Tejvir Rathore

March 9, 2004

CANTON, N.Y.—The Hobart College squash team closed out its season this past weekend at the Malloy Cup, the second division draw of the College Squash Association Individual Championships at St. Lawrence University. Junior Tejvir Rathore (Daly College/Indore, M.P., India) led all Statesmen by advancing to the semifinal round in the top draw, while both Henry Clutsam (Blair Academy/New Vernon, N.J.) and Gavin Johnstone-Butcher (St. Paul’s School/Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) earned spots in the consolation bracket semifinals.

Seeded third in the 32-player field, Rathore downed Mason Berry of Navy in straight sets (9-3, 9-6, 9-1) in the opening match and upped his season record to 17-8 with a win over Bowdoin’s Jon Crowell to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. Rathore coasted into the semifinals with a 3-0 victory over Satyajit Seshadri of Franklin & Marshall.

Hobart’s top player all season, Rathore won the first set of the semifinal match against Brown’s Dan Petrie 9-1, but dropped the next three (0-9, 3-9, 6-9) to finish his season with a 18-9 record. His 3-1 weekend earned him UCAA Performer of the Week honors for the third time this year.

Johnstone-Butcher and Clutsam found themselves in the consolation draw after losing their opening matches to Dan Bishop (4-9, 4-9, 1-9) and Brendon Bascom (8-9, 0-9, 1-9), respectively. Johnstone-Butcher eased through his next two games in straight sets to earn a spot in the round of four for the second consecutive season.

Clutsam had a slightly tougher time advancing, winning 3-1 in his quarterfinal and enduring a long 3-2 win over Ankur Gupta of Denison.

The same fate would await both players as they dropped their semifinal games. Sophomore Johnstone-Butcher fell to Ben Ende of Pen 3-2 (7-9, 9-5, 3-9, 9-0, 9-1), while junior Clutsam was ousted by sixth-seed Ben Schippers of Bates 3-1 (1-9, 9-1, 9-6, 9-2).

First-year Prateek Patni (Daly College/Indore, M.P., India) also was selected to the field. He dropped his opening match 3-1 (9-4, 9-1, 7-9, 9-3) and fell to Schippers in the first consolation round game, 3-1 (3-9, 9-7, 9-1, 9-1).

The Statesmen finish the year with a 15-9 record, breaking the all-time mark for wins in a season and captured a program-best second-place finish at the Hoehn Trophy.