The 2009 State Squash Singles tournament was held Thursday 2/26 - Sunday 3/1 at both the Minneapolis Club and Lifetime Minneapolis Athletic Club. 50+ people witnessed an excellent 5.0+ final between eventual champion, Jay DelCarmen and runner-up Todd Underhill. The crowd got to witness some excellent play and even better sportsmanship!
All in all, the finals matches for all divisions showed true competitive play and spirit while respecting each other and the referee. For that we should all take pride.
Other Division winners and runners-up were:
4.5 Dushyant Saran over Zach Madison - 8,(9),5,4
4.0 Charlie Hornig over Larry Ernster - 8,5,(5),8
3.5 Douglas Smith over Matt Nelson - 9,5,5
3.0 Marc Churchill over Carlos Gutierrez - 4,8,9
2.5 Ion Skillrud over Adnan Ali - 9,(7),(8),9,9
All the match results are listed in the attached excel spreadsheet.
The MSA would like to thank all 56 players who registered, the many supporting fans who came and watched, the helping hands of those who helped with the set up of the food and drink, especially Maria Puchol and Mike Wendorf, those who came early to help referee, and a special thanks to Bob Massey, Jayme Sussner, Terry Hall, Arturo Manzur, their respective Clubs and CNC Mortgage for their support and sponsorship!
We hope you all had a chance to enjoy a part of this State tournament weekend. We would love to get your feedback, whether it is on the tournament timing, length, cost, location or whatever. We can't improve unless we know what the membership truly wants. So please send us your thoughts while still fresh.
Thanks again everyone for your support of MN Squash!
Please Note: In order to see the results, you must be logged in to this website (username and password).
Paul Bischel on behalf of the MSA
feedback
This is obviously late, but thanks to all who helped make that happen- it was a ton of fun. I know Paul was hoping to get some feedback chat going here and I hope its not too late for some on this events "wall".
I really liked the venue(s).
Parking was a breeze- so were lockers/showers/changing.
The social event at the Minneapolis club was great - fantastic food!
Would it make sense to push the 4.5/5.0 finals back to the last 2 matches of the day?
All in all, I love squash and the community.
Charlie Hornig
(also, I am having a really hard time getting past this "Captcha Challenge")
Great Tournament
Thanks Paul and the MSA for putting this together. It was well run and great fun all around.
Anne, great idea on the 5.0 semis.
Well Done
Thanks to Paul and the club pro's for putting on an excellent tournament. Keep up the good work!
Pat O'Shea
Congrats and Thank You to the MSA!
What a great event! Many thanks to all MSA board members and volunteers who made the weekend such a great experience for the rest of us. The party Saturday night was wonderful and a nice chance for everyone to reconnect off the squash court.
I do have a few suggestions for an even better tournament next year. First of all, it would be great to have even more people play and participate in this event. Yes, how to accomplish this is the big question and the MSA did a great job this year publicizing the date well ahead of time and reminding everyone that the tournament was coming up. Ideas, anyone? Second, I'd love to see the 5.0 semis played right before a Saturday night party. These guys train and play so hard, and show such talent -- our community should be supporting and celebrating this level of play and making those two matches a lead-in to a social event would be a great way to focus interest in the game at the local level.
Finally, thanks so much to the MSA for scheduling the event a bit earlier this year, and two weeks before age group nationals. Although I was not able to go to nationals this year I always have some hope of going and scheduling our state championships a few weeks before that event is great preparation for everyone who does go. Please continue to keep this in mind as you set up the tournament schedule for the season!