And with that, the squash season in Yellowknife has come to an end.

The Territorial Squash Championships at the Racquet Club earlier this month brought down the curtain on the competitive season with seven champions crowned on the final day, June 5. Some familiar names graced the top three places in each of those divisions.

Jeff Hipfner, the clubSA国际影视传媒檚 head squash pro, said the numbers for this yearSA国际影视传媒檚 tournament were around the same as last year.

SA国际影视传媒淲e had 70 participants this year, pretty close to last year,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檚 a weird time of year because you have people starting to leave town for vacation but weSA国际影视传媒檙e happy with the turnout.SA国际影视传媒�

The championships featured some out-of-town flavour with three players coming in from Fort Smith and two from Ontario. One of those Ontarians was Melina Turk, whose name you may remember as the former head squash pro at the club.

On the court, Devin Madsen was once again on top of the pile in the top division as he beat Nathan Hall, the other squash tourist from Ontario, in the final. Stephen Messier ended up in third.

Division 2SA国际影视传媒檚 champion was Loic Hipfner as he defeated Finley Armstrong for the title while Ethan Milkowski ended up third. Joe Depew won Division 3 over Alex Godfrey with Division 4 going to Ryan Bachynski, courtesy of his win over Sofia Ardiles.

The WomenSA国际影视传媒檚 Juniper Division featured an all-Fort Smith battle for the top as Allie McDonald was able to defeat Nashra Kamal for the title. Edyta Ratajczyk of Yellowknife was third.

McDonald, who prevailed without dropping a set in any of her matches, said both she and Kamal treated the final like any other game they play back home.

SA国际影视传媒淣ash isnSA国际影视传媒檛 very competitive but I am,SA国际影视传媒� she said. SA国际影视传媒淲e play together all the time and we had a lot of fun.SA国际影视传媒�

In the Junior A Aurora Division, Logan Doll beat out Will Kanigan to win while Mikka Pike took the Junior B Tundra Division honours with a win over Tanika Pike.

Figuring out who played in each division was organized through a ranking system, said Hipfner.

SA国际影视传媒淲hat ISA国际影视传媒檝e done the last couple of tournaments is I get players to enter either mixed, womenSA国际影视传媒檚 or juniors and whenever they play, they get their ratings in the Club Locker program,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淭he divisions are set based on those ratings, so the top eight were in the top division, the next eight best were in Division 2 and so on.SA国际影视传媒�

Something else Hipner did was split up each division into two pools of players, which guaranteed each player four games.

SA国际影视传媒淚 couldSA国际影视传媒檝e done a bracket format, but that wouldSA国际影视传媒檝e only given everyone three games,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淗aving every player play three round-robin pool games gave them one more game in a playoff. The top player in each pool went on to play for the title, next two played for third and so on.SA国际影视传媒�

ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 how it happened for McDonald and Kamal as both finished first in their respective pool, though McDonald said they both couldSA国际影视传媒檝e played a bit higher.

SA国际影视传媒淕oing into it, we didnSA国际影视传媒檛 know what we were getting ourselves into,SA国际影视传媒� she said. SA国际影视传媒淎fter playing, I think we shouldSA国际影视传媒檝e been in the open divisions but you just donSA国际影视传媒檛 know until you play.SA国际影视传媒�

With the season now over, Hipfner said the plan is to get back up and running by mid-September with the tournament dates for next season settled by the end of this month.

SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檓 looking to get back into it by October at the earliest,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檒l hopefully be a regular season because we havenSA国际影视传媒檛 had one of those in a couple of years.SA国际影视传媒�