BALTIMORE, Maryland – For the second straight year, Texas Wesleyan has captured the collegiate crown at the world’s largest team table tennis tournament. They also finished an impressive third in the open division.

The 2002 North American Table Tennis Championship, an annual tournament hosted by USA Table Tennis inside the Baltimore Convention Center, pitted 191 mostly-professional teams from around the world against each other over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Teams are initially bunched into groups, from which the winners emerge to play in a bracketed mini-tournament to determine the winner. Team match outcomes are determined by a race to five in singles matches.

Wesleyan began group play by sweeping their first two opponents, the New York City and New York State table tennis clubs, and then knocked off the Canadian National Junior team by a score of five to two. Wesleyan’s Eric Owens, the reigning American singles champion, and Jim Butler, ranked fourth in the USA, both went undefeated in the three matches. David Wang, Wesleyan’s third player but still highly-ranked in the country, struggled through back pain to post three victories against two losses.

Moving on to the winners bracket provided much tougher competition for the Rams, as they barely won two difficult matches, one against a club team called TableTennisAbout.com and the other against the number two squad of Chicago-based powerhouse Killerspin International. Both matches went the distance, with Wesleyan pulling out a pair of 5-4 squeakers.

Butler continued his perfect play, winning all six of his singles matches against these two opponents, and lifting his weekend total to an impressive 11-0. Owens struggled to just a 3-3 record, and Wang lost five of his six, continuing to have trouble with his back. His lone win, however, was enormous. Down four games to three and facing elimination against Killerspin, Wang managed to upset a higher-ranked player, allowing Butler the opportunity to win Wesleyan’s fifth game.

The Rams then advanced to the semi-finals, and were matched up against Killerspin International’s top team, comprised of some of the best professional players in the world. In a shortened match, the Rams fell 3-0 to the eventual tournament champions.

The Rams finished in third place overall, a very successful showing. By virtue of finishing higher than any of the other 31 college teams, the Rams were awarded the collegiate crown, their second in a row.

The Rams travel to Las Vegas for their next tournament, the USA National Championships, on December 18. Eric Owens looks to defend his title, while teammate Jim Butler hopes to recapture the singles crown he held in 1990, 1991, and 1993. For more information on the USA National Tournament, visit www.usatt.org