De La Salle Results: YCFC Expands to Five Sections!

With YCFC expanding to five sections from three, a lot more players were in contention for trophies. The competition was held December 13 at De La Salle Institute with 280 competing.

Bateman took three of the five team championships including Novice 3-4, Novice 5-6 and the Advanced Sections. Decatur won K-2 Novice and Cook claimed 7-8 Novice.

With Decatur teammate Aria Hoesley off in Orlando at USCF K-12 Nationals, Joey Buklis earned the Advanced Championship with a perfect 5.0 score. Tying for second place with 4.0 scores was Ignace Bielobradek of Komarek (North Riverside) and Bateman teammates Umair Ahmed and Jimmy Nguyen.

Bateman outpointed Edgebrook 10.5-9.0 among 18 teams with players in the Advanced.  Carrey Nguyen's 2.5 and Leonard Rionaula's 2.0 solidified the Bateman total. 37 players were entered in the Advanced.

In the Novice K-2, Decatur teammates Jenna Cinco and Andrew Nguyen claimed the top two spots with Jenna posting a perfect 5.0 score and Andrew a half-point back at 4.5.

Teammates Journey Jackson, John Seward and Ethan Ding all posting 4.0's to tie for third place, with Edgebrook's William Wang also sneaking in there with 4.0 to claim the third place trophy on tiebreaks. 

Decatur finished with 17.5, six points ahead of second place Skinner North in the youngest section.

With a perfect 5.0, Bateman's Zubair Ahmed was the outright champion of Novice 3-4, with Jaiden Lulla of Skinner North a half-point back for second. A 10-way tie for third saw Megan Wong with the top tiebreak to claim the third place hardware.

Bateman literally "one-upped" Skinner North in the 3-4 grouping, 16.0-15.0.  In addition to Ahmed's 5.0, Matel Contefea contributed a 4.0 and three players, Andrew Tebbe, Chris Salas and Luke Roasado each posted 3.0's for Bateman. 76 players competed in the 3-4.

Esteban Taboada blitzed Bateman teammate Layla Rodriguez in a one-game playoff to claim top honors in the Novice 5-6 after both Esteban and Layla posted perfect 5.0 scores. St. Joseph's Dylan Davis earned third place with a 4.5 result, ahead of a pack of nine players with 4.0's.

78 competed in the 5-6, with Bateman outpointing Bell and 18 other teams in the section. In addition to Esteban and Layla's contributions, Jeremy Encisco posted a 4.0 and Frankie Salas added 2.0 to give Bateman 16 points and the championship.

St Joseph's Javier Castillo compiled a 4.5 score to win the Novice 7-8 section. Beasley's D'Varsiya Rush, Burbank's Destini Palmas and Cook's Archie Grant all had 4.0's, tying for second place.

Gallistel's Daniel Bolano and Roman Perez along with Farnsworth's Max Ryan all had 3.5's tying for 5th place.

Davion Thrower and Curtis Thomas contributed 3.0's to the Cook team total. Alfort Gordon and Steven Collins contributed 2.0's. Cook had 12.0 points, 2.5 points ahead of Waters in a 12-team field.