For many years, we’ve known that the chances of a 16-seed beating a 1-seed have been growing. Despite that gap narrowing, it would still be considered a monumental upset whenever it were to occur.
Well, it occurred in monumental fashion Friday night when University of Maryland-Baltimore County ousted top seed Virginia to make history. From this point forward, the game has forever changed. It will still be a huge long shot for any 16 seeds to beat a 1-seed, but the glass ceiling is now shattered. It’s possible not just because it’s possible, but because it’s been done.
All the upsets weren’t quite as historic on the Gold Coast, but the first rankings of the Championship Tour season are topped by long shots who stepped up their game to start 2018.
On the women’s side, Lakey Peterson came away with the Roxy Pro title and begins the year with the yellow jersey. While Peterson has always had the talent and been considered one of the women’s tour’s top competitors, this is her first CT win since 2012. It’s been a long time coming, throughout which she has battled injuries and an influx of new wahine talent. But Peterson doesn’t lack for confidence and has consistently viewed herself as a championship contender.
With this start, she should be viewed similarly by everyone. Peterson took out Paige Hareb, Macy Callaghan, Tyler Wright, Malia Manuel and Keely Andrew to earn the top spot.
Andrew was eyeing her first career win, but she never managed to get going in the final. The Aussie had one runner-up result last year and she repeated that with wins over Nikki Van Dijk, Johanne Defay, Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons. That’s an incredible gauntlet for Andrew and she’ll use some of that momentum as the tour continues through the Aussie leg.
For Manuel, the third-place result is a good start to her season and her efforts over the last six to eight months have been as strong as anyone on tour.
Over on the men’s side, the outcomes were even more unexpected. There wasn’t a single world champion in the quarterfinal round and a few surfers we might expect to be fighting just for qualification already have their signature result of the season.
In the end, it was Julian Wilson taking the title, which is not so much of a surprise. But Wilson didn’t have to knock off some of the notables he typically would. Wilson eliminated Michael February, Kanoa Igarashi, Michael Rodrigues, Griffin Colapinto and Ace Buchan to finish off his title run. That’s a strong group, but it included three rookies and Wilson wasn’t an underdog in any matchup.
Buchan was hoping for his first win since a Teahupoo victory back in 2013 and he gave a great effort in the final, but Wilson was too tough with a 17.43 to 15.10 win.
Some top competitors are starting off with throwaway results, including two-time defending world champ John John Florence. Florence had managed to eliminate the early losses in his two world championship runs, reaching at least round three in every contest. That’s out the window this season, but Florence’s top results are often enough to overcome a few major upsets, like he experienced last week against Mikey Wright.
Sebastian Zietz had also grown accustomed to avoiding the 25th place results, but he’ll start his 2018 ledger with just that. It’s never a good way to begin, but Zietz has some good memories at Margaret River, which is coming up next on the schedule.
It would been almost unthinkable to imagine Florence down in last place with Colapinto and Tomas Hermes tied for third, but that’s where we are to start 2018. It’s unlikely to remain that way for very long, though we should be much more prepared to expect the unexpected these days.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
