It was just a close game on the court tonight as Florida came back to beat Houston in San Antonio. But that come back changed the leaderboard as well. 82 people picked the Gators to win (including the Lunatic in his insane picks). And more impressively, 23 people correctly picked Florida to beat Houston – so they completely got the Final 4 correct. This led to a lot of close standings in the pools.

Congratulations to our overall winner – Lowell Isaacs, who beat James Franklin and Austin McElroy by 30 points. Lowell’s total of 1510 points tied the highest ever winning score – matching John Homan’s record performance in 2009 when North Carolina beat Michigan State.

Congratulations to our upset pool winner – Ashley Peterson, who beat Debbe Evans by 16 points.

And congratulations to our second chance pool winner Amy Lacks – who beat Robert Ahles and Matt Reilly by 40 points (and only got 1 of the 15 games wrong).

And I think Amy deserves a special call out. Amy’s original picks scored 270 points and finished in last place of the standard pool. But everyone deserves a second chance, and Amy made the most of it by going from last to first. In a Final Four that was marked by its comebacks, Amy might have made the biggest comeback of March.

Lets congratulate all of our winners!!!!

STANDARD POOL

• 1st) Lowell Isaacs (1510)
• 2nd) James Frankin and Austin McElroy (1480)
• 4th) Karen Barton (1460)
• 5th) Steve Glass (1450)
• 6th) Drew Bradley (1440)
• 7th) Heath Lindvall and Earl McKnight (1400)
• 9th) Adrian Young and Andrea Zimmerman (1390)
• LAST) Amy Lacks (270)

UPSET POOL

• 1st) Ashley Peterson (275)
• 2nd) Debbe Evans (259)
• 3rd) Scott Grimes (250)
• 4th) Blake Viera (244)
• 5th) Andrea Zimmerman (240)

SECOND CHANCE POOL

• 1st) Amy Lacks (1000)
• 2nd) Robert Ahles and Matt Reilly (960)

As for our sleep-deprived Lunatic, thanks to Florida’s win, his insane picks stumbled up the leaderboard to finish in 82nd place (well, a tie for 81st before the tie-breakers). That feels like a really good stomping this year. I am sure that after a little bit of sleep, and a year to recover from this stomping, the Lunatic will be ready and excited to do this insanity all again.

Thank you to all of you for helping make this such a fun tournament for me to run each year. I love so much to get a chance to rant about my favorite time of year – March Madness! It makes me so happy to blog about the tournament, and that so many of you come back each year for another chance to Stomp the Lunatic – hopefully also enjoying the rantings of the Lunatic.

Congratulations again to our 2025 Stomp the Lunatic champion Lowell Isaacs, our upset pool champion Ashley Peterson, and our second chance pool champion Amy Lacks! And of course, congratulations again to the 2025 NCAA Men’s Champions – the Florida Gators!!!!