Pictured L-R: Minnesota Finalists - Mike "Nate" Weimerskirch, Walt Merz, Rick Sheely and Wisconsin Champions - Keith Anderson, Cheryl Bromley, and Nels BjorkquistWISCONSIN OVER MINNESOTA 6-4
Teams from Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin descended upon the Milwaukee Croquet Club for a weekend of friendly and spirited golf croquet competition at Lake Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After a meet and greet and practice on Friday evening, Saturday’s matches paired Illinois against Minnesota and Indiana and Wisconsin. The format was a best of 10 game test featuring an opening doubles game followed by players playing each of the other three opponents in singles games.
After dropping a close 7-6 game in the opening doubles match to Illinois’ Rodney Workman and Tom Ford, Minnesota rebounded with Mike “Nate” Weimerskirch, Rick Sheely, and Walt Merz each winning two of their three singles games to take the test 6-4.
Wisconsin’s Nels Bjorkquist and Cheryl Bromley came out strong against Indiana with a doubles win over Indiana’s Russell Dilley and Michael Leaming 7-1. Leaming was able to capture his singles game against Wisconsin’s Keith Anderson with a solid 7-3 win to notch the only victory for Indiana. Wisconsin took nine of 10 games to put themselves in the finals against Minnesota.
Illinois and Indiana decided to keep things going by starting their third place playoff test Saturday afternoon opting not to wait until Sunday to play. Russ Dilley (IN) got his game on track winning all three of his singles matches after having lost in the opening doubles match, while teammate Josh Grossman (IN) notched a close singles win over Roger Christoph (IL) 7-6. Tom Ford (IL) got to work closing out two of his singles matches and Rodney Workman (IL) put the team over the top winning three of his four matches to give Illinois the third place win 6-4.
With Sunday promising to have temperatures in the 90s and a long drive ahead for the Minnesota team, the Wisconsin-Minnesota final also got underway Saturday afternoon. By the end of day one, the match was tied 2-2. Sunday morning Bromley got things started for Wisconsin making key hoop shots to take out Walt Merz (MN) 7-2. At the same time, Anderson (WI) was able to get past Sheely (MN) when, at the 13th hoop in an effort to clear Anderson’s ball, Sheely’s shot put his opponent’s ball through the hoop. With Wisconsin up in the match 4-2, Bromley (WI) managed to take out Weimerskirch (MN) and Bjorkquist (WI) posted a win over Merz (MN) to give Wisconsin the necessary six games to win the title. Minnesota closed with a pair of wins and the final test score was 6-4.
Next up, Wisconsin will take on Oklahoma, the winner of the Central States Quad, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 18, 2018, for the overall 2018 States Shield Championship.
FULL MIDWEST QUAD SCORES
croquetscores.com/2018/gc/croquet-network-midwest-states-shield-quad
CHALLONGE OVERALL EVENT KNOCKOUT
challonge.com/18statesshield
Illinois players: Tom Ford, Roger Christoph, and Rodney Workman
Indiana Team: Russell Dilley, Josh Grossman, and Michael Leaming