Early exits for top M. Squash players

The Penn men's squash team surged through the Team Championships two weekends ago, finishing second in its bracket and 10th overall. However, the three Quakers who were invited to the Individual Championships at Harvard last weekend -- Penn No. 1 Peter Withstandley, No. 2 Roberto Kriete and No. 3 Sam Miller -- were unable to retain that momentum. Penn senior co-captain Withstandley, playing in the top Pool Trophy bracket, lost his first two games, and was consequently eliminated from the tournament. Withstandley faced a pair of Trinity players, sophomore Nicholas Kyme and junior Gaurav Juneja. Trinity has won three consecutive national championships and has not lost a dual match in those three years. "I think I played pretty well," Withstandley said. "My first matchup was really tough, and unfortunately I wasn't able to perform as well in my second match." Penn junior Kriete was the only one of the trio to win his first-round match. He dropped Bowdoin No. 1 senior Wasif Khan, 3-1, in the first round of Malloy Trophy play. Kriete could not keep it going, however, as he lost to Yale freshman Ryan Byrnes in the second round of trophy play. Kriete eliminated in plate consolation play by Navy junior Andy McCann. Miller, playing in the lower Malloy bracket, lost to Harvard junior David Barry in his opening match. In consolations, the sophomore beat Hobart junior Angel Magana-Torres before being shut out by Brown junior Henry Clark. "I played pretty well against [Magana-Torres]," Miller said. "It was just a matter of focusing for the number of games that I needed to play." In overall play, Princeton's David Yik kept the Pool Trophy in the family. His brother Peter won the tournament last year as a Princeton senior. The Quakers were disappointed with the results of the weekend but still focused on the positives. "We play much better as a team than as individuals, because a lot of us don't have much individual experience," Miller said. The weekend marks the end of Withstandley's Penn career. "Peter has been a huge contributor for four seasons," Miller said. "Everyone looks up to him as someone that they want to play like."

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