University of Rochester senior squash player Benjamin Fischer has recently been named the College Squash Association's Skillman award winner for the 2012 squash season, earning college squash's version of the “Heisman Trophy”.
 
This Skillman award is given annually to a top men's collegiate squash senior player and sportsman.  Honorees must demonstrate outstanding sportsmanship, leadership, skill and contributions to collegiate squash.
 
In 2012, Fischer has earned a 6-6 record playing primarily at #1 and #2 against the nation's top players.  His collegiate record at UR is 38-23, an impressive mark because he has never played below #3 for the Yellowjackets.  Fischer also is a three time All-American, earning First-Team honors in 2010 and 2011 while being Second-Team in 2009.  “Beni” as his teammates call him, has been co-captain of the 5^th ranked Rochester squad for two years.
 
Fischer also has reaped many awards from the Liberty League; he was the 2010 Liberty League Player of the Year and was named to the All-Liberty League team in 2009, '10, and '11.  He also earned Academic All-Liberty League this season.  One of Fischer's best results was reaching the semi-finals of the CSA Individual Championship in 2010.
 
Rochester head coach Martin Heath says that “Beni has been a model of consistency, fairness, and commitment in his work ethic, behavior on court, and demeanor off court.  He has accepted his wins and his losses with equal grace and has assumed his leadership responsibilities within the team with quiet assuredness and good humor.”
 
Fischer completed the 2012 team squash season yesterday when he played at #1 and beat Kenneth Chan of Yale University 12-10, 11-9, 11-8, helping Rochester earn 5^th place in the Potter Cup Tournament (Squash's National Championship).  The award was presented to Beni before the start of the Potter Cup National Championship match between #1 Trinity (CT) College and #2 Princeton University.
 
The squash senior is a native of Lucerne, Switzerland and attended Kaufmannische Berutsschule High School.

Fischer beat out five other worthy nominees in Vikram Malhotra of Trinity (CT) College, Thomas Mattsson of the University of Pennsylvania, John Roberts of Yale University, Nick Sisodia of Dartmouth College and Thomas Spettigue of Cornell University.  Voting on the award is done by all college coaches who have teams competing the College Squash Association Team Tournament.
 
This award is named for John Skillman, who coached at Yale University for forty-one years. An accomplished player in his own right, Skillman won the United States Professionals tournament (now known as the Tournament of Champions) three times in the 1930s. As head coach at Yale, Skillman led the Bulldogs to 16 national titles, amassing a 451-77 lifetime record with only one losing season.  Skillman was inducted into the Men's College Squash Hall of Fame in 1990.