Learning to Live Without Kenton

They're good, but no one knows it.

They are the most consistent team at Harvard, but no one seems to care.

They have a .928 overall winning percentage, the best at Harvard, but still their achievements go unnoticed.

They have a .958 winning percentage in the Ivy League, .948 against non-Ivy teams. Yet they barely seem to exist beyond their homecourt, Hemenway Gymnasium.

A less-than-spectacular football team drew 41,000 fans to a single game this year, the hockey team routinely brings in 3000, but the Harvard men's squash team--a squad that has never had a losing season--draws at most a couple dozen loyal fans to its games.

But year after year, the unknown Harvard racquetmen manage to finish with a winning season.

The racquetmen enter the 1986-'87 campaign without three-time Ivy Player of the Year Kenton Jernigan, who graduated last June. Additionally, injuries to some top players have further depleted the Harvard team.

But the racquetmen are still considered the favorite to win a record fifth-straight Ivy League Championship--a feat which earlier Crimson squads twice equalled.

Dominance

The Crimson has won 20 Ivy League championships, far and away the most in the Ivies since the championships were started in 1956. Only once have the racquetmen failed to win or tie for the Ivy championship over a span of three consecutive years.

Harvard enters this season with a 47-game winning streak, which includes four straight undefeated seasons. The Crimson has gone undefeated in regular-season play 16 times, and has gone undefeated in the Ivies 18 times, another record.

"As far as Ivy goes, we have to beat Princeton," Harvard Co-Captain Kevin Jernigan, Kenton's younger brother, said. "On paper it looks good, because Princeton lost their top six to graduation. We didn't lose as many as they did, but we try to steer away from taking teams for granted. We have a good team and we have some good transfers, it should be a good year."

"We work to get away from saying, `oh, we're supposed to win the Ivy Championship because we're Harvard,'" Jernigan added. "Basically, we ignore what people say."

The racquetmen's toughest match will come against Princeton in Princeton, N.J., on February 7.

"We have to be considered as good any other team," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said. "We have a good group of guys. Our toughest matches are on the road."

The Crimson's biggest disadvantage this year will be the loss of the elder Jernigan, the most dominating player in college squash. Jernigan never lost an individual match during regular season competition while at Harvard, recording a 42-0 record in dual matches.

"The loss of Kenton hurts us. It was nice having a guy who could beat anybody in the league," Fish said. "Our players won't be expected to win every match, but our team has the ability to do very well."