Larsson and Badea repeat as 2001 Club Champions

New Members Eye Next Year's Title When Sign-up Mandatory

The 2001 Club Championship series was won by Carl Larsson and Natalia Badea for the second year in row with near-perfect 60 and 58 points, respectively, out of a possible 60. Charlie Shahbazian, Mikhail Pekour (both with 51 points) and Elena Backiev (53) were in second place and also repeated their runner-up performance from last year. For the juniors, Kyle McNerney from Crystal Lake, and Emma Larsson from Libertyville took the honors.

"Again second???" said Mikhail, and "Always the bridesmaid never the bride" said Charlie, as they resignedly accepted their awards at the Willow Springs meet on November 4.

However, for the women's contest, the lead traded off among the top women several times during the season. Elena had been leading the series on October 1, but at the Bemis Woods Scatter-O she allowed Natalia and Marie Larsson to beat her and thus was not able to improve her score during the final weeks of the season.

Next year's Club championship promises to become significantly tighter as new members Valentas Tortoris and Ioana Nicolaescu compete for the full year. And if new Swiss import Stefan Spirgi joins the Club as a paid-up member, he also could compete for Club Champ. This fall all three placed either first or second in the few meets they attended.

The Club Championship series was conceived by Charlie Shahbazian in 1999, and administered this year by Marie Larsson. Using the best six placings on the championship courses (Men = Red; Women = Green; Juniors = Orange) at the 11 Club local meets during the year, members accumulate points: 10 points for first place, 9 points for second, and so forth. The more local meets members attend, the more low-score throw-outs they get, because only the best six scores are used to determine standings.

For next year it will be necessary for all Club members to register for the championships. This can be done by entering your name, age, and gender on-line at the club's web site, or by e-mail to Marie Larsson.