Channel Madness Round 2 Results: McCray, Sbar Win Tight Matchups To Advance To Enterprise 8

The voting is done, and Round 2 of the 2018 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is now in the books. Many of our chiefs were embroiled in tough shoot-outs that went down to the buzzer. Here's a look at how the Solutions 16 fared and who's moving on to the quarterfinal round as the Enterprise 8.

In the Hardware region, the hard-fought contest between APC by Schneider Electric's Shannon Sbar and Cisco's Wendy Bahr saw several lead changes throughout the voting. In the end, Sbar pulled it out 52 percent to 48 percent.

In the other Hardware region contest, NetApp's Jeff McCullough kept his eye on the prize, defeating Juniper's Brian Rosenberg 53 percent to 47 percent.

In the Security region, Symantec's Keith Weatherford pulled out a dramatic come-from-behind win over Fortinet's Jon Bove, winning 52 percent to 48 percent.

McAfee's Ken McCray and SonicWall's Steve Pataky kept it competitive with Pataky enjoying a thin lead through most of the voting, but McCray turned it on at the end to grab the victory 58 percent to 42 percent.

In the Hardware region, another fierce battle raged between HP's Stephanie Dismore and Intel's Todd Garrigues, but Garrigues hung onto his lead to win 52 percent to 48 percent.

Dell EMC's Joyce Mullen proved to be a touch challenger for Aruba's Donna Grothjan. Mullen claimed the win 68 percent to 32 percent.

And in the Cloud region, Veeam's Kevin Rooney bested Oracle's Bill Swales 65 percent to 35 percent, while Intermedia's Eric Martorano looked good against VMware's Frank Rauch, winning 62 percent to 38 percent.

So, for the quarterfinals, here's a look at the Enterprise 8 matchups.

Sbar of APC by Schneider Electric will face off against NetApp's McCullough for the Infrastructure crown, while Dell EMC's Mullen and Intel's Garrigues go toe-to-toe for the Hardware title.

Intermedia's Martorano will make back-to-back appearances in the quarterfinals, where he'll square off against Veeam's Rooney for the Cloud title, while Symantec's Weatherford takes on McAfee's McCray for the Security crown.

Voting in Round 3 opens today, Tuesday, March 27, at 4:00 p.m. ET and remains open until Thursday, March 29 at noon ET. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!