College and Youth National Championships: West Point takes Men's and Women's College Titles; Cali Kings Takes Youth

(SF Cal Heat's Pak Kiu Hor defends against Cali King's Eshaan Adusumali during the Youth Championship Final; Photo: Caroline Grace Bittenbender) 

The 2022 USA Team Handball College and Youth National Championships took place this past weekend  in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Below is a summary of the three competitions that were held.

Key Links

• Photo Library:  Link  (Photos: Caroline Grace Bittenbender)
• Match Video:  Link  (All matches can be seen for $4.99 on the USA Team Handball Joymo Channel)
• Event Page:  Link (Results for all matches)

Women's Collegiate Championships

The Women's competition featured the same four teams from the Ohio Women's Invitational held two weeks ago with two teams from West Point, North Carolina and Ohio St participating in the tournament.  West Point's First Team, West Point (Black) won the competition although they were pressed by their second team, West Point (Gold) in the final where they secured a narrow 16-15 victory.  Likewise, the bronze medal match was a tight affair with North Carolina edging Ohio St, 17-16 for bronze.

Awards:

• All Star Team
  • Left Wing: Maci Hodgins, West Point (Black)
  • Left Back Sarah Hollis, West Point (Black)
  • Center Back Elizabeth Whetstone, Ohio State
  • Right Back Mary Bell, West Point (Black)
  • Right Wing Kseniya Farell, West Point (Black)
  • Pivot Nawal N'Garnim, North Carolina
  • Goalkeeper Sarah Fazzolari, West Point (Black)

• MVP Kseniya Farell, West Point (Black)
• Leading Scorers: Sarah Hollis, West Point (Black), Elizabeth Whetstone, Ohio St, 24 goals

Men's Collegiate Competition

The men's competition featured ten teams divided into two groups of five teams each.  Round robin play took place on Friday and Saturday and placement matches on Sunday.  While this format had no official semifinal matches each group ended up with de facto semifinal matches between undefeated 3-0-0 teams on Saturday night.  In Group A the matchup was between the first teams for Ohio St and North Carolina with Ohio State pulling away in the end for a 30-26 win.  In Group B, service academy rivals Air Force and West Point faced off with West Point getting the win 32-29.

In Sunday's finals, North Carolina took bronze with a 31-25 win over Air Force.  In the gold medal final Ohio St held sway for much of the first half and took a 16-14 lead at the break.  West Point, however, rallied and came through in the end with a 30-29 win.  The win marked the 14th straight Collegiate title for West Point.

Awards

• All Star Team
  • Left Wing Tevin Miller, Air Force
  • Left Back Aaron Ham, North Carolina (Carolina)
  • Center Back Sean Starrett, Ohio State (Scarlet)
  • Right Back Luke Windish, West Point (Black)
  • Right Wing Jordan Mason, North Carolina (Carolina)
  • Pivot Luke Bolte, Ohio State (Scarlet)
  • Goalkeeper Spencer Knudsen, West Point (Black)

• MVP Sean Starrett, Ohio State (Scarlet), 54 goals
• Leading Scorer Sean Starrett, Ohio State (Scarlet)

Men's Youth Competition

In conjunction with the Collegiate Championships a youth championship was held and it featured two teams (Cali Kings and SF Cal Heat) from the San Francisco Bay Area and a team from Ocean, New Jersey. In round robin play both of the California teams defeated Ocean NJ and SF CalHeat defeated the Cali Kings, 32-25.  On Sunday, however, the Cali Kings edged out SF CalHeat 17-16 in a defensive minded rematch.

Awards

• All Star Team
  • Left Wing Aiden Bulow, Cali Kings
  • Left Back Ian Hodgson, SF CalHeat
  • Center Back Jacob Michalik, Ocean NJ
  • Right Back Tsai Hsieh Kuo SF CalHeat
  • Right Wing Cooper Black, SF CalHeat
  • Pivot  Wills Towers, Cali Kings
  • Goalkeeper Ezekiel McClintock, SF CalHeat

• MVP Aiden Bulow, Cali Kings
• Leading Scorer Ian Hodgson, SF CalHeat