Trinity Hosts Intercollegiate Squash Singles Championships This Weekend
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Trinity Hosts Intercollegiate Squash Singles Championships This Weekend |
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Hartford, Conn., Feb. 25 - Trinity College will host the College Squash Association (CSA) Men’s and Women’s Singles Championships at George A. Kellner Squash Center from Friday, Feb. 28 - Sunday, March 2. Trinity women’s junior co-captain Amina Helal (Manchester, England) and Bantam men’s sophomore Bernardo Samper (Bogota, Colombia) are the defending CSA Singles Champions. |
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Sophomore
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The Trinity men, coached by Paul Assaiante, posted a perfect 19-0 record this season, including a sixth consecutive dual match season championship title and a fifth straight CSA Team Championship title (Potter Trophy). The Trinity women, coached by Wendy Bartlett, won their third straight dual match season championship title (Barhite Trophy) as well as a second straight CSA Team Championship title (Howe Cup). The Trinity men are undefeated in all matches in each of the past five seasons (90 in a row), while the Bantam women have not lost in the last two years (26 straight wins).
Trinity boasts four of the top 15 players in the nation in both men and women’s squash. Helal, who has a 9-2 record, will be seeded No. 1 in the WISA Singles Tournament, followed by sophomore teammate Lynn Leong (Kota Bharu, Malaysia) at No. 3, junior Pam Saunders (Harare, Zimbabwe) at No. 10, and freshman Maria Restrepo (Medellin, Colombia) at No. 14. Leong, who posted a 10-1 record this season, lost to Helal in the Women’s Singles Championship Finals last season. Saunders is 7-1 and Restrepo is 13-2 this season.
Samper was ranked No. 1 in the nation entering the Men’s Team Championships last weekend, but suffered his first two career intercollegiate losses in the semifinals and finals. Samper, Michael Ferreira (Stamford, England), senior co-captain Nicholas Kyme (Pembroke, Bermuda), and freshman Yvain Badan (Lausanne, Switzerland) are all candidates to win the CSA Singles Championship. Ferreira was the No. 5-ranked player in the nation entering the weekend and played No. 2 for the Bantams all year, posting a 5-2 record this season, while Kyme was No. 10 and Badan was ranked No. 13. The men will be ranked again to include the Team Championships records later this week.
Other top contenders for the Women’s Singles titles include Runa Reta, of Pennsylvania, Louisa Hall, of Harvard, and Michelle Quibell, of Yale. Will Evans, David Yik, the 2001 Men’s Singles Champion, and freshman sensation Yasser El-Halaby, all of Princeton, Harvard’s Will Broadbent, and Yale’s Julian Illingworth are all capable of winning the Men’s Singles title.
