Santa Barbara Athletic Club held its first ever US Squash sanctioned junior event at its Summer Open squash tournament in July. We had 57 entrants, 30 adults and 27 juniors!

Eight players contested the Men’s A division. JP Rothie from LA and SBAC’s Christian Geitner played an entertaining final that JP won 9-7 9-5 9-7.

The Women’s A division had three players in a round robin, Suanne Diggeden from LA, Lulu Chou from Seattle, and Alexandra van Arkel from Pennsylvania. Suanne beat Lulu 3-1 but neither player was a match for 18 year old Alexandra, who beat them both 3-0, as well as winning the Girls under 19 division without dropping a game.

The 40+ and 60+ divisions were merged into a five man round robin “Veterans” division that Jack Sahl (LA) dominated, though Terry Eagle (SBAC) finished just one point behind him.

The Men’s 4.5 division, also a five man round robin, was the closest division of the tournament. Going in to the last two matches on Sunday any one of the four players involved could win the event. Martin Murray (SBAC) and Todd Borden (SBAC) finished tied on 10 points but Martin had won their head-to-head match 3-1 so he took the title.

Connor Gaulke (LA) won the Men’s 4.0 division without dropping a game, and also did the same in the Boys under 19 division. He has been improving at about 0.5 rating every time he has been to Santa Barbara! He beat Manoj Poulose (LA) in the 4.0 final and James Bradicich from Connecticut in the juniors.

The Men’s 3.5 division was another five man round robin and another closely fought event. Saoud Saifaldeen (LA) finished undefeated in first place with 12 points beating Vigit Gogus (San Diego) into second place with a 3-2 win.

Two SBAC juniors contested the Men’s 3.0 final which Sean Burke won 3-0 against Diego Perez, despite Diego beating Sean in the Boys under 19 draw.

The Boys under 15 draw was dominated by Curran Kankariya (San Francisco) who beat Varun Sharma (San Diego) 3-0 in the final. Curran is a player to watch out for in the future for sure!

Margaux Losty from Pennsylvania won the girls under 15 round robin, with Clare Young (LA) finishing in second place. Her brother, Jay, won the Boys under 13 without dropping a game, Patrick Smith (San Francisco) finishing in second place.

The Player of the Tournament award was given to SBAC’s Matt Wilkinson, who tragically drowned two days before the event. A short memorial and moment of silence was held after the last final on Sunday. Matt will be deeply missed by his family and many friends at SBAC.

Many thanks to Arnie and Denise Berman from Hi-Tec who provided prizes for the winners and runners up.