Chaos reigns in Holt Region, Play of the Decade field narrowed to 32
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Five lower seeds advanced in the Holt Region, while one 16 seed survived an upset scare in the first round of voting for Carson-Newman’s Play of the Decade.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Five lower seeds advanced in the Holt Region, while one 16 seed survived an upset scare in the first round of voting for Carson-Newman's Play of the Decade.
It was not a good bracket for seven or six seeds. Three 11 seeds and three 10 seeds made it through to the round of 32.
The most tumult came in the Holt Region where the top three seeds (Tobias Karlsen's volley at Queens, Joao Pedro Dowsley's semifinal goal and Charles Clark's game winner at Tusculum) were the only higher seeds to advance to the round of 32. The 13 seed, Jason Williams scoop and score, was the lowest seed to make it to the round of 32 in the whole bracket.
That play will face the 12 seed, Jason Brown's one-handed grab at Catawba which unseated Catarina Realista's bolt from the blue against Georgia College. The 11 seed, Kennedy Rankin's SAC tournament rocket handedly won over Antonio Wimbush's halfback pass.
The region also featured the narrowest margin in the bracket. The 10 seed, Tyron Douglas' pinball run v. Brevard edged out Marnie Streeter's region title kill by five votes out of 385 cast for that play – 195-190 or 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent.
Ashton Wykle's behind the back pass, the 16 seed in the Wilson Region, nearly unseated Rachel Harper's under-the-net save. Wykle took Twitter, Facebook and Instagram components of the voting; however, Harper made up enough ground on cneagles.com and Youtube to edge Wykle by 14 votes.
The Wilson Region was largely chalk, except for the nine seed, Jessica Fraiture and Helen Seed's save v. Armstrong State advancing, as well as the 11 seed, Hayley Burnette's SAC title clinching walkoff advancing.
In the Sparks Region, the nine, 10 and 11 seeds all made it to the round of 32 for the chaos in that region. Meanwhile, Braxton Westfield's one-handed catch, that region's top seed, advanced over Derrick Evan's 79-yard run by the largest margin in the bracket. Westfield won with 77.6 percent of the vote.
The 10 (Kristen Toppel's one-handed catch) and nine seeds (Sindre Welo's free kick) were the lone lower seeds to make it through the Bivens Region, which featured the most chalk.
Football had the most plays advance to the second round with eight, while men's soccer followed with six. Men's basketball's Charles Clark and Men's soccer's Tobias Karlsen are the only two athletes with multiple plays (two each) to make it through to the second round.
Voting on the second round will take place this week, starting with the Sparks Region on Tuesday. Voting on the sweet 16, elite eight, final four and championship will take place in the ensuing weeks.
