The Trinity men’s team captured their 17th Men’s National Championship—the Potter Cup—in dramatic fashion with a 6-3 win. Titles were awarded across eight divisions Sunday in the final day of the College Men’s Team Nationals.
Full results are available at www.csasquash.com/mensnationals2018.
Potter Cup
Trinity College successfully defended the Potter Cup title on its home courts by defeating Harvard in a rematch of the 2017 final. The two programs are the winningest in college squash history: combined they have won 48 of the 74 national titles ever awarded. The match was contested in front of more than a thousand fans sporting blue, gold, and crimson gear.
Both teams showed competitive grit as they contested seesaw matches at the No. 3, 6, and 9 positions. James Evans, a Trinity senior with only one loss in his college career, pulled the rabbit out of the hat again with a comeback from two games down at No. 9 spot against Bradley Smith. No. 6 Ziad Sakr grabbed the second match for the Bantams in five games, and No. 3 Michael Craig completed the first-round sweep for Trinity with a four game win over Sean Hughes, 15-13 in the final game.
Harvard No. 2 Timmy Brownell stymied the Trinity momentum with a clinical three game victory over Thoboki Moholo, and Trinity put one more point on the board at No. 5 as Tom De Mulder showed no signs of fatigue from a long semifinal match, winning in three games. In the No. 4 position, Harvard’s David Ryan nudged Rick Penders of Trinity 3-2.
With Trinity needing just one more victory to capture the title, No. 8 Andrew Lee beat Harvard’s Julien Gosset in an extremely close five game match to close out the team win.
The victory marks the 17th national championship for Trinity, all won in the last 20 years.
Hoehn Cup
George Washington collected the most significant win in the history of its men’s program, beating Hoehn top seed Yale 6-3. The win is GWU’s first over Yale in program history.
The first round of matches set the tone for the Colonials. GWU won all three matches, including #3 Oisin Logan overcoming an 11-1 third game loss to beat Max Martin in four, and #9 Juan Laguna coming back from two games down to defeat James Losty. Yale held the line in the second round, with Yohan Pandole beating Billy Berner and at No. 8 and Harrison Gill earning a hard-fought victory against GWU’s Jamie Oakley at No. 2—putting Yale within range at 4-2 down in the team score. In the final round, however, GWU’s Julian Jervis (#7) and Salim Khan (#4) each captured tight matches to earn the overall win.
The title marks the first Hoehn Cup in program history for GWU, and will result in a record-high No. 9 end-of-season ranking.
Summers Cup
Top seed Dickinson defeated three-seed Franklin & Marshall 5-4 to take the Summers Cup crown, repeating the score line of the regular season match between the two teams.
F&M got off to a strong start, taking two of the first three matches including a comeback at No. 9 where F&M’s Jack McCord overcame a 2-1 deficit to Dickinson’s Zachary Hollander. Dickinson brought back the momentum in the second round to even the overall score 3-3, where the Red Devils then gathered wins from No. 4 Sergio Martin and No. 7 Osuman Imoro in the final round to take the first Summers Cup for Dickinson. They will end the season ranked No. 17, the highest in the young program’s history.
Conroy Cup
The Conroy Cup final produced some of the most exciting squash of the day as top seed Bowdoin and two seed Hobart squared off. Hobart had won the regular season matchup 5-4, but Bowdoin flipped that result to take the title 5-4.
Bowdoin jumped out to a 2-1 lead after the first round of matches, but Hobart leveled the overall score in the second round, including a tight four-game win at No. 5 for Jack Shannon over Bowdoin’s Gannon Leech. Going into the final set of matches and each team needing two wins to grab the title, Hobart No. 1 Josh Oakley and Bowdoin No. 7 Drew Clark each took their matches in three games, leaving the No. 4 position as the deciding match. Hobart’s Divine Wing won the first two games, but Tyler Shonrock of Bowdoin roared back to take the final three and bring the Polar Bears their second Conroy Cup in school history.
Chaffee Cup
Top seed Fordham had beaten three seed NYU 5-4 in their last match in the regular season, and the final proved to be equally close. In the first set of matches, NYU’s Bradford Sunderland (No. 3) and Karan Kochar (No. 6) each survived a two-game deficit to achieve comeback wins in five. Fordham No. 9 Will Beatrez attempted a similar feat at No. 9 but fell just short, losing the final game to NYU’s Michael Kumar and giving NYU a 3-0 overall lead. NYU rode that early momentum to a 6-3 victory, with No. 4 Ashad Hajela sealing the team win.
Serues Cup
Northwestern lived up to the top seeding as it defeated third seed Boston College to win a
first Serues Cup. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first round, Northwestern’s Shikar Soni beat Matthieu Tapolsky of Boston College 11-9 in the first game at the No. 8 position to secure the overall victory. Northwestern continued the momentum into the third set of matches, bringing the final score to 8-1.
Hawthorn Cup
After splitting their regular season matches, second seed Richmond upset top-seeded North Carolina 6-3 to capture its first Hawthorn Cup. After winning two of the matches in the first round, Richmond gained a key win at No. 5 as Rick McRae beat George Schmidt 11-9 in the fifth game—after losing the fourth 18-16—to lock up the overall win.
H Division
Johns Hopkins won the H Division title 5-4 despite a late comeback push from finalist
Vanderbilt. The match was close throughout, with only two of the nine matches ending in three games. Entering the final round, Hopkins led 4-2, necessitating Vanderbilt to win all remaining matches. Vanderbilt captured the No. 1 and No. 7 positions, but Hopkins No. 4 Preston Coffin won a four-game match against Jason Outcalt to secure the title.
