The U.S. Junior Squash Championships is the top USA Junior tournament, and it’s open only to the leading 32 US citizens in each age group. Merely being selected for this tournament is one of the highest honors possible for a junior squash player. Congratulations to all 17 NCS juniors who gained entry to this prestigious event! This is one of the largest, if not the largest, number of NCS juniors who have qualified for the tournament. Listed below are those who have gained entry to the tournament and their current position on the cut list. The final seeding of the tournament is randomized after the top four positions. GU15 Isabella Tang, 3 Trinity Moshi, 6 Shreya Vadlamani, 29 GU17 Calla S Yim, 8 Akaisha Bhatia, 11 Makeda Moshi, 16 Caroline Burg, 27 Khadija Elhaddad, 30 GU19 Elise Kang, 11 Indira Moshi, 25 BU13 Eric Tang, 9 BU15 Zachary Ingber, 14 Kian Patnaik, 27 BU17 Christian Keng, 29 BU19 Nathan Rosenzweig, 6 Daniel King, 16 Lucas Bitar, 32

Gold tournaments are the highest level of junior regional tournaments, and only one Gold tournament is scheduled in the USA on any given weekend. Zachary Ingber notched his first BU15 Gold title last month at the Baird E Haney Junior Gold in New York City. Inigo Jordan set a then personal best third-place BU15 finish at the same event. Caroline Dupree took home an 11-12 finish in GU17, matching a personal best. At the Calvert Junior Gold last weekend, Akaisha Bhatia, Inigo Jordan, and Christian Keng posted the highest finishes by NCS juniors by reaching the GU19, BU15, and BU17 finals. Christian dropped just one game on the way to the final, which he lost by scores of (4), 8, (8), (13). He set a personal best BU17 finish. Inigo, one of the most rapidly improving juniors in the nation, notched yet another personal best with his appearance in the final. The semifinal … Continue Reading ››

Liam Rotzoll, playing #5 and #6 for Harvard as a senior, helped the Crimson finish fifth nationally. He racked up eight wins and just six losses during the season. With junior Emma Wolf playing #7 for the University of Pennsylvania, the team finished sixth in the tournament, resulting in an end-of-season national ranking of sixth. She recorded an eight win, seven loss season for the team. First-year Maria Arseniev held down the #2 ladder position for Tufts, which competed in the top-12 division at the National Collegiate Team Championships. First-year Rohan Bhatia was a reserve player at the championships for the Tufts men's team, which also competed in the top-12 division. He recorded four wins in eight matches for the team's in-season matches. In just its third year with varsity status, Georgetown won the women’s title in the College Squash Association (CSA) Divisional Team Championships. This tournament is for Women’s Varsity Teams ranked 13-32 … Continue Reading ››

The Potomac Girls recorded the highest finish among teams from our district with their third-place division III finish at the High School Squash Championships in Philadelphia, equivalent to a national ranking of 35th. The event is the largest squash tournament in the world, attracting over 1500 players and over 200 teams. Congratulations to all seven Potomac starters: Sophia Calkins (#1), Haley Coon, Meera Vadlamani, Harper Kelly, Anya Aggarwal, Isabella Song, and Samantha Krilla. The Potomac Boys scored the highest finish among boys teams from our district, taking 10th place in Division IV. National Cathedral School sent a girls’ team for the first time. Other teams from our district that competed were Bethesda Chevy Chase, Whitman, and Episcopal (boys’ and girls’ teams).

The Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School team just finished a run to the Division VI consolation finals at the 2024 US High School Squash Championships. Despite being seeded 16th, they gave the number-1 team (The Masters School from Dobbs Ferry, NY) a scare in the first round. Rory O’Hara, Will Harcourt, and Arjun Prabhala all nearly pulled off upsets in five-game matches, and Sohan Kilaru battled hard in a close 3-1 loss. (Teams consist of seven players.) In the next round, the team upset the number-9 seed (Loyola from Baltimore) by a 4-3 score (with Miles Vengrin, Sohan, Rory, and Arjun all winning their matches). In the consolation semifinals, they again upset a higher-seed -- Friends Central from Philadelphia. This win was even more dramatic. In the number-one spot, Miles was down 0-2 in games, and won the next three to win in five. Sohan fell 3-1 to an extremely talented opponent, in … Continue Reading ››

After dropping the first game in the BU13 final 12-10, Laith Barakat came back to win his first bronze title at the Play Squash Academy Junior Bronze in Bethesda last month. Nicolas Bruneau scored his first tournament title without dropping a game in the BU15 draw. Genevieve Hartlage won all four matches in dominating fashion to take home the GU13 trophy.

An impressive 11 National Capital Squash (NCS) players qualified for the final US Squash Junior Championship Tournament (the highest level of junior squash competition in the USA), which was held in Houston, Texas last month. NCS juniors accounted for five of the 32-player GU17 draw. Despite being seeded 13th, Akaisha Bhatia reached the GU17 quarterfinal. Makeda Moshi finished 13-16 and Trinity Moshi placed 21-24. Indira Moshi set a personal best JCT finish of 18, in GU19. Among NCS boys, Zachary Ingber posted the highest finish, 10th in BU15, a personal best in that age division. Christian Keng also set a personal best in BU17, with a 19-20 finish.

Congratulations to the two NCS junior squash teams that were the first from our area to compete at the National Interscholastic Team Squash Championships. This year’s tournament, which occurred last month, was held at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center, the location for future championships too. Both NCS teams competed in the top division, with the District Squash girls’ team finishing fourth nationally after defeating, by a 5-2 margin, a higher-seeded team from Greenwich, Connecticut. The team consisted of Radha Vadlamani (#1), Willa Haberl, Devan Chopra, Gabriella Bitar, Mariam Masoud, Lara Sheth, and Sophia Zafar. The boys’ team, named “Butternut Squash,” had many tight matches, taking ninth place after defeating Pingry in the last match by a 5-2 score. Two of the teams five-match wins went to five games. The seven players on the team were: Dartagnan Rastogi (#1), Oskar Brown, Ibrahim Masoud, Vincent Gledhill, Neel Sethi, John Bitar, and Roshan Gill. This … Continue Reading ››

There were three Silver tournaments in our region during the last month. At the Woodberry Forest Junior Silver last weekend, Ibrahim Masoud cruised to the BU15 final, then promptly lost the first two games. He recovered to win the last three by scores of 8, 6, 3 to win his first-ever Silver tournament. Oskar Brown took third place, and Mariam Masoud reached the GU15 final. Arman Sana notched his second consecutive silver title in BU17 at the St. James Pro Bowl Junior Silver. Aleksei Pilling reached the final of BU13. Oskar Brown reached the BU15 final by knocking out the number one seed in a nail-biter of a match, winning with scores of (10), 7, (8), 14, and 11. Unfortunately, he fell in the final in five games. Jaiden Saran reached the Play Squash Academy Junior Silver BU17 finals after triumphing in a tough five-game semifinal 10, (9), (4), 10, 7. He … Continue Reading ››