ICT Fall-out Recap
Posted on October 13, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
The ICT tournaments are my absolute favorite local tournaments. They are super organized and Kayla Keuter and her band of volunteers always do a fantastic job. I remember the 2020 ICT Fall-out being one of my first “real” tournament experiences. A guy from Arkansas named Ryan Cating was playing in it but his mixed partner fell through. He was playing 4.0 level so I was going to hook him up with Huyen Nguyen or one of the other girls (I actually don’t remember now) but no one could play so, as a last resort, I ended up playing with him instead. I actually felt really bad because Ryan was pretty good but I had limited experience and, although I was decent, I didn’t really thing I was 4.0 material at the time.
Ryan and I went 1-2 in that tournament. Those aren’t great results but, when you consider that I had zero tournament experience, it’s actually not too bad. And, it’s probably the only win I’ve ever logged against Ashok Periyaswamy.
Ashok has gotten so good and Ramon Lozano and I actually got murdered by him and partner Suparna Garinger in the Lenexa tournament. It was my first time teaming up with Ramon.
Anyway, the my very first ICT Fall-out tournament started me on a journey of playing in all of the pickleball tournaments I could squeeze into my schedule. Last year I played in about 10 or so pickleball tournaments. This year I am on track to complete 20 — my last one for the year being the Diamond Amateur Championships in Florida in December.
Back to the most recent ICT Fall-out tournament… I actually started playing singles this year and, even though it is quite taxing on your body, I am enjoying it at a lot. I also feel like the singles has helped my doubles game in that I’m actually driving the ball some now, whereas I’ve never really been able to drive the ball before because of my lack of tennis experience.
This year I planned to play 3.5 women’s singles on Friday, 4.0 women’s doubles on Saturday, and 4.0 mixed doubles on Sunday. I used the word “planned” because that’s not what actually happened. On the last day of registration, I saw there were 3 ladies in 3.0 singles, 4 in 3.5 singles (counting myself), and 2 in 4.0 singles. Me, being that schemer that I am — I moved myself to 4.0 singles when they extended the registration period. I figured even if things go horribly wrong, I’ll still get bronze. Basically, everyone is guaranteed to get a medal.
When the weekend came, we ended up with 5 players in 4.0 women’s singles. So much for my scheme! LOL. I guess having only 2 players in 4.0, and the cheap $5 per event entry fee, also enticed Chanell Nguyen and Fong Witte to sign up. Instead of just being handed my bronze medal, I actually had to earn it.
I lost to both Jenny Corley (silver) and Krystal Fosnight (gold) but beat both Fong and Chanell and ended up in 3rd place. Not to shabby for a short girl.
The weather was absolutely perfect and that was the most fun I’d had playing singles – ever. My favorite singles match of the evening was against Chanell. Typically when women play singles it’s mostly a baseline battle. Chanell and I had cat-and-mouse rallies at the non-volley zone. I wish I could have gotten our match on video. Also, I was down 7-10 in game 3 and ended up coming back to win it 12-10. I’m pretty proud of that comeback, most specially since we were just having such a good time playing against each other.
Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill didn’t play singles but they came to hang out and watch and so a bunch of us went to the Monarch for dinner after.
Clockwise from left, starting with Ramon: Ramon Lozano, Drew Spencer, Karen Fox, me, Katie Merrill, Mitch Spencer, Jenny Corley, Austin Corley, Ben Meyer, and Ty Richardson. Brian was our photographer.
The next day was women’s doubles day. Sue Denny got some awesome action shots of me and Jenny. This is only my second time playing with her but she is such a great player and fun partner.
I love her easy going and positive energy on the court. We lost our first round against the two ladies from Kansas City (Brandi Meyer and Tiffany Bateson) but we didn’t lose again after. We actually ended up coming from behind and taking gold!
Brandi and Tiffany (the team that we lost to in the first round) ended up getting bronze. They lost to Molly Sager and Cindy Egan (silver) in the winner bracket final and then we defeated them on our way back up. We actually had to beat Molly and Cindy twice because they were undefeated and we had come up from the back draw (aka oppotunity/consolation/losers’ bracket). We beat them in the best 2 of 3 match and then had to beat them again in the game to 15.
Anyway, I love this podium pic so much, not just because Jenny and I are at the top but because all of the teams were perfectly matchy-matchy. Matching outfits are my most favorite part of playing doubles. In fact, if it weren’t for matching outfits, I wouldn’t care to play women’s doubles at all. LOL.
After gender doubles day, a bunch of us went to Twin Peaks for late lunch/early supper. Ramon had never been there.
Tanner Rice, my mixed doubles partner who also ended up being Ramon’s men’s doubles partner that day because Jason Doll was still recovering from knee issues and didn’t want to push it, and I wore our matching DUPR shirts. The shirts arrived too late for Tulsa Pickleball Classic so Tanner had to bring them on this trip.
It was still too early for them to go to their next activity so we ended up watching football at our house to kill time. Tanner didn’t have a place to stay because he was originally just going to only play mixed with me and drive up and back on the same day on Sunday but then he got roped into playing with Ramon on Saturday (I think totally worth it for $5 more because they ended up winning gold in 4.5 men’s doubles) so he was going to sleep on the couch but then some plans fell through and we ended up with a couple of bedrooms available so he got an upgrade.
So far I had competed in 4.0 women’s singles on Friday, and 4.0 women’s doubles on Saturday. When Tanner and I originally talked about playing together back in May/June, I thought we were playing in 4.0, but we actually ended up playing in 4.5 instead. I talked about the bait-and-switch in a previous post. I totally felt tricked but it worked out great in the end. We took 2nd out of 5 teams. It also helped that Ramon and Katie moved up to 5.0 in that tournament so we didn’t have to face them again. They were our first round match at the Tulsa Pickleball Classic a couple of weekends prior and they sent us to the back draw.
I’ve only played with Tanner twice but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself both times. Besides both running DUPR sessions, we have so much in common. Our personalities and approach to tournaments are so much alike. I feel like if I were a tall, white guy I would be him and if he were a short, Asian girl he would be me. Katie has dubbed us #TeamNice.
Anyway, he is pretty darn amazing so I hope that I get to play with him a at least a couple more times before he moves on to greener pastures. People get better and they leave you in the dust. It’s just a fact of life and nothing personal (although it never ceases to amaze me how people take these situations so personally). He is super nice (much nicer than me), fun (I probably have the edge on fun, though, just because I am super goofy), and easy to play with so I have no doubt he will be in very high demand for future tournament team ups.
This weekend for the Bartlesville Pickleball Classic tournament, I am teaming up with Jenny again (our 3rd tournament together) but I have a different partner for mixed doubles. Tanner is also playing in the same division as me but with a different partner so we get to face off. This will be the true test of how nice he really is – LOL. Stay tuned for the results. Until next time, GNG.
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Open Streets ICT 2022
Posted on October 11, 2022 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve gone to an Open Streets ICT event and that’s probably true. The last time we went was 2018. Sometimes the weekends are just too hectic. I’m so glad we found time to go this year. Here are a few pics…
This is me, taking every opportunity to promote pickleball that presents itself.
This was a very popular guy that day. Everyone wanted a picture with it.
I don’t know if they implement “surge pricing” for the scooters like they do for Uber and Lyft but I thought the price per minute was a bit excessive. I would liken it to making an international long distance phone call back in the day when those were a thing. I tried to avoid them at all costs.
My friend/coworker Chris met us downtown.
September 18 was such a fun day! I got to play pickleball in the morning and then got to do Open Streets in the afternoon. I highly recommend checking out Open Streets next time it happens. It is such a cool event!
Until next time, GNG.
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Picklepalooza 2022
Posted on October 3, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Pictures from this year’s Picklepalooza event at Chicken N Pickle.
This is the second year for Picklepalooza. We played in it last year and had such a great time that I was excited to participate in it again this year. This event is so much fun. Besides being a ridiculously fun event, it also benefits a great cause – Senior Services of Wichita. This year they partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association so the event benefited two great causes. I highly recommend it for everyone. I hope y’all can join us next year.
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The Flame Broiler
Posted on September 30, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We ate at the Flame Broiler around the corner from our Airbnb. It’s fast Korean BBQ and it was pretty good.
Our Airbnb was pet-friendly so Saki went with us on this trip. I was glad too because I had been feeling pretty about about leaving her behind the last few times, specially on longer trips like when we were in Naples for the US Open, Newport Beach for USAP Newport Beach Championships, and most recently Tulum/Mexico for Erica and Phillip’s wedding.
I think our go-forward plan is to travel to places within driving distance and stay at pet-friendly Airbnbs with dog runs so that we can always take Saki with us.
The trip to Tulsa earlier this month was perfect. More please. Until next time, GNG.
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Tulsa Pickleball Classic
Posted on September 30, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
The weekend of the Tulsa Pickleball Classic was a weekend of first for me. Not only was it the very first Tulsa Pickleball Classic tournament but it was also my first time in Tulsa and my first time playing with my chosen partners for the weekend.
I opted to play 50/50 instead of playing singles on Friday. Both events were on the same day so you had to choose one or the other. I had seen Robert Mansfield at some of the tournaments I’ve played in and he usually only plays singles so I was very surprised when he accepted my invitation to play together in the 50/50 event. He wasn’t playing in any other events at the tournament so, frankly, I felt pretty special. He carved out time just to play in the 50/50 with me.
I really wish we could have won it but Karen Fox and Cory Sager were on fire that day. They had my number and kept getting everything back. Anyway, I had a great time playing with Robert who was patient and fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better 50/50 partner for the tournament.
Here’s a picture of our group from 50/50 day. From left: Molly Sager (Cory’s wife), Cory Sager, Karen Fox, and Cindy and Ed Egan. Cindy and Ed were also in the same division as Karen, Cory, Robert, and me. Cindy is under 50 and Ed is over 50 so it worked out for them. We really wanted to see an “all Wichita Pickleball” podium but it was not to be. Cindy and Ed ended up taking 4th behind Caroline Luelf and Stuart Ryan, a couple of Tulsa locals.
On Saturday I teamed up with my new friend Tanner Rice. I love his name because it made for a fun team name and t-shirt design.
I met Tanner on Facebook much like I meet a lot of people, via a random message but our team-up was completely accidental.
That message was during the weekend of the 2021 ICT Fall-out tournament. I saw him at the tournament, we waved at each other, and that was that. Fast forward to May of this year when CRBN-gate happened.
I meant to send a message to Tanner Blaske regarding the CRBN paddle replacement options and sent the message to Tanner Rice instead. That started a Facebook messenger exchange that resulted in the most random team up ever.
I’m always down to play with new people because I don’t have any set pickleball partners (for either mixed or women’s doubles) and I remembered seeing Tanner play 4.5 mixed at the Oak Tree tournament in February. I thought he was pretty good so I was like, “Why the hell not?”
Holy bait and switch, though! When I agreed to partner with him, we talked about playing at the 4.0 level because that was the highest level I had played to date. However, I did change my perspective a little bit because the ICT Classic tournament was around that time and Matt Nola had talked me into playing 5.0 level with him. We went 0-2 at that tournament but I didn’t feel completely out of place and I didn’t hate it so, having broken the ice and surviving 5.0 without totally humiliating myself, I figured 4.5 can’t be that any worse.
We had a little bit of bad luck and had to face our friends Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill in the first round and then we lost a close one against Josh McAllister and Kaylyn Baker so we also went 0-2 in Tulsa but, once again, I didn’t hate it. Tanner was super patient and encouraging and, although I wanted us to have done better, I thought we meshed pretty well and didn’t fight over balls and didn’t really have significant miscommunication. Tanner put it really well when he summarized that, for our first time playing together (we had never played together before that – not even any practice games), we had a really good foundation to build upon. I have to agree with his assessment. I felt super comfortable playing with him and had a ton of fun, results not withstanding.
The next day I teamed up with Huyen Nguyen (my “pretend” daughter) in 4.0 women’s doubles. I had played this level before but I’m definitely not as strong at women’s doubles as I am at mixed. In fact, I’m still eligible to play in 3.0 level for women’s. While this wasn’t my first time playing with Huyen because we had played together in rec games before and we played in the Mother’s Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle earlier this year, I do consider this a first because it was our first real tournament team up. We didn’t get the results we hoped for but as it’s always a good time when you get to play with talented, top-notch players. I am very grateful to Huyen for her agreeing to team up with me.
In 3.5 women’s doubles, our friends swept the entire division. Cindy and Jenny (Corley) took first place, Kendra (Wicks) and Molly took second, and Janelle (Lindeman) and Amanda (Ades) took third. So we did get the “all Wichita Pickleball” podium that I was hoping to see in women’s doubles 3.5 level. I’m so proud of all these ladies!
Speaking of Cindy and Jenny, they are teaming back up this weekend for the Shangri-la Pickleball Open. I’m playing with Molly this time.
Anyway, that is all for now. More next time. Until then, GNG.
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