by DAVID SENTENDREY
Intern Sports Reporter

Students served up a championship as the Appalachian State University club racquetball team hosted its “Rackets at the Rock” tournament at the Quinn Recreation Center Feb. 21.

This was the first tournament hosted by Appalachian.

Appalachian won first place overall by taking down the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. The Mountaineers scored 46 team points, while Duke scored 31 and UNC scored 27.

Senior physical education teaching major Barry M. Merritt (l) and sophomore undecided major Megan E. Eklund are the champions of the first home racquetball tournament held Feb. 21 at the Quinn Recreation Center. The team took first place overall in the tournament with 46 points. Photo by Tommy Penick.

The Mountaineers performed so well in the tournament that club racquetball president Andrew D. Jacobs is hoping it becomes an annual event.

Subway and Panera Bread sponsored the event by catering lunch, while Ektelon, a world recognized racquetball company, provided free racquetballs for the tournament.

Megan E. Eklund, sophomore undecided major, spearheaded the women’s singles division by winning first place in the tournament for ASU.

“Going in, I thought it was going to be really easy, and the first game was,” Eklund said. “The second game was a lot harder. My opponent pulled out all the stops, so it became really challenging for me.”

Eklund said she loves the competitive nature and sportsmanship that racquetball can help create.

Eklund played softball in high school, but ASU provided her first racquetball experience when she took it as a class in the Department of Health Leisure and Exercise Sciences.

For the men’s singles division, senior physical education teaching major, Barry M. Merritt, won first place for the black and gold.

“We were expecting good play from these guys,” Merritt said. “After the first few matches we realized, we can hang with these guys.”

Merritt has been playing racquetball since high school when he would play at his local YMCA against a number of players who were ranked in the top 10 racquetball players of North Carolina.

When he has time away from classes, Barry offers his racquetball knowledge to students who take the sport as a physical education class.

“Whenever I have a break in classes I help out Ron Forster, who is the racquetball head coach and teacher on campus,” he said. “I think students like hearing it from kids their own age sometimes.”

The racquetball team practices Tuesday and Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the QRC.

Jacobs encouraged anyone with a desire to learn the sport or add to previous experience to attend practice.

“Racquetball is very intense,” Jacobs, sophomore religious studies major, said. “It requires sharp reflexes and it’s more strategic than people think. All around, it’s great fun.”

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