2008 Collegiate Wheelchair National Championships
Plans underway for ITA championship this October

The Collegiate Wheelchair National Championships were held at the University of Arizona in Tucson on March 15-17, 2008.

The host team swept to victory in every event against Grand Valley State University from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but not without a lot of hard fought matches.

The women’s match was a battle of the serves but Jackie Cimino of Arizona defeated Jessica Sporte of Grand Valley to repeat as the Women’s National Champion from 2007.

In the men’s Tier 11 division, Cimino of Arizona was defeated by Brian Williams of Grand Valley in the bottom of the quarters and then Scott Cole of Grand Valley defeated Williams in the semifinal. Eric Daniels of Arizona defeated Sporte of GV in the semi in the top half of the draw and went on to defeat Scott Cole in the final to be the Tier 11 Champion.

In Tier 1 it was teammate against teammate among the Arizona players in a round robin. Laurie Zalmanowitz defeated both his teammates, Noah Yablong and Matt Farmen to also to become the Tier 1 Men’s National Champion for 2008.

Doubles also repeated itself from the Regional Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, with Arizona winning both semifinal matches to reach the finals. The score at the end of play had the team of Daniels and Yablong losing to Zalmanowitz and Cimino by the same score in the tiebreak in the third set, 10-7.

Everyone played almost 12 hours to complete the matches in one day because of the threat of rain the last day. They were exhausted by the end. But, if there were a “Sportsmanship” award given, I am sure Coaches Lynn Bender of GV and Bryan Barten of AZ would agree, it would have go to every player in the tournament!  - Jeanie Peabody