USA Tournament News: USA National Teams Championships 2000

Reported by Peter Karlen, January 20, 2000

This past weekend (Jan 7-9), the National 5 man team Championships, sponsored by ASB, took place at Yale University. Twenty-four teams made the trip for a weekend filled with camaraderie and great squash. Going into the weekend, defending champion Princeton was the heavy favorite after adding three freshmen to their already strong team through recruiting. However, Harvard, Atlanta, Chicago, and the Junior Boys also had strong teams and hoped to give Princeton a run for their money. Other entrants in the top flight included two teams from Yale, two teams from Williams, another team from Harvard, another team from Princeton, Vermont, Midwest, New York, and Rhode Island.

In the first round, Princeton got a bye, New York Beat Harvard II in a tight 3-2 match that came down to the last game of the last match on court, Jr. Boys beat Vermont, Chicago beat Yale II, Atlanta beat Princeton II, Williams I beat Rhode Island, Yale I beat Midwest, and Harvard I beat Williams II.

In the Second round, Princeton beat New York, the Junior Boys upset Chicago, Atlanta beat Williams I, and Harvard I beat Yale I. In the semifinals, Princeton I beat the Junior Boys 5-0 and Harvard beat Atlanta 5-0. Atlanta took third place over the Jr. Boys in a tight 3-2 match. Team Midwest beat Harvard II in the consolation finals 3-2 to earn 9th place.

Both Harvard and Princeton got through to the finals rather easily, as neither team had lost an individual match on their road. The two teams had met just two months earlier at the Ivy Scrimmages, where Harvard won 5-4, but Princeton took 4 of the top five and did so handily. Both teams were not at full strength, as Harvard was missing their regular number 1 (or 2) Deepak Abraham and Princeton was missing their number 5 Danny Rutherford.

Princeton lined up with Peter Yik at 1, David Yik at 2, Will Evans at 3, Eric Pearson at 4, and Peter Kelly at 5. Harvard lined up with Tim Wyant at 1, Gray Witcher at 2, Dylan Patterson at 3, Peter Karlen at 4, and Andrew Merril at 5. The number 2 and 4 matches were played first, leaving the number 1, 3, and 5 matches for the second round. Princeton got off to a strong start as David Yik beat Witcher in the 1st game 9-0 and Pearson beat Karlen in the 1st 9-5. Yik ended up beating Witcher in 4, but Karlen came back to beat Pearson in 4 and level the match at 1-1 going into the second round.

At one point in the second round, Merril trailed Kelly in the 1st 8-5 in the number 5 match, Evans had already beaten Patterson in the 1st 9-4 in the number 3 match, and Wyant trailed Peter Yik 8-5 in the 1st in the number 1 match.

However, Harvard came storming back as Merril came back to win the 1st 10-8, and then won the next two games relatively easily to give the Harvard team a 2-1 lead in matches. When Merril stepped off court, Patterson was 1-1 with Evans, whom he had lost to earlier this year at the Ivy Scrimmages, and Yik seemed poised to win his match against Wyant after winning the second game 10-8 to tie their match at 1-1. Patterson ended up winning his match 9-7 in the 4th to clinch the victory for Harvard.

However, Yik and Wyant were still only midway through their 3rd game. Yik had never lost to Wyant in intercollegiate play, including the finals of last year's intercollegiate individuals where Yik dominated a worn-out Wyant 3-0. However, on this day, Wyant was able to neutralize Yik's deception with his amazing retrieving ability and to force Yik to play a very basic game. Generally when Wyant dictates the pace in his matches the points become very long, and this match only emphasized that rule.

The first three games took 1 hour and 35 minutes. At 7-7 in the 3rd, Yik's right leg started to cramp and Wyant kept the pressure on, winning the game 9-7. Yik's leg only worsened in between games, and he was not able to continue playing at the same pace, and Wyant easily won the 4th game 9-0. It was the most grueling match I have ever seen at any level, and was certainly the best match I saw all weekend. These two tough competitors are sure to meet several more times this season, and I have no doubt those matches will be equally spectacular.

Harvard pulled out the match 4-1, despite a great effort from the Princeton players. It was a hard fought match all the way around, and Princeton will no doubt be looking for revenge when the two rivals square off on February 13 at Harvard's newly built Murr Center. All in all, it was a great weekend. Thanks to Dave Talbot for organizing it and ASB for sponsoring it.