The quarterfinal round of the 2015 edition of TallyMadness — the online voting competition to determine Tallahassee’s “best” lobbyist — is in the books and, yet again, the action continues to simmer as our Sweet 16 is winnowed down to a hallowed Elite 8.
The top-seeded Brian Ballard prevailed over #5 seed Jeff Hartley in the third round of TallyMadness, ending Hartley’s impressive run. Ballard’s steady barrage of votes was enough to take the victory by a good clip. Ballard advances to the semifinal round.
There he’ll meet the likes of Mark Delegal, who for yet another round is in contention for the most votes garnered overall as he dispatched his Sweet 16 rival #15 Andy Palmer, whose three-round run was more than respectable.
#1 seed and TallyMadness pro Ron Book pulled out the big guns again this week as he amassed five-figure totals in an easy win against #12 Marc Reichelderfer. Reichelderfer ends his own underdog run with his head held high, pulling off two significant upsets in the early going this year. Well done.
But #7 seed Tim Meenan figures to give Book about all he can handle in the Elite 8, as he bounces #14 seed Will McKinley, who shocked the world and defied the TallyMadness selection committee by making it deep into this year’s tournament.
In what was no doubt the marquee matchup of the round with around 50,000 votes cast, #9 seed Brecht Heuchan narrowly surmounted #13 seed Bill Peebles in a vote-snagging duel that practically broke the meter. Heuchan moves on to the next round by garnering 50.7 percent of the vote to Peebles’ 49.3.
#11 seed John Holley will meet Heuchan in the Elite 8, as the heretofore unsung phenom continues to turn heads with a victory over #7 seed Slater Bayliss. Bayliss had strung together a solid pair of wins in the early-round action of this year’s tournament but couldn’t keep it going against Holley.
#16 seed and Cinderella story of the cycle Monica Rodriguez topped Richard Coates, who put up a respectable effort garnering around five times what most vanquished Sweet 16-ers did, but Rodriguez just ran up the score a little more quickly to overcome.
Her Elite 8 opponent will be none other than Robert Coker, who pulled in the third-most votes of any candidate in the Sweet 16 on his way to a 58-42 victory over the giant-slaying #7 seed Katie Webb.
Vote for the lobbyists you would like to see in the TallyMadness Final Four until midnight on Monday, April 13, on TallyMadness.com!
