Men’s squash defeats Trinity for national title

In front of a raucous crowd in a packed Jadwin Gym, the men’s squash team ended Trinity’s 13-year streak as national champions Feb. 19, winning its first national championship since 1993 with a 5–4 victory against No. 1-seeded Trinity.

Trinity had defeated Princeton in seven national finals over the previous two decades — most recently a 5–4 win at Jadwin in 2009 — and as the Bantams swept the second set of matches this year to take a 4–2 overall lead, it looked as if the eighth matchup would end the same way. But Dylan Ward ’14 and Todd Harrity ’13 quickly won to even the match, leaving Kelly Shannon ’12 on the court. Shannon placed excellent shots in all corners to win in three exciting games. He learned that he had won the match only when he turned to the crowd and saw fans and teammates jumping onto the court to celebrate.

Trinity’s streak of 252 consecutive victories — the longest such run in college sports history — had been ended by Yale Jan. 18. Trinity had defeated Princeton 7–2 in the regular season.

Princeton long has been a national power in squash, winning eight individual titles over the last two decades. But with Trinity dominating the scene for so long, many top Princeton players graduated without a team championship.