Saturday, December 1, 2012, Queens, NY – The City University of New York Athletic Conference hosted its second CUNY-Wide Intramural Championship of the year: Co-ed Table Tennis Tournament at Queensborough Community College presented by Municipal Credit Union. A resounding success, the tournament featured male and female, student and faculty table tennis players from six CUNY campuses, including Baruch, Brooklyn, CCNY, New Community College, Queensborough, and York.

The sixteen person tournament featured a lot of talent with varying experience levels and strategies. In the first round we saw players sizing up the competition with great matches between students and faculty. Albert Chieu, student from CCNY, and Abiola Oladipo, Biology Professor at York, played a tough one with the student coming out on top while Poe Koe, student from New Community College, fell to Hai He, Mathematics Professor at Baruch. From there the losers’ bracket would be a test of who can outlast the rest.

Over the next few rounds we saw well played matches in both brackets. Mohammad Hussain, graduate student at City College, and Poe Koe would play a tough match in which Hussain would triumph. Albert Chieu and CCNY Table Tennis Club teammate Mohammad Rattu faced off in a long, close match in which Chieu would prevail. Chieu followed up that match with the longest contest of the evening against Hai He. The players went back and forth while a whole round of matches finished and in the end He would come out on top. The loss would send Chieu to a rematch against Chiayi Xu, Professor of Mathematics at Queensborough, who he had knocked into that bracket earlier. The winner would advance for an opportunity to face He in the finals. This time it would be Xu on top as the professor’s strategic shot location and timing kept the student guessing.

In the finals, it was a battle of two math professors as Xu looked to show He what the community colleges had to offer. Coming from the losers’ bracket Xu would need to win back-to-back matches over He if the title was to be his but He would have none of it. In the first match, it would be He on top to take the crown as CUNYAC/MCU Table Tennis Tournament Champion. He would also be named CUNYAC/MCU Faculty Champion while Xu was awarded the runner-up trophy.

“I am very happy that I won and I am very happy about the competition,” said He. “I am looking forward to coming back next year and I hope to see even more competitors.”

CCNY students, Albert Chieu and Mohammad Rattu would receive Student Champion and Runner-up respectively. Abiola Oladipo would be the top female performer in the contest.

“It feels great to be the student champion,” said Chieu. “Everyone wants to win but what I really want is to see this get bigger and grow. I hope that every CUNY school has a table tennis team in the future.”

The CUNYAC/MCU Intramurals Championships Series will continue throughout the entire academic year with co-ed indoor soccer, a 5K health run, co-ed volleyball, chess, and co-ed basketball in the spring semester. Campus tournaments will be held for each sport and champions from the local events will convene at various CUNY campuses to name the University champion. Stay tuned to www.cunyathletics.com for all the latest.

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