TRIVIA QUIZ WINNERS!

Behold, the MLTT Hall of Past and Present Penholder Fame! The 6th penholder was the key to answering question #5, which contained a double-twist to it. Only 2 respondents got the correct answer…

When we hit the PUBLISH button on our first-ever MLTT Trivia Quiz Challenge, we had no idea that so many of you have been following along so closely, so first of all we tip our hats to ALL of our readers. You guys are like the Enzo Angleses of MLTT fandom, really on the ball! But in the end, after going through hundreds of submissions, only two entrants got everything right, with a third entrant getting everything right except that final, elusive 6th penholder question. We were super-impressed that several of you realized from the wording of the question that the answers were not limited to the players, hence both penholders in their competitive days Coach Maggie Tian and Coach Alex Yang. But only two of you got the mystery 6th. Here are the correct answers:

Question 1 (difficulty level: easy): Who was the first player drafted by a Western Division team?

Answer: Amy Wang (selected 4th overall by the Texas Smash)

Question 2 (difficulty level: easy): Name the two players who are a married couple, and name their respective teams.

Answer: Hong Lin/Jishan Liang of the Carolina Gold Rush and Princeton Revolution

Question 3 (difficulty level: medium): Amy Wang is currently the highest internationally ranked woman in the MLTT at #29. Who is the highest ranking male, and what is his ranking?

Answer: Aditya Sareen (WTT ranking #41)

Question 4 (difficulty level: difficult): Name three (3) MLTT players who are either a current student or an alumnus/-ae of the collegiate table tennis powerhouse, Texas Wesleyan University (hint: there are a total of 5).

Acceptable Answers: Senura Silva, Jonatan McDonald, Bruno Ventura dos Anjos, Jishan Liang, and Jinxin Wang

Question 5 (difficulty level: incredibly difficult with a twist): Name the six (6) current and/or former penholders in MLTT. That’s right, we said SIX!

Answers: Tao Wenzhang, Hong Lin, Daniel Liu, Maggie Tian, Alex Yang and...Christian Lillieroos!

The Dancing Coach strikes again! Coach Christian Lillieroos was a 2200+ rated penholder back in the late 80’s when, as a player/coach he led Anderson College to multiple National Collegiate Team Championships titles. Next time you see him, ask him about his barely legal, penholder under the leg, behind the back ghost serves.

Wow!!! Full disclosure, the reason we even knew this is because we have an editor on staff who was actually present at Princeton University (where all the National Collegiate Team Championships were once held) in the late 80’s who witnessed Lillieroos bedeviling the competition with both an assortment of tricky serves as well as quite a devastating forehand loop.

Again, out of all the entries we had two who answered all the questions correctly, and would you believe it? Both entries were submitted within 2 minutes of each other. Given the photo finish, and undoubtedly flush with both the holiday spirit and the 3-day old eggnog from the staff lunchroom, the editors have generously agreed to fork over another $50 for a 2nd place finisher. Ho ho ho! Furthermore, out of all the rest, one entry from reader and MLTT superfan Austin Chow came SO CLOSE, only missing the Lillieroos response. For Austin, we are rewarding him with an honorable mention shout-out right here. Austin is a chronicler of the game we all love, his enthusiasm of the game is totally infectious, his IG posts and video are a complete blast…so everyone give him a follow at @iluvpingpong and subscribe to his LA Table Tennis Association Youtube channel.

Drumroll please…..in 2nd place and winner of a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate: Princeton Pong’s own Heba Jahama! No, Heba, you were not hallucinating about Christian Lillieroos being a penholder. Great job!

And the winning entry, beating our Heba’s entry by a mere 2 minutes…..Ondřej Lapčík! Yes, THAT Ondřej Lapčík, he of the Seattle Spinners and current reigning Majorponghead Upsetter of the Week! Heba and Ondřej, keep an eye out for your Amazon e-gift cards…they will be sent out as soon as this article drops!

This is the steely-eyed determination that makes you a winner. Lapcik’s MPH Upset of the Week reign may come to an end in early January after the Eastern Division teams play in Davie, FL….but he will remain the inaugural winner of the Trivia Quiz Challenge for a full calendar year until we do this again in 2024.