Five Man Team Championships help M. Squash prepare for next week’s CSA Team Championships

A week before the No. 2 Harvard men’s squash team will look to reverse the course of recent squash history, the squad had a tune-up this weekend at the Five Man Team Championships, held at Trinity College.

Harvard sent two teams of five to the tournament hoping to get a good workout in before the all-important CSA Team Championships in a week.

Team one for the Crimson—the slightly stronger squad—consisted of sophomores Siddharth Suchde and Garnett Booth, junior Will Broadbent, and seniors Michael Blumberg and Asher Hochberg.

The group played well all weekend, making it to the final round where a five-man squad from No. 1 Trinity beat Harvard 4-1. In that match Blumberg gained the only victory for the Crimson, gutting out a 3-2 victory over Trinity’s Ivan Baddon.

Broadbent, whose play has steadily improved all year, sat out the finals as he did not want to push his sore hip too far. Junior Vikas Goela took his spot and dropped his match.

But the group was still happy with its performance, knowing that the true test will come next weekend. The team was happy to have the chance just to heal injuries.

“Given the fact that Chessin [Gertler}, Booth, and I are feeling better with our recovery from lingering injuries,” Broadbent said. “We are excited at the possibility of getting another shot at Trinity this coming weekend.”

The second team Harvard sent consisted of sophomores Jason De Lierre, Ilan Oren, Mihir Sheth, and Todd Ostrow along with senior Ryan Abraham.

This group also had a strong weekend with some outstanding individual performances. The team finished fifth overall, beating Princeton’s number one team in the consolation match.

Intercollegiate No. 9 Oren had perhaps his biggest collegiate win of his career, beating intercollegiate No. 3 Julian Illlingworth from Yale. Illingworth also lost to Suchde last weekend at Harvard.

—DAVID H. STEARNS