The picture above may look familiar since you will have seen variations of it over forty years. It is from Mustang Communications (2/10/25) where you can read this report about the OUA Squash Championship which was held last weekend at Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Western women's team won gold as well, and the details are provided in this article in The Gazette: "Squash Teams Sweep OUA Championship," Maegan White, Feb. 14, 2025.
Such attention is well deserved, but there is typically not much of it up on campus. I suppose the more popular sports naturally attract more attention, even when much less successful, and that the resources for Mustang Communications are rather limited. It is also the case that the squash team matches are not played on campus and some important ones soon to be played, will be played on campus courts in the States.
Back in early January the U.S. Naval Academy squash team invaded London in an event that was not much noticed, although Ryan Pyette wrote about it in the LFP, Jan.7: "The Western men's squash team beat the United States Navy 8-1 on the weekend at the London Squash and Fitness Club in the first U.S. college match held here since the pandemic."
Although the Midshipmen lost in London, the event was well-covered in Annapolis as the photo illustrates and these points indicate: "The 16th-ranked Navy squash team (11-3) dropped just its third match of the season, as #14 Western (4-5) dealt the Mids an 8-1 setback at the London Squash Club in London, Ontario, Canada on Saturday." The results:
1 | Dylan Deverill (W) def Matt Wang (N) // 11-8, 11-7, 11-6
2 | Wenqing Tang (N) def Antonio Mendes (W) // 11-9, 11-3, 11-6
3 | Daniel Deverill (W) def Alexander Orr (N) // 14-12, 11-9, 11-4
4 | Amin Khan (W) def Matthew Kang (N) // 11-7, 11-7, 12-10
5 | Josh Kay (W) def Lucas Spiro (N) // 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5
6 | William Znidarec (W) def Tighe Mullarkey (N) // 11-3, 12-10, 11-4
7 | Rio Schafer (W) def Ramsay Killinger (N) // 12-10, 12-10, 11-3
8 | Tyson Schille (W) def Michael Tierney Jr. (N) // 11-9, 711, 11-8, 15-13
9 | Griffin Manley (W) def Sean Wu (N) // 11-2, 11-2, 6-11, 11-7
EXH | Ben Boulanger (W) def Holden Woodward (N) // 11-5, 11-3, 11-2
The rankings above refer to those of the U.S. College Squash Association where Western currently ranks #13. The University of Western Ontario began playing the U.S. college teams under Coach Jack Fairs. I don't think there is any other example of Canadian universities competing consistently with U.S. universities, and at the highest level. The tradition continues at Western under Coach Chris Hanebury who, I am sure, has much less support than the coaches at, say Penn or Princeton. (Tyler Osborne, the squash coach at the Naval Academy, played for Princeton and is from Kingston, ON.)
For a brief history (mine) of UWO versus the U.S. squash teams see:
UWO SQUASH AND THE U.S. COLLEGIATE SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIPS
The rankings above refer to those of the U.S. College Squash Association where Western currently ranks #13. The University of Western Ontario began playing the U.S. college teams under Coach Jack Fairs. I don't think there is any other example of Canadian universities competing consistently with U.S. universities, and at the highest level. The tradition continues at Western under Coach Chris Hanebury who, I am sure, has much less support than the coaches at, say Penn or Princeton. (Tyler Osborne, the squash coach at the Naval Academy, played for Princeton and is from Kingston, ON.)
For a brief history (mine) of UWO versus the U.S. squash teams see:
UWO SQUASH AND THE U.S. COLLEGIATE SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIPS
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