Familiar faces dominate
play at Belmar Open
MARIE ORTIZ Defending champion Mike Whitmarsh prepares to spike the ball on Brian Lewis during Saturday’s semi-final match of the Sunkist Belmar Open. Whitmarsh and partner Canyon Ceman went on to win the tournament.
The beaches of Belmar once again played host to some of the best volleyball players in the world this weekend, with a familiar name appearing on top on Sunday.
Mike Whitmarsh won his fourth straight Sunkist Belmar Open on Sunday after he and teammate Canyon Ceman defeated Adam Jewell and Nick Hannemann 15-11 in the final match of the $75,000 tournament. Whitmarsh, who has dominated play at Belmar for the past four years, won for the second time with Ceman, after taking the title as a team in 1997. Since then, Whitmarsh has won with Kent Steffes in 1998 and David Swatik last year.
With the win, Whitmarsh, 38, joins legendary player Karch Kiraly as a four-time Belmar winner, only one behind Steffes, who has won five times.
As the fourth seeds, Whitmarsh and Ceman rolled through the winners’ bracket of the 32-team double-elimination competition, including a key 15-4 win over the team of Adam Johnson and Brian Lewis on Saturday.
While the professionals dominated the scene over the weekend, several local players had the opportunity to play in the East End Volleyball pro/amateur event and the Sunkist Youth Tour.
In the East End competition, Wayne Gant of Wall teamed with Ihor Akinshyn of Fair Lawn to win the men’s open, while Jen Knil of Bridgewater and Kristin Jancewicz of Hamilton won the women’s A title.
In the Sunkist open, Bobby Criss of East Brunswick teamed with Marc Cangemi of Edison to take the boys’ 16-year-old division. In the boys’ 18-year-old division, Brian Caffety of Neptune and Kris Fraser of Lakewood won while East Brunswick’s Jeff Lee and Lakeland’s C.J. Pinkney took third.