Armas paddles his way to table tennis victory

By Martin Paredes/south news editor

Anthony Armas took home the coveted $10 Subway gift card, intramural duffle bag and T-shirt after beating Kouassi Ouattara 21-19, 14-21, 21-8 in South’s table tennis showdown.

The event took place Feb. 19 as 10 students used a randomizer app to determine their opponent.

From there, the participants played a best two-out-of-three match with the winners moving on until Armas was eventually crowned champion.

Ouattara had lost only one game to Jorge Morales before his championship bout but admitted his impending 5:30 p.m. class was in the back of his mind.

“I was still thinking about my class, so I was worried,” he said after the final as he grabbed his backpack and bolted out of the gym at 5:35.

Armas gave credit to Ouattara for a hard-fought final and for being the only opponent to win a game against him.

“I would have to say he was my toughest match,” he said. “Kouassi has a lot of spin. I’ve never seen him before. He was kind of a wild card.”

Although most participants had fun, Morales was bummed out about his performance as a whole.

“I just played three whole games, and the third game just flipped the script on me, and I just lost,” he said. “I’m mad and disappointed in myself for all that practice gone to waste.”

Morales, after putting everything into perspective, cooled off and admitted that losing wasn’t such a big deal.

“But at the same time, I didn’t really care about the tournament,” he said, “because it was just a $10 Subway [gift card], and I don’t even eat Subway.”