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Denison Squash Newsletter
Hello Denison Squash Alumni, Parents and Friends!
Spring Edition, 2015By Andrew Kra ya cich, krayac_a1@denison.edu
Welcome to the spring edition of the Denison Squash Newsletter.
The Denison Men’s Squash team had a very successful season this year.
We started September off with a daily pre-season workout program known
as Insanity®
. It helped the team get into shape, increased our endurance,
and quickened our reflexes. This was beneficial to our success throughout
tough matches once the season started.
Shortly after our pre-season workout, the Denison team traveled to
Cincinnati in October to play a group of All-Stars. This was great for the
team to get in some match play against more experienced players. Later
that day the team received coaching and was apart of a group clinic run at
the Cincinnati Country Club by Pro, Nathan Dugan. The focus was to help
the team improve certain squash skills.
In November, we took our annual trip to the Naval Academy where
we played teams with rankings between 14 and 31. These teams included
Bucknell, George Washington, Navy, Stanford, and Virginia. We believe
this experience better prepared us for the rest of the season.
In early December, the team traveled to our rival school, Kenyon
College, for a friendly match that permitted our new bottom players more
match experience.
At the end of January we traveled to Connecticut for a weekend
round robin event at Wesleyan College. Denison competed against Bryant,
Colby, M.I.T., and Wesleyan. Andrew Krayacich won an impressive
match against Wesleyan's #2 player; we beat Bryant, lost a heartbreaker
against M.I.T, and lost to Colby. Most of the teams we
played were ranked in the top 20’s, which gave Denison
excellent match experience.
Andrew Krayacich (2016)
Co-Captain (15-16)
Squash
Ben Cole (2016)
Co-Captain (15-16)
Drew Lavine
(2017)
Assistant
Captain
(15-16)

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2015 Chaffee Cup Winners
The highlight of our season came in February at the
CSA Team Championship in Hartford, CT. We were placed
in the Chaffee Division, seeded #3, for teams 33-40. In this
draw we first faced #6 seeded Northeastern, winning 7-2. Ben
Cole (2016), after his first semester abroad, showed incredible
shot selection, court awareness and with his new honed skills,
was able to pull out a grueling 5 game victory against
Northeastern’s number 7 player. The semifinals against
second seed, Johns Hopkins, provided an intense afternoon of
9 matches. Denison won positions 3,6, and 9 right at the start.
Robbie Whitman (2018) held his match, battling a 12-10 win
in the fourth. This gave us a strong lead from the start of our
match against Hopkins. Ultimately we won 6-3. Sunday
afternoon Denison was in the finals against #1 seed
Georgetown. Denison had control of the top 3 positions
winning 3-0, the bottom 4 positions lost giving the edge to
Georgetown, making it come down to positions 4 and 5. Drew
Lavine (2017) was down 1-2 and fought to tie the games to 2
all. The fifth game of his match was an intense battle until he
broke away at 8 all and won the match 11-8. Drew’s win
leveled the teams’ match score to 4 all leaving all eyes on
Senior Captain Marshall Crane (2015). At this point his game
scores were 1 each. Crane won the 3rd
game 12-10 and held
off a fifth game by again winning 12-10 in the fourth. That
was the deciding match making Denison the 2015 Chaffee
Cup winners. This provided Denison a final ranking of 33, an
improvement from 35.
All of the hard work and additional coaching paid off for the
team this year. We are now setting our goals for next year
with the objective of advancing up to the next division.
Men’s Squash Members:
Ariel Cohen (2017)
Ben Cole (2016)
Co-Captain- Marshall Crane (2015)
Luke Friedman (2017)
Co-Captain- Andrew Krayacich
(2016)
Drew Lavine (2017)
Fernando Magaña (2017)
Sharif Shahin (2018)
Daraius Sumariwalla (2018)
Robert Whitman (2018)
See website for more information:
http://denisonbigred.com/clubandimsports
/clubsports/squash.

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Building Stronger Squash Ties - Squash
Alumni Internship Proposal:
We are still pushing for this internship
program. Please see our original comments about it
and give us your thoughts.
Many schools have a tradition of building
strong ties between alumni from specific teams with
current student-athletes. We would like to explore
whether such a program would be feasible for
Denison Squash. A first step is to ask whether there is
any interest from our squash alumni in supporting an
internship opportunity. As you know, squash is a
challenging contest of agility, strategy, and mental
and physical strength. It is an incredibly beneficial
game for health and fitness, and has been voted the #1
healthiest sport by Forbes Magazine. Student-athletes
must balance a rigorous academic load with a grueling
practice and tournament schedule. The combination
of these challenges makes our squash players an ideal
intern for many companies. We are seeking input
from alumni who would be interested in supporting a
squash player for a summer internship. For more
information about arranging an internship, please
contact Brian Collingwood at career@denison.edu or
740-587-6656.
My congratulations to the
Denison Men’s Squash
Team for winning the
Chaffee Cup! They
showed a strong drive to
win, did serious
training, and never gave
up. It paid off! While we are a team, we did reinstate some individual awards and added a new one this
year. These were presented at a team banquet that included notable guests; former coaches Jon Bridge and Peter
Burling, Kenyon coach John Knepper, current and past advisors Lynsey Whisner and Lynn Schweizer, Scott
Goldberg representing Dr. Wes Furste, Denison’s Athletic Director, Nan Carney-DeBord, and Mike Hills, Sarah
Leavell, and Mollie Rodenbeck (representing the admissions department). Andrew Krayacich won the Jon Bridge
Award as the MVP, Marshall Crane won the Taylor Hoyt Award for the team member who did the most to
promote Denison squash, Ben Cole won the Dr. Wes Furste Award for the Most Improved Player, and Ariel
Cohen won the new award called the Castellini-Wyant Award, for the Most Dedicated Player. This award was
created in respects to the Castellini and Wyant families who have done so much to promote squash at
Denison. Other highlights of the past year include playing the All Star Teams in Cincinnati and Cleveland, going
to the Naval Academy to participate in a college round robin, and a hosting a round robin tournament at Wesleyan
College in Connecticut. I want to thank the Marks and Krasnow families for their marvelous hospitality of food
and lodging during this trip to Connecticut. Next year we are looking forward to returning to Cincinnati,
Cleveland, and the Naval Academy. Instead of going to Connecticut in January 2016, we plan to go to Virginia to
compete against numerous mid-Atlantic teams. We are also hoping to go to Chicago to play the University of
Chicago team, who climbed ahead of us this year. The Chicago community has been the biggest supporter of the
Denison Silver Junior Squash Tournament the past two years bringing double-digit attendees both years.
Congratulations to the team on a great season. Go Big Red! Coach Walt Thieman thiemanw@denison.edu
Coaches Corner
Donations
As the Denison Squash program continues its goal
of returning the team to its former position of
being in the top 20, we need your help. Travel
costs are squeezing our budgets. Please help
support Denison Squash; your contributions will
make it possible for Denison to enhance the
program and quality of play.
Please consider a donation to the program by
supporting Denison Squash at
https://support.denison.edu/ or sending a check to
Denison University
PO Box 716
Granville, OH 43023-0716
Please specify “Denison Squash” on your
contribution. Your help is greatly appreciated.