Wyant Stuns Cowie, Then Falls in NISRA Finals

At the NISRA Individual Squash Championships at Penn, Harvard junior co-captain Tim Wyant eliminated two-time national champion Marcus Cowie of Trinity in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Wyant went on to defeat the Bantams' Akhil Bell in the semifinals before dropping yesterday's final 3-0 (15-5, 15-12, 15-2) to heavily-favored Peter Yick of Princeton.

"I've played Yick before," Wyant said. "But I haven't beaten him in college. I was having a good weekend, so I thought I could be competitive, but in the end he put on more pressure than I could handle and I found that my fitness was weak."

Wyant had also posted the Crimson's only win in an 8-1 loss to Trinity in the Howe Cup final at the Murr Center two weeks ago. That win, at No. 2, came against Bell as well.

But Wyant's true shocker had come in the quarterfinals, where he had dropped Cowie 3-1 (15-9, 15-7, 6-15, 15-7). Cowie had won the last two NISRA Individual titles.

"I just didn't expect to win," Wyant said. "Cowie's an awesome player and I went in just trying to play hard and not be intimidated."

Wyant took the match's first two games 15-9 and 15-7 before Cowie rallied in the third game, winning 15-6. That followed Cowie's year-long trend of losing individual games and taking matches the distance before pulling out wins.

In an earlier match on Friday, Cowie had gone five games with an unseeded opponent.

"I thought he was just allowing me to win so that he could come back," Wyant said.

"Cowie has dropped a lot of games this year," he added. "When I went up 2-0, I didn't think much of it. I didn't even think I was going to win."

The fourth game went neck-and-neck, but even as late as 12-8, Wyant said he was doubting his prospects.

"At 12-8, I was still thinking, 'He's just waiting,'" Wyant said. "Then at 13-8, I thought I might have a chance."

That chance soon materialized, as Wyant went up 14-9 and came up with match point, then rolled over Bell 3-0 (15-8, 15-7, 15-10) before falling to Yick.

Harvard sophomore Grayson Witcher added a second performance of note, beating Dartmouth's Beau River, the No. 9 player in the country, in the consolation draw.

In the women's draw, freshman Margaret Elias reached the quarterfinal round, dropping to an eventual finalist.

"As a freshman, it's quite impressive to reach the quarterfinals," said Wyant of her finish. --Daniel G. Habib