U of MN Spring Classic Tournament Results: Story by Matt Johnson

2008 edition of the University of Minnesota Spring Squash Classic featured 35 squash players from across the Twin Cities Metro area.  Arturo Manzur finished off a sweep of the 2007-2008 University Classic Tournaments by virtue of his 3-1 win over Dan Pepper to win the 5.0+ division.  Finishing 3rd was Nate McLain.   However, the talk of the tournament was Tomas Gutierrez who was playing in his first 5.0 tournament and managed to upset Pat O’Shea, and pushed the eventual runner up, Dan Pepper to 5 games.

 In other matches, the 4.5 division featured John Stever  defending home turf (or hardwood) by taking the title over one of his U of M pupils, Lorenzo Mangolini.  Additionally, the tournament featured Kent duRivage showing his guile in holding off a pool of impressive challengers in the 3.5 round robin.  The runner up was up and comer Geoff Hart who defeated Rich Davies and Carlos Gutierez.   Perhaps most excitingly, the 2.5 bracket was the largest bracket with 16 up and coming players.  The division winner was Christopher Mueller who was playing in his first tournament.   In addition to the adult players, the tournament was held in conjunction with the first Midwest Urban Squash Challenge which featured elementary school children from the Squash Scholars program in Minneapolis playing against students from the Metro Squash program in Chicago.  It was great to see so many young people fired up about the game of squash.  A special thanks to John Stever for hosting that exceptional event.  Additional thanks is also due to tournament sponsor Head.