JUSTIN VALE CLINCHES MEN’S POOL VICTORY
YOUNGEST WINNER ENDS NEWINGTON’S WINNING STREAK,
THANKS TO MARQUETTE “MISTAKE” AND WIN BY KANSAS
Rockville High freshman has 317 points so far, may break all-time record

Kansas is headed for New Orleans, and Justin Vale is headed for the Living Room Times history books.

#2-seed Kansas’s victory over #1-seed Arizona put the Jayhawks in the Final Four and wrapped up an historic championship for Vale in the Times’s eighth annual NCAA men’s pool. Vale, a 14-year-old freshman at Rockville High School in Vernon, Connecticut, had already tied the record for best-predicted first round ever; now he is the youngest pool winner ever, the first non-Newington winner ever, and tied for the earliest clinch ever in a men’s pool. He also may well end up with the most points ever.

Vale’s victory also ended two long winning streaks for the town of Newington, Connecticut. Every pool since 1997, men’s and women’s, had been won by a member of the Newington High School Class of 1999 — until this one. And every pool throughout Times history had been won by someone directly associated with Newington High — again, until this one.

Vale does have a connection to Newington High, but it is indirect: his grandfather coaches the NHS golf team. Vale himself lives in Vernon, and Newington connections are not responsible for his entering the pool; he found it “randomly” over the Internet. Vale is the first Times pool winner who does not personally know pool administrator Brendan Loy, and who was not specifically invited by Loy to enter the pool.

Vale may also be the first contestant ever to win a Times pool because of an error in his bracket. Vale meant to pick Kentucky over Marquette, but inadvertantly clicked the wrong team when filling out his bracket, choosing the Golden Eagles “by accident.” Discovering his error later, he referred to his choice of Marquette as a “bad” pick. But the Eagles stunned the Wildcats earlier today, boosting Vale and setting the stage for Kansas, his national champion pick, to seal the deal for him by beating Arizona.

Kansas’s win eliminated the last of Vale’s opposition: Northeastern University senior Ryan McBride, USC senior Mike Wiser, and Becky Zak’s father Ted Zak. This is the first time since 1997 that a men’s pool winner has been decided before the start of the Final Four.

The previous youngest winner in Times history was pool administrator Brendan Loy, who was 15 when he won the women’s pool in 1996. The records for early clinching and for the most points in a men’s pool are both held by Lou Ruggiero, who clinched victory in 1996 on the first day of the Elite Eight en route to scoring 354 points in the pool. The most points scored in any pool, men’s or women’s, is 409, a mark set by Jenn Castelhano in the women’s pool last year.

Vale currently has 317 points, and could finish with as many as 412 if all of his remaining picks come true. Two or three correct picks, depending on which round they occur in, would be enough to surpass men’s-pool record.

All of Vale’s remaining picks are still possible — Texas and Oklahoma to reach the Final Four tomorrow, Kansas and Texas to reach the title game, and Kansas to win it all. Tomorrow’s two Elite Eight games are worth 15 points each; each Final Four game is worth 20 points, and the title game is worth 25 points. The pool is scored on a 5-7-10-15-20-25 basis.

Vale has held at least a share of the lead since last Friday, March 21, when Butler stunned Mississippi State in the first round. He and then-co-leader Larry Caplin went 28-4 in the first round, tying Ruggiero’s 1996 record for the best-predicted first round in Times men’s pool history.