Ranchero, McMurtrie, Szal Atop Wheaton Christian Scholastic, Gran and Richards Win Junior High Section, 158 Compete

A field of 158 faced off in the Wheaton Christian Grammar Scholastic February 7.

In the 37-player Junior High section Brenden Gran and William Richards both posted perfect 4.0 scores.

William Cahill took third place with a second-round draw against Elizabeth Peterson and three wins. He enhanced his USCF rating 72 points, surpassing 1000 for the first time. William had won the K-1 section in the 2014 edition of the tournament, playing up three sections this year.

A six-pack tied for fourth place in the top section including Joshua Dean, Nathan Salahi, Jack Tegart, Sarah Grandy, Simon Evans and Matthew Nickel.

In the 59-entrant Elementary section (with shorter time controls) Peter Ranchero went a perfect five-for-five, with Colin Ogden a half-point back at 4.5. Peter was 4.0/5 at the same event in 2014.

Owen Haas, Shea Smith, Zach Popham, Ryan Evans and Preyan Mehta all posted 4.0/5's, tying for fourth place. In 2014 Owen had also scored 4.0, Shea 3.5 and Zach 3.0 at this event.

Austin McMurtrie came out of his provisionals at 878 in the Upper Primary section. Austin won all five of his games to raise his rating 99 points. Four players tied for second with four out of five scores including Agilan Saminathan, Joe Wakeman, MacGregor Barrett and Benjamin Ick.

Austin defeated Agilan in the fifth round and Benjamin in the fourth round. He had played his first rated event ever at the 2014 instance of the Wheaton tournament.

In the 22-player Lower Primary section, Adam Szal compiled four wins and a draw to take first. Colin Park and Andrew Friedman tied for second with 4.0/5's. 

The event was directed by USCF National TD Jeff Wiewel with Elizabeth Villaflor and Gary Janssen assisting.

Crosstables can be seen here.