Freshman Squash Team Makes Impressive Start

The varsity squash team is pretty impressive with 35 straight victories, but it has been outdone.

Its understudy, the freshman squad, is now the paragon of success. Perfect records are not unusual for Harvard's squash teams, but the freshmen boast two national champions as well.

They opened this year's season by defeating Andover, 5-2; Exoter, 5-0; and Amherst, 8-1.

Two weeks ago, freshman Jose Gonsalex became the second player in Harvard's History to win the National Junior Championship; Vie Niederhoffer last year's varsity captain, did it in 1962. Bill Morris, currently number three on the varsity, also won the championship, but did it before coming to Harvard.

And for the first time Harvard has a Freshman College Champion in Rick Sterne, number-two man behind Gonsalex.

"This year's team is one of my best," said Coach Corey Wynn, who has had more than a handful of top teams in his 18 years as freshman squash coach. Wynn likes to compare Gonsalex and Sterne to his earlier combinations of Charles Ufford-Dave Watts (1950) and Ben Heckscher-Cal Place (1954). And that's quite an honor considering that Ufford and Heckscher both went on to become two-time national intercollegiate champions.

For the first time in his memory, Wynn has managed to lure all his starting tennis players to the squash court. One tennis player, Bernie Adelsberg, has pushed his way up to number six with only two months' experience. And other netmen are pressing the veterans for starting positions.

If these beginners can develop enough to give depth to the team, Wynn believes he may have his best squad ever.

This is good news for varsity coach Jack Barnaby. It will be a pleasant change for him to inherit several players next year who can jump right into his starting lineup, especially since he will be losing four of his top five players.

The four best players on last year's freshman team do not occupy starting positions on the varsity, but are all on the second team.