Dianne Zimmerman/Jeni James 4.5 Women’s Gold Medalists
David Zapatka/Dennis Hackney 4.5 Men’s Silver Medalists
Steve Smitham/Sheila Parkinson 4.0 Mixed Bronze Medalists
David Zapatka/Dianne Zimmerman 4.5 Mixed Gold Medalists
Dianne Zimmerman and Jeni James (Buckeye) won the highly-attended 4.5 Women’s Doubles Tournament at Mesa Regal December 7. This was the second tournament Dianne and Jeni played together. They won all but one game sending them to the gold medal round undefeated. The gold medal match was exciting and tough as Dianne and Jeni lost in three games setting up a winner-take-all tie-breaker game to 15. This game swung back and forth before finally tieing at 10. Dianne and Jeni ultimately determined the necessary winning strategies and were victorious winning 15-11 earning the gold medal.
Zimmerman didn’t stop with one gold medal though. Two days later she paired with regular partner David Zapatka and sailed through the 4.5 Mixed Doubles without a loss winning a very entertaining final match 11-2, 12-10 under the lights in the final match of the day.
Zapatka competed with partner Dennis Hackney in the 4.5 Men’s Doubles Division. After getting crushed in their first match 11-5, 11-5, they came from behind in one nail-biting match after another in the “opportunity” bracket of this double-elimination tournament 16-14, 17-15, 15-9, 15-2, 16-14, 11-5, 11-9 before falling in a three-game gold medal match finally securing the silver medal.
Sheila Parkinson and Steve Smitham, a fearsome 4.0 Mixed Doubles pair, played strong and proud bringing home the bronze medal in a day that saw them best one strong pair after another before finally losing to the silver medalists in a hard fought match 11-5, 11-6.