By Marisa Penkauskas
The Expresso Fall Frenzy saga continues!
Last week, students at LSU, SUNY Binghamton, Gannon, and Schoolcraft put their quads into action to push their teams ahead—each school competing for pride, glory, and the legendary Golden Spokes trophy.
Read a recap of the tournament’s Elite Eight round to get caught up to speed!
Over the past four weeks of the Fall Frenzy, 2,226 riders from 124 colleges have ridden a combined 46,154 miles and burned over 1,600,000 calories on their Expresso virtual reality bikes. Now just two teams remain in the tournament!
Results from the Final Four
In the Final Four, LSU and SUNY Binghamton—who both appeared in the finals last year—were upset by Schoolcraft, seeded 13, and unseeded newcomer Gannon University.
Schoolcraft—3,335 miles vs. LSU—2,099 miles
Gannon—2,535 miles vs. SUNY Binghamton—1,986 miles
Schoolcraft started strong and quickly drew a few hundred miles ahead of LSU. The Schoolcraft Ocelots then broke away from the defending champion and finished with over 1,000 miles more than the LSU Tigers. Coach Tommy Moffitt of LSU had expressed concerns with moving into the Final Four during football season: “The Final Four challenge is going to be tough; we’re missing some of our good riders from last year.” But, never been one to back down easily, he ended his statement with a resounding, “Here we go!”
Gannon made waves in their first Frenzy by putting up huge numbers in the early rounds of the tournament. In the Final Four round against last year’s runner-up, they took off out of the gate and never looked back. In just the first 20 minutes of competition, the Gannon Knights logged over 20 miles.
The big upset in the Final Four round was newcomer Gannon University overtaking Fall Frenzy veteran SUNY Binghamton.Houghton College may have fallen out of the tournament in the Elite Eight round two weeks ago, but that didn’t stop Joey Wilmot from driving two and a half hours to SUNY Binghamton to put in some miles for their team and to keep a firm hold on his title as one of the top ten riders in the tournament. After adding an extra 152 miles for SUNY Binghamton to his personal total, he’s now the #1 rider in the Expresso Fall Frenzy.
Individual riders are competing to be a part of the All-Tournament team. The following riders have ridden the most miles throughout the overall tournament:
- Joey Wilmot – Houghton – 609 miles
- Justin Thomas – SUNY Binghamton – 590 miles
- David Geyer – LSU – 508 miles
- Joshua Costa – Schoolcraft – 460 miles
- Brian Johnson – LSU – 434 miles
- Nathan Hatch – Houghton – 411 miles
- Abby Quinn – Gannon – 334 miles
- Brian Ratajczak – Gannon – 333 miles
- Scott B – SUNY Binghamton – 330 miles
- Pat Mog – Schoolcraft – 315 miles
448 riders from the Final Four teams rode for a combined 10,000 miles in 48 hours and burned over 315,000 calories. The effort from all the teams was incredible, and hopefully they’ve inspired you to take advantage of your own rec center’s stationary bikes—build up the miles and burn some calories!
The Championship Round
SCHOOLCRAFT (13) vs. GANNON
After losing last year’s Sweet 16 round to the University of Rochester, the Schoolcraft Ocelots have made it all the way to the Championships this year and are hoping to soon see the Golden Spokes trophy gleaming in their rec center. Gannon University installed their bikes only one month before the Frenzy but didn’t waste a minute getting acclimated and building their team. Both teams are going into the last round with over 100 riders and their eyes on the prize.
Tune into the exciting last round of the Expresso Fall Frenzy, which is taking place right now and will end at midnight EST, to see which team will capture the Golden Spokes trophy!
For more information about the Expresso Fall Frenzy, please contact Marisa Penkauskas, Marketing Manager at Interactive Fitness.
