Athlete of the Week

In sport, there are two types of giants. The first is the figurative giant, the one who towers over his opponents. The second is the literal giant, the one who may or may not have size, but always has a knack for winning when it counts.

Junior squash player Pete Karlen is both.

With recent victories over No. 4 Lefike Ragontse of Trinity and No. 5 Zafrir Levy of Williams, the 6'2 Karlen has dethrowned some of the sport's top dogs and boldly inserted himself into the upper-eschelon of the collegiate tour.

In a sport where size doesn't necessarily equate to success, Karlen is using every inch of his frame to cover the court and every inch of his brain to outwit opponents. In front of an overflow crowd at Barnaby Courts this past Saturday, Karlen kept Trinity's Ragontse off balance with a mixture of power and finesse.

One of the keys to succeeding in this fast-paced sport, and one of the facets that make it so beautiful to watch, is mixing the tempo of play. Like a pitcher in baseball who follows the heater with the change-up, or the tailback in football who busts through the line on one play and dances to the outside on the next, the squash champion must employ a diverse and well-timed arsenal of shots and strategies.

Karlen has become adept at controlling the rhythm of his matches, alternating between rocket-like strokes and deftly crafted drop shots.

As chants of "Let's go Harvard" and "Here we go Pete" reverberated through the intimate facility at the Murr Center on Saturday, Karlen battled back from an early deficit to hand Ragontse his first-ever loss in dual match competition in grand fashion, a 3-0 sweep.

Although Harvard fell short as a team, succumbing to the defending national champions, 5-4, Karlen recognized that both he and his team had exceeded all expectations.

"Coming into the season, no one would have thought we had a chance," Karlen said. "But we knocked down some of their perennial power guys and edged closer to beating them."

Although Karlen is just beginning his ascent to the top of the individual collegiate rankings, success on the squash court is nothing new for the former prep school star. Karlen grew up with several different racquets in his hands, playing tennis and squash at Rye's Apawamis Club.

Karlen benefited from this early exposure to racquet sports, often finding himself on the same court as Rye native and current Harvard teammate David Barry. As a youth player at Apawamis, Karlen also found himself under the tutelage of a coach that knew a thing or two about winning in squash and succeeding in the classroom--Coach Pete Briggs was a former individual national champion while playing for the Crimson.

Karlen and his family moved to Connecticut when he was 11, but his squash career continued to move forward and he was eventually named captain of his prep school team at Andover. After garnering second team All-American honors and a No. 19 ranking last season in his sophomore season in Cambridge, Karlen spent this past summer in England training with several of the world's top players under the guidance of Coach John Milton.

After shoulder ailments sidelined Karlen early this season, he has found his stride and is currently at the pinnacle of his game. With nowhere to look but forward, Karlen is on pace to at least crack the top 10, possibly top-five, in this season's individual rankings.

Having already played the role of giant killer during the past few weeks, Karlen will begin to focus on the National Single's Championships at Barnaby Courts, which will be played from March 2-4.

But now Karlen is the target of all those other aspiring giant killers.

Now, he is the giant on the court--in both senses of the word.