The 2013 U.S. Squash Skill Level Championships in Baltimore saw players traveling from as far as San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle to compete.
The one hundred and thirteen players included 36 division winners and finalists from regional skill level championships who earned free tournament entry by reaching their respective regional finals.
The highest division men’s 6.0 draw came down to the two top-seeded contenders, both Baltimore locals, Ehimen Ehalen and Sergio Lopez. Ehalen swiftly knocked down his opponent in three sharp games.
In the deciding match of the top division women’s 5.0 round robin draw, Susan Lawrence defeated Emma Uible in four games adding another trophy to her collection, in particular her recent 2013 U.S. Masters Women’s 50+ title.
The men’s 5.5 saw only one of the top four seeds, number three Will Carlin, make the quarterfinals with Jose Calderon defeating Antoine Poulain in a four-game final.
Mid-Atlantic Regional men’s 5.0 champion and one seed, J. Zachary Bradley, stormed to the 5.0 final where he defeated Patrick Harris in three games.
Benjamin Smith defeated Girish Venkataramani in the men’s 4.5 final in what was Venkataramani’s third straight match to go to five games.
Casey Wong won her second national title of 2013 in the women’s 4.0 following her girl’s U15 title at the Junior Championships. Fourteen-year-old Wong conceded only 19 points in her first two matches combined, and defeated Jamie Pawlik in a four-game final.
The men’s 4.0 involved the top four seeds in the quarterfinals with New York Regional 4.5 champion and 14-year-old Luke Park defeating Mid-Atlantic Regional 4.0 champion Davis Owen in the final.
Ben Korn upset one seed Stuart Cheung in the second round of the Men’s 3.5 in three games. Korn went on to play a tight, five game final against Francesco Boin, which needed a decisive 15-13 final game victory to clinch the title in favor of Korn.
Katherine Galambos, champion of the Mid-Atlantic Regional women’s 3.5, defeated one seed Nicole Powers in four games to win the women’s 3.0, while it took Garon Rothenberg 14 games from the first round through to the men’s 3.0 title match in which Rothenberg defeated Wiatt Hinton.
