Seemiller plays. Seemiller wins.

By Bill McLaughlin - Cub Reporter, Table Tennis Dayton

Dayton, OH – A typical gray April sky did not prevent the finest table tennis players in the mid-west from engaging on the field of battle at the Lohrey Center for glory and a cash payout of “C Notes” to each group victor. Rain threatened from above, while victors reigned supreme within.

A man who has seen hundreds of victories on the table is American table tennis legend Dan Seemiller, who led a contingent of Indianans, and summarily mopped the floor with his Group A competition, on the way to pocketing a cool $200.00 in what was arguably his greatest sequence of victories in his long-storied career.

Sure he's been on World Championship teams for the United States, playing the likes of 1985 and 1987 World Champion Jiang Jialiang among scores of other world class players during his long career – but was he up to the challenge of sweeping eight top mid-west class table tennis players in order to proclaim this latest of greatest victories?

A Skunk smells Sweet

The answer was an emphatic "yes", as he annihilated his opponents with a final tally of 9-0, and losing only a single game to Cincinnati TTC top gun Nick Snider. Seemiller 27, opponents 1.

And who were his opponents? Granted Jiang couldn't make it due to prior commitments, but in his place were his apparent countryman – the mysterious Xuan "Steve" Xu, the vivacious and previous Dayton Open C Notes II winner Petra "The Czech Czich" Sestakova, another Dayton Open C Notes I winner Chandramouli "The King" Shankaren, the ornery Mark Artman, Ivan "The Rallying Russian" Popov, the aforementioned Nick "No, I do not look like Tom Hulce" Snider, and the only sub-2000 rated player of the group, Keith "Millions" Brewster.

Well take a back seat boys and girls, as Dan “The Man” stormed like a trooper and finished as the newly crowned 2007 Dayton Open C Notes VI champion.

Groups and more groups

Group B saw a major upset as Stephen "Don't call me Bonnie and" Clyde - the ninth out of 10 ranked contenders – eradicated any and all before him on his way to a perfect 9-0 record and taking home the $100 C note. Cincinnati TTC players Adebisi Adesiyan and Larry "Trash Talkin'" Hawkins took 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Alan Grambo finished with a 1st place record of 7-2 to take home the Group C $100 while Mark Ben Weber and Philip Kolb placed second and third.

In Group D, Darrel Austin nearly skunked his opponents finishing with a 9-1 record, while a three-way tie for second and third had Dayton TTC's own George Moses II and Cincinnati TTC player Alicia Burnett taking home T-shirts while Ronald Kolb was left holding the third best 8-2 record and narrowly missing victory lane.

The skunks continued to smell sweet as Group E's Xiaoge Qu's 9-0 record left him beaming at George W. (that's Washington, not a middle initial), while Michael Lint and Doug Findlay wear Dayton apparel.

Group F had Barbara Curtis winning with a fine 7-2 record and Scott Pierce and Evan Herberth finishing second and third.

Gold in them thar paddle?

Proving his skills have diminished nary a bit, and seemingly (or is it Seemilleringly?) preparing for a huge George Foreman-like comeback, what with the Olympics but a year away, Dan "Slammin'" Seemiller displayed his formidable physical and psychological table tennis skills to the array of relative neophytes before him. His odd racket grip – in an amazing coincidence named "The Seemiller Grip" - assisted his hoisting of umpteen tens of dollars as the king of Dayton for a day.