Western Men win Ontario Title
Collect 21st Successive OUA Title and Women's Bronze
Feb 9, 2004 © 2004 by Ron Beck

Jack Fairs Leads his Western Ontario Mustangs to their 21st successive Ontario Crown.

Western Ontario's Men came into last weekend's Ontario University (OUA) conference Squash Championships in an unfamiliar position — they had been tied the prior weekend by McGill in a "crossover" playdown. Observers wondered whether Western would be knocked off their 20-year perch by the McGill squad.

Western Ontario has a legendary program, overseen for the past 41 (!) years by Jack Fairs. During that time Fairs has coach such squash greats as Phil Mohtadi, John Lennard, Jamie Crombie, and Scott Stoneburg. The current squad is a strong as ever, led by Rob Nigro, Andrew Jones and Vinay Lodha.

McGill may have been looking too far ahead to the finals, as they were upended in the semi finals by University of Toronto 4-2.

Meanwhile, Western fulfilled their customary role, as they swept Queen’s 6-0 in a semifinal before blanking Toronto 6-0 in the gold medal match to capture the title for an unprecedented 21st consecutive year. Heading into the tourney, the Mustangs had posted a 6-1 Ontario League regular season record, losing only four of 42 games played, including three to McGill. Western also plays in the USA College Squash Association, where they are currently ranked 7th.

It was McGill's best season in recent memory as the Redmen ended up with an impressive 6-0-1 regular season record, winning 36 of 42 games heading into the OUA championships. Overall, they finished at 7-1-1 with 44 games won against only 10 lost.

The McGill men's squash team came away with two all-stars and a bronze medal from the OUA championships at the Cedar Springs Racquet Club in Burlington, Ont., Feb. 7.

The Redmen rebounded from a disappointing 4-2 semifinal loss to Toronto, with a resounding 6-0 victory over Queen's to end up third overall in the eight-team league. Only four teams qualified to compete in the championship tournament.

The McGill men went 3-0 at the OUA East Sectional in November and 3-0-1 at the OUA Crossover tourney in January, where they tied Western atop the standings after playing the omnipotent Mustangs to a 3-3 draw.

Two members of the Redmen were voted to the OUA all-star teams. No. 1 seed Diego Diaz-del-Castillo, an engineering freshman from Bogota, Columbia, was one of only six players to earn a berth on the first squad. McGill captain and No. 4 seed Mark Smith, a senior from Montreal, was selected to the second team.

TORONTO WOMEN WIN ONTARIO CROWN OVER MCMASTER
On the women's side, the Varsity Blues won their second straight title with a 4-2 decision over McMaster in the gold medal match. It was Toronto's third gold medal in 5 years.

The women's final was a close one with three of the Final's 6 matches extending to the 5th game. Toronto beat Western's women 5-1 in the semifinal to reach the finals.

The Toronto women were awarded 3 OUA Allstars - Julia Hamilton, Lindsay Auld and
Karlene Headley-Cooper. Head coach David Cooper was awarded OUA Women's 2004 Coach of the Year. McGill which failed to qualify for the women's tourney, placed Diane Liu on the second all-star team. The 5-foot-8 science sophomore hails from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

The Toronto women will continue to play exhibition games against teams from CSA next year.

Discussion is ongoing about the possibility of a Can AM University event in 2004-5
season. Any teams interested in playing against the U of Toronto women are invited
to contact Dave Cooper at 416 978 4113.

OUA MEN’S ALL-STARS:

FIRST TEAM
Rob Nigro, Western
Sanjeev Chada, McMaster
Andrew Jones, Western
Dale Beesley, Queen’s
Diego Diaz-del-Castillo, McGill
Vinay Lodha, Western

SECOND TEAM
Sean Hanna, Toronto
Mark Smith, McGill
Alex Carter, Western
Jeff Lurie, Western
Ken Lo, Brock
Joey Van Loon, Waterloo

COACH OF THE YEAR
Eugene Zaremba, Queen’s

OUA WOMEN’S ALL-STARS:

FIRST TEAM
Julia Hamilton, Toronto
Lindsay Auld, Toronto
Kristina Taylor, McMaster
Kim Farah, Western
Karlene Headley-Cooper, Toronto
Vanessa Steinwell, Western

SECOND TEAM
Jenny Hogan, McMaster
Carly Thompson, McMaster
Lindsay Wiseman, Queen’s
Carla Jackson, Ryerson
Kim Milne, McMaster
Diane Liu, McGill

COACH OF THE YEAR
David Cooper, Toronto

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