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During individual nationals this weekend at Dartmouth College Weisskopf, a first-year, became an All-American by finishing the year ranked in the top 20 in the country. Weisskopf lost to Ilan Oren of Harvard in the first round of the tournament before defeating Preston Corney of Princeton and Richard Rhepetto, a three-time All-American from Penn in three games. His final match of the weekend resulted in a loss to Will Cheng of Cornell, bringing his record to 22-3 on the year.
Weisskopf did not lose to an American born player all season long and his only losses of the year were to Trinity #1 (B. Samper, from Bogota, Columbia); Harvard #2 (I. Oren, from Switzerland); and Cornell #1 (Cheng, from Canada). He becomes the first All-American squash player in the state of Maine in at least 15 years.
Gary Kan '07, Jamie White '07 and Rob Weller '05 also competed at individual nationals (Malloy Cup) this past weekend, although they were not in the All-American bracket, which consists of the top 32 players. Kan finishes the season ranked approximately 34th in the country, defeating his first four opponents before losing to Vincent Yu of Princeton in the final.
White finishes the season ranked in the top 50, while Weller is in the top 64 in the country after the weekend's matches.
Team Nationals
Fate can play a major role in sports, and the Bates College men's squash team felt as though their season was destined to end the way it did last weekend during team nationals at Harvard.
After suffering a disappointing loss to Hobart on Friday night, the Bobcats fell into a match with Franklin and Marshall on Saturday. However, the team already had their eyes set on the match that would take place after the Franklin and Marshall contest, where a Navy team that had beaten the Bobcats earlier in the year loomed on the horizon. It would only be fitting that Bates play Navy in the final match of the season to determine the 13th ranked team in the country and to exact some revenge from earlier in the year.
The Hobart match was disappointing for Bates because they had defeated Hobart 5-4 on Feb. 5 at Trinity. This time however it was Hobart who took home the 5-4 victory. Ricky Weisskopf '08, Gary Kan '07 and Jamie White '08 were victorious at the top three spots for Bates, as was Brian Greenleaf '05 at the eighth position. Still, Hobart was too strong overall, earning one more victory than the Bobcats and taking the twelfth place national ranking away from Bates.
Despite the loss, Bates was forced to move on and took away some positive motivation, not wanting to lose again during the weekend.
"It was really inspiring watching both our captains, Rob Weller and Alex Wolff, play their matches," said Weisskopf.
Bates had no problem getting through sixteenth-ranked Franklin and Marshall the next day, winning the match 9-0. To secure the rematch, the rest was up to Navy, and they had no problem defeating Bowdoin 7-2 to move into the final.
"We were hoping to get the chance to play Navy again," said Bates coach John Illig. "And we were very glad to meet them on Sunday."
Unlike their first meeting, the Bobcats came out firing on all cylinders against Navy, defeating them 7-2. Weisskopf, Kan, White, Weller and Sean Wilkinson '08 won the first 5 matches for Bates, and Alex Wolff '05 and Greenleaf were also victorious for the Bobcats. Weller ended his match with an "unbelievable" forehand nick.
"They were excellent wins to end our college squash careers," said Greenleaf of the seniors.
"It was a match in which everything came together perfectly for us, and we played our best squash of the year," said Illig.
Bates entered the season with high expectations and is no longer a program that can sneak up on the best teams in the country.
"Having a top ten ranking under our belts (earlier in the year), we are becoming rising celebrities in college squash and people pay more and more attention to our performances," said Kan.
Despite the loss of some invaluable seniors, Bates still has a strong nucleus of players returning next season.
"The team should look very much forward to next year. They should take the bonding and competitive experience Bates squash delivers and apply that to their matches," said Greenleaf.
"We expect next year to be better," added Weisskopf. "I am sure we are all work really hard to have a great next season."