Team alternate Gary Hoare has posted a number of pictures from Nationals here.
Dave Macpherson, member of the 2003 Worcester Slam team, has provided updates on the happenings in Chicago. They are reprinted here.
Posted by Dave Mac in his online diary 08/07 @ 1:44 a.m.
"Very late and should go to bed, but want to post this. I know it is not even two in the morning and I should be out and about drinking and carousing at the National Slam, but I am just tired. I will do that later.
SO we had our first bout and we won!!! Jon Wolf went first and he kicked ass. When all was said and done, he tied for second place in the bout. Then we did the group piece and that also went over great. Ed did his poem slices and he was just amazing. He decided to go off mic and it was the right choice. Seren finished tied for second.
All and all, it was a great team effort. We were up against Winston-Salem and Boise. Boise came in second, trailing us by five points.
We have some tough competitors tomorrow. We are not going to rest on what we did tonight.
Speaking of resting....."
Posted by Dave Mac in his online diary 08/08 @ 2:26 a.m.
"Another entry, another two thirty in the morning. How are you? Well Worcester Te am did great. Just great. Did we make it to the semi-finals? NO. We did not. We missed it by a tenth of a point. Just a tenth of a point, losing to a great team from Omaha. They were a very talented and gracious team. Our poet was the first poet in the first round, its hard to not see that as a factor, but that's how it happens, fate.
Jon Wolf went first and did very nice. He did Ripcord and he shook the Chopin Theater. I was in the second round with my Restraint Group piece, the audience went nuts for it. It had the second highest score of the night. The only thing that was higher was Seren Divine in the third round with Wide. That was awesome. Ed Fuqua finished us off in the last round with Venus is Rising. After the bout was over, Bill heard people leaving the theater quoting lines from that poem, how cool is that?
So how well did Worcester do? We ranked 20th in a field of 63 teams. The semi finals cut off is the top 18 teams. For individual standings Seren was ranked 23. Jon was ranked 110, and Ed was 130. I was not ranked because I did group pieces. I know Bob will post this on the Asylum web site, so let me thank all of you Worcester-ites for all the support and love."
Check out the rankings yourself by visiting the scores webpage.
Last Update: 08/08/2003