Bob Tkachuk
Once again the 26th-annual Boxing Day Squash Tournament was full with 24 players.
For the first time a female played in the tourney with great results. Sunset Country Squash Clubs ex-junior, 16-year-old Anika Alexander, now training in Winnipeg, made it to the semis, defeating Jeff Gustafson 2-1, her ex-coach Bob Tkachuk 3-2 and Anthony Andrusco 3-2 before falling to Ben Andrusco 3-0.
Andrusco two-peated as champion with a 3-1 victory in the final over ex-Fort junior Steve Krag. Krag defeated Ryan Brady 2-0, Jason Kabel 3-2 and Anniss Seid 3-2 before falling to Andrusco in the final.
Andrusco defeated Jeff Wright 2-0, Aaron Grynol 3-0 and Alexander 3-0 before his final win.
Fort junior Shawn Brady stormed to the ‘B’ title losing only one game after his 2-0 loss to Colin Drombolis with 3-1 win over James Woods, 3-0 win over his brother, Ryan, before defeating Jeff Gustafson 3-0 in the final.
Fort native and Thunder Bay student Gustafson lost his first match to Alexander 2-1 before defeating Taylor Whitehead 3-0, and Alex Bruyere 3-1, then winning a hard fought battle with Dave York 3-2.
The ‘C’ Division Champion Chad Faragher defeated James Boileau 3-0 with two games going to 13-11 marathons. Boileau lost 2-0 to Kabel and Dave York 3-1 then ran off two wins over Rory Bagacki 3-0 and Jeff Wright 3-2 to reach the final of ‘C’.
Krag definitely had some of the hardest work in the tournament with two five-games matches with 12-10 victories in the fifth game over both Kabel and Seid as well as James Boileau had five matches to loose in the final of the ‘C’ event to Faragher.
Next up for the Sunset Country Squash Club is our 27th-annual Wesley Derksen LL.B. Squash Tournament being held Jan. 17-19, 2014.
It appears it will be another success with a full slate of 70 players.
