Racquetmen Grab Intercollegiate Title

Nothing is more fun than a tournament you don't have to win to win. Or so the Crimson squash team discovered this weekend at the National Intercollegiate Squash Championships held in Princeton.

Though the Crimson has only one representative in the finals, third-ranked Dick Cashin, the six-man team won most of its matches, clinching the tournament point trophy and the national collegiate championship title over Ivy champion Princeton and third-place Penn.

The collegiate teams were awarded one point each time one of their members advanced. Though first- and second-ranked Peter Blasier and Bill Kaplan were both eliminated in the third round of the A flight competition, fifth- and sixth-ranked Peter Havens and Jeff Wiegand were not defeated until the semi-finals of the C flight, gaining valuable points toward the team title.

Third- and fourth-ranked Dick Cashin and Fred Fisher also made it to the semi-finals in the B tournament. Undefeated Fisher said last Tuesday that he has been looking forward to facing Cashin in the finals of that flight for two years.

But Fisher was fried in the semi-finals by Princeton's hot number-three man Hollis Russell. In the finals, it was Cashin alone against Fisher's dream-shatterer.

Cashin had beaten Russell a few weeks before in their dual match at Princeton. Said Cashin, "I knew I could whip the guy, I had his number. I think Russell was convinced he would lose before he even went into the-thing."

Sobering Experience

If that was true, then Russell's surprise smearing of Cashin in the first game, 15-6, must have been too much for Russell to handle. Or it must have been a sobering experience for the confident Cashin.

Cashin controlled almost every rally in the next three games, placing and pacing his balls precisely. He kept Russell on the run and fatally off-balance, his racquet connecting frequently with Cashin.

"On my left thigh I have prints of both the frame and the strings," lamented Cashin. But it was all in the course of duty: Cashin won the next three games for the B flight title.

The victory was a satisfying one, marking the end of the Crimson's 11-1 season and coach Jack Barnaby's 35-year career for which he holds a remarkable 349-95 record. Explained Cashin, "In the tournament, I was beating players handily that I couldn't have tied the shoes of before I came to Harvard. It was a great testament to Barnaby's superior coaching ability."