Jacqueline Barnes pushed one of the world’s top junior women — Aparajitha Balamurukan — to four games at the Queensland (Australia) Open Women’s Pro-Squash Tournament. Her Indian opponent reached the 3rd round at the Junior Worlds last summer. To put that in perspective, no US woman got past the third round. Balamurukan then knocked out the #2 seed (World #50) in three games.  The November Women’s Squash Association rankings are out and the 18 year-old Barnes is now ranked as World #136.

Kira Keating is now ranked #2 in GU17 in the USA thanks to reaching the finals of the Junior Championship Tournament (JCT) – Connecticut.  This is one of the highest rankings ever achieved by an NCS junior.  Kira also made the finals of the Philadelphia Squash Club Gold, playing up an age division in GU19, where she beat the US #24 in three games.

Peter Giraudo reached the second round of the consolations in BU19 at the super-elite JCT Pennsylvania, where he got a game off the US #17.

Dayton Gold

Several NCS juniors played this gold tournament in Ohio.  Here are the highlights:

BU19 — Cameron Bahadori, 5th place
BU17 — Theo Mendez, Quarterfinalist
BU17 — Remy Freire, Consol Quarters
BU17 — Zach Najera, Consol Two
BU17 — Jeremy Barnes, Consol Two
GU17 — Nghi Nguyen, Winner, Plate
GU15 — Taylor Nides, Plate Finals

Bare Hills Silver

NCS Juniors won an amazing four of the six draws. Caroline Resor won GU17/19 and Diana Halikias reached the semis; Taylor Nides won GU15; Sandeep Rishi won BU19; Remy Freire placed 3rd in BU17 and Ryan Lovallo won BU13.

Baltimore Junior Open Silver

Here are the highlights of how NCS juniors fared at the Baltimore Jr Open:

BU13 — Nilay Neelaveni, finalist
BU17 — Ben Roth, semi-finals
BU17 — Jeremy Barnes, classic plate finals
BU19 — Evan Brown, 3rd place
GU13 — Shalika Neelaveni, finalist
GU15 — Taylor Nides, 3rd place
GU17 — Nghi Nguyen, winner
GU17 — Diana Halikias, finalist

Sports Club/LA Bronze

Congratulations to Aadil Husain, who won both the BU13 and BU15 divisions, his first tournament wins!  Kevin Tsai was the BU15 finalist and Conner Elder was the BU13 finalist.  Michael Ficca won the BU17 over finalist Aaron Broner, who played up an age division.  Helen Malley won GU15 and Charlotte Kho was the finalist.