Rolling Thunder Tournament Results, November 2005, at MIT

Middlebury, Vermont November 28, 2005

Middlebury Indoor Tennis:
Rolling Thunder Tournament Results of November 2005

Collin Casavant of Rutland won the men's singles title at the Open Draw of the "Rolling Thunder" tennis tournament series at Middlebury Indoor Tennis on Sunday November 20. In the final round high school student Casavant bested Darrin Larochelle, a teaching pro at a Burlington tennis club and resident of Bristol, 6-4, 6-1. In the first set Larochelle was down 4-1, but came back to make the outcome appear uncertain for set one. Again in the second set with a 4-1 score, a comeback seemed about to happen, but Casavant held on.

On the way to the final Larochelle narrowly edged teaching pro and MIT Member Wayne Olado (Gaysville) and Australian Thibaut Huens of Green Mountain College. Both matches were decided in tie-breakers. Casavant had a slightly easier path, but did have his hands full in the first set against Eric Franz, a regular tournament player from Burlington who went down in the semi final 6-4, 6-1.

The men's doubles final was easily the most dramatic match of the tournament. Experienced recreational tournament players of the Burlington area, Nick De Tarnowsky (Richmond) and Jim Glanville (Underhill), defeated the much younger team of Casavant and Huens 6-3, 7-6. In the second set the eventual winners were up two breaks, and seemed to be cruising to victory, but two break-backs by the youngsters forced a tie-break.

In earlier matches, De Tarnowsky and Glanville narrowly defeated MIT Pro Franz Collas (North Ferrisburg) and Carl Boss (Bristol) 7-5, 7-5, who themselves had a hard time with Tim Wilcox (Rochester) and John Healy (Middlebury) in winning 7-6, 6-2.

The previous weekend (November 11-13) featured the "Advanced" players in the so-called "B" draws. In final rounds of singles Adam Crowley (Burlington) defeated David McCluskey (Salisbury) in a tie-break; Annie Janeway prevailed over Sharon Gross (both Middlebury) 6-3, 6-4. In doubles Michele Butler (Bristol) and Karen Didricksen (Bridport) defeated Kathy Yost and Arlene Silva (both Montpelier) 6-4, 6-1; Healy and Wilcox edged Mark and Nathan Slattery (Moriah, NY) 6-4, 7-5. The mixed doubles final had Janeway and Healy over Butler and Chris Dayton (Middlebury) 6-1, 6-1.

The weekend of November 5-6 started out the Rolling Thunder series with "Intermediate" or "C" draws, of which only the men's doubles had entrants. In that round robin event of four teams, the father-son team of Orest and Michael Bula (Shelburne) won, and teen-agers Andy Killorin (Weybridge) and Nathan Cohn (Ferrisburg) took second place.

Complete results are at middleburytennis.com.