($340)
5. Brandon Nelson - 93 pts ($225)
6. Michael Steinke #2 - 93 pts ($140)

As a result of outscoring Michael by 8 points in the 4th round, Brandon won that tiebreaker and claimed the 5th place prize.

Congrats to all our money winners! You should all have your money shortly.

The winner of my annual "hard luck" award goes to Kimberly Gross. Had Michigan State beaten North Carolina in the title game, Kimberly would have finished in 2nd place. Instead, North Carolina's victory meant that Kimberly's bracket finished in a tie for 18th place. Sorry, Kimberly.

I hope that everyone enjoyed this year's pool. Next year, we plan on expanding the number of payout spots and we'll probably cap the first place prize at $1,000. As a result, Lynda and Dave's victory may prove to be the highest payout we'll ever have.

We hope to see y'all next year!