Rolls Report: October 8 & 9

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Rolls Report: October 8 & 9

The weather this week made up for the total rain-out last weekend with two gorgeous sunny mornings in the 50s.  The Zoo made it out on the course, so we’re up to 8 teams.  This was another week of collaborative rolls-reporting, and the much of the same crew came through this time.  Many thanks go out to Ben Matzke, Zachary Waldman, Andrew Hundt, and Katherine Crawford for notes, pictures, and radar gun data.  That’s right, radar gun data.  Keep reading for the numbers on the early-season speed demons and a number of incidents and conflagrations.

In Attendance

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi  Kamikaze
CIA Ascension, Freyja, Renaissance, Quasar  Ascension, Freyja, Renaissance
Fringe Bonsai, Borealis, Banyan, Blizzard  Bonsai, Borealis, Banyan, Bedlam
KapSig Apache
SDC Bane, Malice, Rage  Bane, Malice, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Barracuda Mamba, Barracuda, Pandora
SigNu  Skua  Skua
Spirit Zuke, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka Zuke, Seraph, Haraka

 Saturday Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading →

Collaborative Rolls Report: 9/24/11

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 14 Comments on Collaborative Rolls Report: 9/24/11

2 weekends of rolls in the books and we’re up to 7 orgs, we’re seeing some speed, and also the usual assortment of challenges to overcome.  This also marks the first edition of our collaborative rolls report format.  I was out of town and a these fine folks stepped up and got the job done for us: Ben Matzke, Zachary Waldman, Hannah Rosenblum, and Andrew Hundt.  I also very much appreciate everyone who contributed pictures (either by uploading them which is still a bit tedious, or by sending me a link to their collection).  Without further ado or any editing on my part …

The weather Saturday was a little worrisome, but no rain materialized.  7am weather was high 50’s and overcast.  Sunday would have been even nicer but rolls were not scheduled because of the Great Race.

In Attendance

Org Saturday
AEPi Kamikaze
CIA Ascension, Firebird, Quasar
Fringe Bonsai, Borealis, Bedlam, Banyan, Blizzard
KapSig Apache
SDC Bane, Malice, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Barracuda
Spirit Zuke, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka

Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading →

First rolls of the year! (belated rolls report)

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 7 Comments on First rolls of the year! (belated rolls report)

Buggy kicked off the 2012 season just as scheduled with one day of fast-moving rolls for the six orgs that managed to get caped and ready in time.  The weather didn’t complicate things at all, and the new sweepstakes committee had things running smoothly on day 1.  Rolls started on time which is no small achievement this time of year, and they manged to get all the chores done with the skeleton crew of teams.  Spirit has inherited PiKA’s primary chore of putting haybales out in the chute in the wee hours.  That bodes well for Spirit’s manpower and organization, I always wondered who else would be able to get it together for that big chore.

 In Attendance

I’m a few days removed, and sweepstakes doesn’t have their roll counts up yet for the year, so there’s a chance I have a thing or two wrong, but the starting line-ups for 2012 were:

Org Sunday
AEPi Kamikaze
CIA Ascension, Freyja, Renaissance, Firebird
Fringe Bedlam, Banyan, Borealis, Blizzard
SDC Bane, Malice, Psychosis, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Barracuda
Spirit Zuke, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka

Observations (Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

Rolls set to start Sunday, here we go again

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 10 Comments on Rolls set to start Sunday, here we go again

It’s that time of year again at the corner of Tech and Frew.  The permits are in and this Sunday the 18th is the first potential day of rolls.  The chairmen have been meeting for weeks, the drivers have had their meetings, and at least a few teams have their capes taken care of.  Currently these are the teams in the mix:

Ready to roll: CIA, Fringe, SDC, SigEp
Capes scheduled:  AEPi, KapSig, Spirit
Status unknown:  DTD/TriDelt, PiKA, Pioneers, SAE, SigNu

Those ranks are looking a little thin if the status-unknown crowd doesn’t show up soon.  Last year started with 8 orgs, so 7 isn’t that big of a drop but it’s the wrong direction for sure.  The schedule of fall freerolls is extensive though, so there’s time for the stragglers to get out.

Here at BAA headquarters, we’re preparing for another year of covering the buggy news you crave and generally putting the rest of the internet to shame.  Our #1 goal while we do that this fall is to get more people involved.  Personally, I’m about to (finally) finish grad school and it’s possible this is my last year in Pittsburgh.  Even this year, I will be missing a lot of weekends while I look for jobs.  The point being, I won’t be able to do rolls reports for much longer.  It is time to groom new buggy correspondents. Continue reading →

A new year, new ideas; your help wanted

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on A new year, new ideas; your help wanted

I know I don’t want to admit it, but the reality is that the end of summer is in sight, and the Buggy Alumni Association wants to be ready for another big year (our 4th!).  After the buzz from raceday died down, we all took a healthy break from buggy madness, but a few things have been coming together on those rainy days.  The theme of these projects is that we are hoping to get more of our members actively involved this year making the BAA and cmubuggy.org better and better.

Buggy Orientation Event

For the second year, current students will be holding a multi-org, non-partisan introduction to buggy for the incoming class near the end of orientation.  This is exactly the kind of thing that we want to be happening on campus, so we want to support it any way we can.  Right now the agenda includes buggies on display, an intro talk explaining the sport and basic terms, and an outdoors demo session.  Want to help pull the next generation into buggy?  Help is needed advertising the event, setting things up, and talking with interested freshmen, etc.  Current students are especially important to have involved. Contact Ben Matzke (ben.matzke@gmail.com) if you want to help out.  Details:

Saturday, August 27th
3:30 – 4:30 @ UC Connan : basic Q&A
5-6 @ CFA Parking lot / base of Hill 1: rolling buggy demos

BAA Project Zone

Continue reading →

Buggy loses a pillar: PiKA kicked off campus

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 25 Comments on Buggy loses a pillar: PiKA kicked off campus

Aw crap.  It was announced this afternoon that PiKA’s charter has been revoked by the school CMU chapter will not be recognized for at least four years. Losing PiKA from campus is obviously a huge loss to the greek community and to the broader social community at CMU in which they played a consistently central role.

Losing PiKA from buggy is devastating.  As they proudly and frequently pointed out, PiKA is (by far) the winningest organization in the history of buggy.  Their 27 men’s and 11 women’s championships tower over the historical competition.  Their presence at the top of the leader board has been a constant throughout the history of the sport and their consistency has played a large role in the stability of our race across its 91 year history.   Continue reading →

2012 Sweepstakes Committee

Posted on | by mccue | 6 Comments on 2012 Sweepstakes Committee

Letting Sam take a well-deserved break from running the site, I thought I’d update everyone with the results from last night’s Sweepstakes Committee election. Winners in bold along with their org and their class as of next year.

Chairman

  • Anthony Pacella (SigEp, Senior)
  • Jeff Bouton (PiKA, Junior)

Ass Chair

  • Kevin Jang (KapSig, Senior)
  • Jeff Bouton (PiKA, Junior)

Safety Chair

  • Mike Mackin (Fringe/KDR, Senior)
  • Jeff Bouton (PiKA, Junior)
  • David Fortner (SDC, Senior)

Invoking my creepy alumni rights, here’s a picture of the 2012 committee:

Sweepstakes 2012
Left to right: Anthony Pacella making out with a buggy, a bird’s-eye view of Kevin Jang, and the only acceptable Facebook picture of Mike Mackin.

 

Congratulations to the whole committee and good luck with the coming year. Let us know if you need anything at all (except for fixing the potholes — you’re on your own with those monsters).

Finals Cancelled (rain)

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 1 Comment on Finals Cancelled (rain)

Sweepstakes has decided to spare everyone a few soggy hours in the rain and cancel Saturday’s races now.   With 100% chance of rain for every relevant hour and a huge mass of green on the radar, it was definitely the sane call to make.
That means that today’s prelim results are final, and Fringe and SDC are the 2011 champions!
The awards ceremony will still be at 6pm as scheduled, but that’s the only thing on the schedule so enjoy some sleep during carnival!  What a novelty!

Prelim results and Finals schedule

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 9 Comments on Prelim results and Finals schedule

I hope you either made it out this morning or followed along online, because prelims 2011 were a fine day of  racing.  Luckily, some fine folks in the forums summarized the day’s events, so I’ll skip that and get to the details.

The full official results are here on our leaderboard:
http://cmubuggy.org/raceday/leaderboard

The schedule for finals is:

Women's finals

8:00 am:   PiKA A      SDC C
8:15 am:   Fringe A    SigEp A
8:30 am:   SDC A       SDC B

Men's Finals
8:45 am:   SPIRIT A    CIA A
9:00 am:   SDC C       PiKA C
9:15 am:   SDC B       SigEp B
9:30 am:   SDC A       Fringe B
9:45 am:   Fringe A    SPIRIT B

 

Obviously the biggest factor in all of the above is whether the large amount of rain that is forecast will materialize.  Exhibitions have been semi-cancelled to allow finals to happen if the rain comes late.  If the weather holds up, we will run robobuggy and exhibitions at 10 minute intervals.