Philly Gold sees fifteen Tiger entries win through to 8 top 8 finishes including 4 semi's and two finalists and one very groovy win!
The 2022 Hunter Lott Junior Gold was conducted this past weekend in Haverford, Pennsylvania in the salubrious settings of the Merion Cricket Club and Philadelphia Cricket Club respectively. With nary a cricket ball in sight, a dozen of our best and brightest Squash Tigers contested the ten draws and came away with exceptional results up and down the roster.
Firstly to the winner... Mimi ruled the GU11, showing her newfound consistency! Her second Gold win in as many tournaments, with a credible JCT performance in between, the sky's the limit for our precocious phenom... Also for the second Gold in a row, Mimi defeated Chloe (we need luckier draws guys!) with Chloe doing well to continue through her event and finish a very deserving 6th!
The U17's were a busy division for us, with Colten, Sean, Will, Anya and ST visitor Isabella. Colten recently aged up from the U15's where he was the dominant #1 in the country, winning the first two JCT's and this event was a solid continuation of that journey, making the final and looking strong as always. Sean was making a rare appearance in US Squash events due to the Thanksgiving break from academia and made an impressive quarter and Will played a great event but came up a point short of the breakthrough he wanted. Isabella, playing "up and up" made a semi and Anya was solid throughout. All in all, the 17's were the division to watch!
BU15 saw Eric and Shrikar the standouts, eventually playing each other for 5th/6th place! Well done gentlemen. Amusingly Eric seems to have a streak of playing his team mates in almost every event, not a streak we particularly need, but not the end of the world either. Arjun also competed strongly for his 13/16th place, acquitted himself well against his higher rated opponents.
The U11's and U13's had some of our favorite players, some more established than others and some sticking their proverbial toes into the Gold world. Tony, Leo and Orlando all fought out their draws to the best of their abilities. Never easy to be the youngest guys in the division, but with their day to day improvement and hard work, it's just a question of time before they make the later stages of these events. Madeline in the GU13 did well to make the later stages of a Gold yet again, this time a semi-final, in what was a very competitive draw - well done again!
Thanksgiving week and 3 things to know:
1. The club is Closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, but all else runs as planned with no alterations!
2. We are allowing drop ins for this week only to accommodate our out of town Squash Tiger extended family - contact me for details
3. The US Squash Tour continues this coming weekend with the Groton Junior Gold being conducted up in the cold wilds of Massachusetts. We will have Zoom Coaching available, with coaches glued to our screens - again, contact me to confirm your spot!
See you all at the club, Thanksgiving around the corner and much to be thankful for - never a better time to be a Squash Tiger.