The men’s squash team competed over the weekend in the Summers Cup Division of the team national championship, winning their first match and then losing the next two. The men traveled to Wesleyan for the three-day tournament and were excited to play given the women’s team won the Walker Cup Division of their team national championship the previous week.
The men finished the weekend with an overall record of 1-2, ultimately placing fourth in the C division of the national championships and No. 20 in the nation. The squad began the tournament with an impressive 6-3 win over rival Amherst and then suffered two hard-fought defeats to Middlebury, 1-8, and George Washington University (GWU), 4-5.
Having fallen to a strong Amherst side two weeks prior, Bowdoin was eager to perform well in their first match to keep their season alive. The team put together a solid performance; they recorded wins from No. 2 Stephan Danyluk ’14, No. 3 Will Fantini ’13, No. 5 Reid Wilson ’14, No. 7 Andrew Ward ’15, No. 8 Will Winmill ’14, and No. 9 Alex Reisley ’16.
The next two days of matches proved to be just as fierce. Fantini secured the lone win against Middlebury on Saturday in a match that Ward said he felt was closer than the score suggested.
“We actually played a lot better against Middlebury despite losing 8-1,” he said. “Many of us played our best matches of the season and I know everyone on the team competed very well.”
The final match of the weekend was the 19th place match versus GWU. The men were down 4-1 and were able to tie at 4-4 before losing the No. 1 seeded game to drop to 4-5. No. 4 Matt Cooper ’16, Ward, Winmill, and Reisley recorded the wins on Sunday for the Polar Bears.
Despite the squad’s season-ending loss, the weekend still proved to be fruitful. The program was honored with the Sloane Award for Sportsmanship on Sunday, an award given annually the team that best exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship throughout the season and at the tournament.
Fantini said he was honored to receive such a prestigious award during his last season as a Polar Bear, and for the first time in the schools history.
“Receiving the Slone Sportsmanship Award meant a lot to our squad,” he said. “The award was voted on by all other coaches and teams—such recognition says a lot about our program.”