TRADITIONAL NEW YORK EVENT MOVES "OFF SEASON"

The University Club Of New York is hosting the Cummings Cup Invitational Singles and Ketcham Intercollegiate Doubles tournaments this early-spring weekend, having moved the event back from its normal Christmas-week slot in an attempt to boost participation.

There were originally 17 entered teams in the doubles competition, but nine of those entries, including all four from Potter Cup team-singles-champions Trinity, withdrew during the 10 days leading up to the event.

Now in its 20th rendition, the Doubles still hasn’t yet caught on as a true priority among the top squash-playing colleges (notwithstanding last year’s passionate final in which Harvard stand-outs Will Broadbent and Garnett Booth avenged their previous year’s final-round defeat at the hands of Yalies Julian Illingworth and Trevor Rees), somewhat surprisingly in light of what a surge the sport has undergone in recent years in the amateur and professional ranks in the U. S. and Canada.

This year’s contrastingly low-key event nevertheless saw two five-game semifinals, in the first of which Bowdoin torch-bearers Peter Cipriano and Zack Linhart followed their 3-0 win over Princetonians Kimlee Wong and John Edwards with a marathon victory at the expense of Yale’s Todd Ruth (he of the multiple national junior championships with Trevor McGuinness) and Ethan Oetter. In thee bottom half, Ricky Weisskopf and Sean Wilkinson of Bates out-played first Auloke Mathur and Craig McCready of Amherst and then Tucker George and Jeff Sawin of Navy, quarterfinal victors over Mark Rapisarda and Stuart Landesberg of Amherst.

In the singles, Wong, who plays No. 3 on Princeton’s Ivy League championship varsity, motored unimpeded into  tomorrow morning’s final, overwhelming McCready and Wilkinson in his quarter- and semi-final round respectively. His opponent will be Weisskopf, who similarly didn’t lose a game in his matches against Ruth and George. That final is scheduled for 10:00, followed by the doubles final at 11:00, and, with no player participating in both finals (as HAS happened occasionally in the past, most recently with Broadbent four years ago), the doubles final should start on time.

Doubles Recap
Qtrs:
Todd Ruth/Ethan Oetter (Yale) d Seth Cruice/Justin Moore (F & M), 3-0;
Zack Linhart/Peter Cipriano (Bowdoin) d John Edwards/Kimlee Wong (Princeton), 3-0;
Ricky Weisskopf/Sean Wilkinson (Bates) d Auloke Mathur/Craig McCready (Amherst), 3-0;
Tucker George/Jeff Sawin (Navy) d Mark Rapisarda/Stuart Landesberg (Amherst), 3-0.

Semis:
Bowdoin d Yale, 3-2;
Bates d Navy, 3-2.

Singles Recap
Qtrs:
Wong (Princeton) d McCready (Amherst), 3-0;
Wilkinson (Bates) d Oetter (Yale), 3-0;
George (Navy) d Rapisarda (Amherst), 3-0;
Weisskopf (Bates) d Ruth (Yale), 3-0

Semis:
Wong (Princeton) d Wilkinson(Bates), 3-0;
Weisskopf (Bates) d George (Navy), 3-0.