At the 2005 U.S. Racquetball Intercollegiate National Championship, Sacramento State finished eighth overall out of 41 schools, with the University of Alabama taking home the No. 1 ranking.

Hornet racquetball wound up sixth in the men’s competition and 12th in women’s competition.

The men’s team finished with 643 points, with the top team in the country earning 1750; the women’s team garnered 178 points in total.

The Hornets only had three women on the team, depriving them of points they would’ve had with a full squad; the more players a team has, the more points it will automatically receive.

Denton Warnock, a junior M.I.S. major, took home the gold for the men’s team, finishing first in the men’s No. 6 singles blue division.

Sac State entered the four-day national tournament at Arizona State fourth in the nation, despite a lack of player recruitment, funding and sufficient practice time.

Other schools that competed in the national tournament had luxuries Sac State has never had for its racquetball club team, including organized practices four-to-five times a week, the ability to pay for students’ tuition to play for their team and a larger budget.

Even though squads with such amenities have a step up on Sac State in player development, the Hornets finished ahead of many of them, including more renowned teams such as the Oregon and Texas A&M.

To Mike Landers, a sophomore graphic design major, the ability to overcome such obstacles bodes well for Sac State; being able to compete with the finest schools despite a constraining budget and small core of players is something to take pride in.

“The fact we came in to the tournament fourth in the nation without the ability to recruit players and we finished eighth — it says a lot about our team and our school,” Landers said.