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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Five-Man Team Championships
Men's Squash Runs Table, Wins National 5-Man Championship
December 15, 2002 | Men's Squash
Dec. 15, 2002
The Princeton men's squash team sent a pair of messages to the rest of collegiate squash this weekend in winning the Five-Man Natinonal Championship. First of all, the Tigers are going to one of the top contenders for the national team title this season, which has been won six times in a row by Trinity. Second of all, the Tigers have a freshman that will be amongst the nation's best for quite some time.
Princeton's 'A' team, consisting of freshman Yasser El-Halaby (No. 1) and seniors David Yik (No. 2), Will Evans (No. 3), Dan Rutherford (No. 4) and Eric Pearson (No. 5), won four matches over the span of three days, culminating with a 4-1 win over Trinity's 'A' team in the national final. "It was a great match," men's squash coach Bob Callahan said. "It was closer than it sounds. The guys were spectacular."
El-Halaby defeated Bernardo Samper, the defending intercollegiate champion, 3-1. El-Halaby took the first two games before dropping the third game. The freshman earned victory in the fourth game and claimed the win. "Both were terrific players," Callahan said. "It was wonderful squash."
Yik defeated Nick Khan, who had just defeated the No. 1 U.S.-born squash player in the semifinal, 3-0. "It was the best performance I've seen from David in two years," Callahan said.
Evans took down Trinity's top freshman 3-0 to clinch the match. Rutherford fell 3-0, but Pearson added some drama in the fifth match by rallying from 7-2 down in the fifth gane to earn a 10-9 victory in the game and a 3-2 match win.
Princeton's 'A' team opened the weekend with a 5-0 win over Trinity's 'B' team. El-Halaby, Yik, Rutherford and Pearson each won in sweeps. The Tigers swept a pair of New York professional teams by 4-1 scores on Saturday to reach the final. The feature match on Saturday came between El-Halaby and Clive Leach, who was ranked 23rd in the world professionally before he retired last year. El-Halaby claimed a 3-1 win over Leach.
Princeton's 'B' team, consisting of Aaron Zimmerman (No. 1), Dent Wilkens (No. 2), Nathan Beck (No. 3), Rob Siverd (No. 4), Will Boothby (No. 5), earned their way to the national quarterfinals by knocking off No. 6 Dartmouth's 'A' team 4-1. Zimmerman fell to Dartmouth's top seed, but the deep Princeton squad ran the table the rest of the way to claim the win. The 'B' team fell in the quarterfinal to a team of Harvard alumni players.