(updated 28-feb-09 15:53 )

The National Individual Squash Championships in Williamstown got underway, today, Friday with a field of about 180 collegians competing in four draws.

In early round play, the seeds advanced early but there were several surprises.

One of the early shock results was the defeat of fourth seed Gustav Detter, Trinity's #2 player, at the hands of Viktram Malhotri, Trinity's #8 seed. Detter has been a perennial finalist at this event so his early exit must have been a bitter disappointment to the stylish Swede who has made supreme effort and determination the halmark of his Trinity career, which ends this weekend.

Another surpise was the first round exit of Princeton's Chris Callis. Callis, a freshman, may have fallen victim to Freshman fatigue -- just one week to many of competition after two hard weekends competing against Trinity. Callis fell in five games to Penn's Thomas Mattsson. Mattsson then met Callis's teammate, Kelly Shannon who defeated him in three games. Mattsson suffered severe cramps during this second match, ending up at the Williamstown Hospital for treatment of dehydration.

Also shuffling the seedings in the national championship Potter Division was Princeton's Dave Letourneau, who knocked out Trinity's Manek Mathur after racing past Harvard's Nico Hrdy.

On the women's side, the only notable upset was by Stanford senior Lily Lorentzen, who overturned the seedings by putting out Princeton's #1 and the fifth seed, Amanda Siebert. Lorentzen is looking more comfortable and stronger each match, as she continues her journey back from a broken foot bone. For Siebert, it was the second successive early exit from the Howe Cup. She suffered an even bigger upset last year in the first round.

In the final match of the evening, Rochester's #1 player, Jim Bristow, had to battle mightily to defeat Princeton freshman David Canner. Canner employed very sound tactics in fighting his way back from a two game deficit to almost take the match away from his more decorated oppponent. Canner held a 5-3 lead in the fifth game before, on the same court that a few hours earlier had seen Mattsson succomb to cramps, Canner himself fell to the floor with a thigh cramp and still was able to fight through and almost complete the comeback against Bristow. It was an enthralling end to an intense day of squash.

Quarterfinals and semi finals happen Saturday in Williamstown.

View the draws and results as follows:

Men's "A" Potter	Women's "A" Ramsay
Men's "B" Malloy	Women's "B" Holleran
Men's A Potter Consolation	Women's A Ramsay Consolation
Men's A Potter 2nd Round Consolation	Women's A Ramsay 2nd Round Consolation
Men's B Malloy Consolation	Women's B Holleran Consolation
Men's B Malloy 2nd Round Consolation	Women's B Holleran 2nd Round Consolation
Men's B Malloy 3rd Round Consolation	Women's B Holleran 3rd Round Consolation

 

 

 

 

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