The US Junior Nationals 2005
Mar 8, 2005, by Ron Beck
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Gordon, Lorentzen, Park, Blatchford Dominate as Expected

Christopher Gordon Charged through the Boys U19 draw for the title. Photo © 2005 Stocktonphoto.com

The US Junior Nationals, taking place "south" this year, at Meadow Mill in Baltimore Maryland, sported a full field of entrants, but the resulting winners were the predicted powerhouse players who dominated their age groups.

GORDON DOMINATES
Of particular note, Christopher Gordon, who is actively playing on the PSA pro tour, has performed well in US men's team selection events, and who is based in the UK on a permanent basis, completely dominated the Boys under-19s, winning that division in his last elegible year without losing a game.

LILY COASTS
Lily Lorentzen, who is also actively playing the WISPA pro tour this year, equally dominated the girl's under-19 event, not losing a game and defeating Emery Maine in straight games in the finals. Highly touted Kristin Lange from Seattle, Washington, was unable to hold a two-game lead over Maine in the semi finals, falling to Maine in a long five. For Lorentzen, who is expected to enroll at Harvard next fall after having taken a gap-year, this is a third successive title in this division, which has been rarely equalled.

In the girl's under-17's top seeded Alia Aziz of New York lost an extremely tight five game contest to Christina Matthias of Philadelphia, who then could not hold off #2 seed Logan Greer in the finals.

Emily Park was not challenged for the Girls U15 title. Photo © 2005 Stocktonphoto.com

PARK AND BLATCHFORD DOMINATE
Emily Park, as expected, had no difficulty in the Girls under 15s, surrendering no games all weekend and only five points in the finals to #2 seed Natasha Kingschott. And Olivia Blatchford, the class of the girls under 13s, surrendered only one point in the first two rounds on her way to the under 13s title over Vidya Rajan of Seattle, the #3 seed.

Of note at this year's tournament was the particularly strong showing of the group of juniors traveling out from the Northwestern hotbed of squash, Seattle. Meanwhile, the continuing challenge facing the US junior program, in evidence again this year, is the strong dominance of the suburban Philadelphia, Fairfield County CT and New York squash programs.

ANALYSIS AND VIEWPOINT
US Squash will need a sustained strategy towards "spreading the wealth" beyond those centers in order to sustain and expand the current strong growth of junior squash in the USA. For example, in the most illustrative junior draws - the under 17s, each draw boasted only one entrant from Massachusetts, most probably due to a conflict in dates with the Independent school exam periods, and only a few from outside the above mentioned localities. Entrants from locations such as Dayton, Cincinatti, Rochester, and Atlanta were few and far between. The several-year-old policy of excluding most potential entrants below a ranking position of 32, may account for the diminishing diversity of locations from a few years ago - as is it generally much more difficult for a player from an "outlying area" to achieve a high ranking position during the course of a season, due to the ranking methodologies employed. That policy may need to be revisited. The US squash community already knows who the top two to three players are in each age group - the goal of an event such as this should be more in the spirit of participation and growth of the game rather than an exclusionary annointing of the top player(s).

RESULTS: USSRA Junior National Championships, Meadow Mill, Baltimore MD

Finals:
Boys U19:
Christopher Gordon (1) (NY NY) def Trevor McGuinness (2)(Merion PA) 9-6 9-0 9-2
Girls U19:
Lily Lorentzen(1) (Greenwich CT) def Emery Maine(3)(Wyndmoor PA) 9-5 9-5 9-0
Boys U17:
Todd Ruth (2)(Gladwynne PA) def Reed Endresen (4) (Rye NY) 10-8 9-0 9-4
Girls U17:
Logan Greer (2)(Berwyn PA) def Christina Matthias (4)(Philadelphia PA) 7-9 10-8 9-0 5-9 9-4
Boys U15:
Todd Harrity (1)(Wayne PA) def Thomas Mattsson (2)(Springhouse PA) 3-9 9-5 9-1 9-3
Girls U15:
Emily Park (1)(New York) def Natasha Kingschott (Greenwich CT) 9-0 9-0 9-4
Boys U13:
Christopher Jung(2) (Seattle, WA) def Jack Maine (Wyndmoor PA) 9-7 9-2 9-7
Girls U13:
Olivia Blatchford(1) (Brooklyn NY) def Vidya Rajan (3)(Seattle WA) 9-4 9-3 9-2

Lily Lorentzen, U19 Champ Again. Photo © 2005 Stocktonphoto.com	Olivia Blatchford, U13 Champ. Photo © 2005 Stocktonphoto.com

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