Posts

Posted on

IRT 2025-26 Season in Review: The Top 10

Kane takes the title. Photo credit: unknown

I normally do a 3-part “Season in Review” post for both tours … but suddenly i look up and its mid August and … well I just don’t have time to do that much work. I already had this huge post in the can, so here it goes. I’ll do a similar top 10 review for the ladies later this month and then we’ll be ready for the new season to kick off.

————————–

First, before we begin, a history lesson, to help explain how the top 10 was determined for this season, since this was definitely a unique season.

For decades, the IRT was set to work in a “fall to spring” schedule, not unlike what the NBA and NHL does. The reason is simple: as an indoor sport, the winter months are when players play, so it makes sense to do fall to spring and have the season run from July 1st to June 30th each year. However, the Covid year presented an issue; all indoor play essentially shut down in March of 2020 and did not start back up for the rest of the year, so the commissioner and IRT board made the understandable decision to pivot to a year-long season starting on Jan 1st 2021, and the tour stuck with the Jan-to-Dec schedule for several seasons. When the tour pivoted to new ownership/new management in December 2024, they also went back to the prior schedule. Instead of awarding a tour winner in June of 2025 based on just a handful of events that spring, the tour went to a 2025-26 18month schedule where the best 10 results would be used to determine the winner.

So, In the end, the 2025-26 season lasted 18 months and featured 13 Tier 1 events and at least 10 Satellite events. The best 10 results for each player comprised their total points, and that’s how the rankings for the 2025-26 season came to be. I keep a Rolling Calendar of points online, which I initially created to capture a 2-year sample of points for a what-if analysis surrounding a season where Kane missed a ton of time, and have kept it current for the better part of the last decade.

https://docs.google.com/…/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTN…/edit…

———————

Here’s a couple of links useful to have bookmarked as you read t his.

– 2025-26 Final Rankings: https://rball.pro/b147b4

– 2025-26 Season Summary Report, my “go-to” summary report for the tour:

– Current IRT rankings on irttour.com:https://www.irttour.com/singles-rankings/

———————

Ok, lets get to it.

#1: Kane Waselenchuk : 3545 points. 5 wins, 3 finals. King Kane continues to set records every time he steps onto the court, winning his 16th career season-end title on tour at the age of 44yrs 216 days. The new age-based standard record he broke this year was, “Oldest Player to finish in the top 10,” which he now owns for his finish, breaking the record of @Rocky Carson in 2022. Waselenchuk ended up wrapping up the season title with an event to spare, giving him a victory lap of sorts in the season’s final event in St. Louis.

Prognosis for 2026-27 season: Kane went through a streak of 3 straight losses to his top rival Moscoso this season, but rebounded for a decisive win in Fountain Valley to break that streak and set himself up to secure the title a few weeks later. He ends the season looking better than ever, and seems well positioned for another run. I sense the 2027-28 season will be the same we saw this season; two players clearly head and shoulders above the rest. Father time is undefeated though, and Kane will be turning 45 halfway through the season; can he keep this going? Previews of these events have to consider the obvious: a player at 45 is going to have aches and pains that a 30yr old just doesn’t. Prediction: Kane gets pipped for #1 and finishes 2nd next season.

—

#2: Conrrado Moscoso 2989 points. 4 wins, 2 finals. Conrrado looked for a good portion of this season like he had finally taken the leap. For years, we’d watched as the Bolivian struggled to beat Kane. Then suddenly in Dec 2025 he put everything together for a stretch of 3 months, got 3 straight wins over his rival, and had the season title in his sights. Then, he took a bad loss in Chicago right when he needed to keep the pressure on, and when Kane turned the tides and figured out the adjustment he needed to win in California in Mid April, the game was up. Conrrado didn’t even travel to the final event of the season thanks to Bolivian unrest and visa processing delays, but it didn’t matter. He was locked into the #2 spot on tour. He’s now got 13 Tier 1 victories in his career at the age of 30, good for 12th all time. His .804 Winning percentage is elite; he sits behind only Kane and Marty.

Prognosis for 2026-27 season: I think Moscoso is running out of time before he starts his own age-based decline, but more importantly before his countryman Jhonathan Flores catches up to him. I think next season is the one where it all comes together for Conrrado and he takes the title. He’ll have to stay healthy, hope that Kane struggles a bit with fitness, and he continues to maintain his focus. Prediction is #1 for 2027.

—-

#3 Andres Acuna, 2280 points. 2 wins this season. Acuna won the final event of the season, which propelled him just above Jake for the #3 spot on tour. It’s his career high season-ending rank, and amazingly it is the 7th straight season he has improved upon his season-ending rank. His finals win in St. Louis also marked a career benchmark; it was his 100th win on tour, becoming the 50th player in tour history to join that Century club.

Acuna certainly takes advantage of opportunity; in his career he’s made just two finals and won them both. He’s managed to maintain his top 4 ranking for large parts of the season by consistently making runs into the quarters and semis. His one bad loss this year was an 11-10 loss to Trujillo in the 16s of Pro Nationals.

Prognosis for next season: I think Acuna’s run of improving his ranking each year is over; he’s just 1-12 against Kane and Conrrado for his career, 1-15 if you include his now-3 meetings with Flores. I think he slips down to the 4th or 5th range next season as Flores makes a run.

———-

#4 Jake Bredenbeck: 2126 points. 1 win, 2 finals. Last year, I was worried that Bredenbeck’s time was up; he finished 9th, had a bunch of early losses, and was entering that “dangerous” age range where players, especially bigger stature, power players, start to drop off precipitously. Well, Jake flipped the script this season, getting a tier 1 win, beating Kane twice (both times facilitating his getting to a final), and maintaining consistency throughout the year. He had just one “bad” loss, a round of 16 loss to Diego Garcia way back in Feb 2025, the second event of the season. From there, He ended up making the quarters or better in every tournament he played. He was clipped in the final event, knocking him #3, which would have tied his career best year end showing.

Prognosis for next season: Jake seems certain to take at least a small step back, as Flores is hot on his heels and beat him in 3 of their 4 meetings this season. They’ll certainly meet early in the new season in the quarters as the #4 and #5 seeds in the quarters, and it may continue from there depending on how the rest of the tour goes. I think Jake will slip back into the 7-8 range.

——

#5 Rodrigo Montoya, 1854 points. 1 Final, 4 semis. After peaking at #2 to finish the 2024 season, Montoya was the only top player who played in all 13 Tier 1 events this season, a surprise given that he’s generally struggled to make events throughout the course of his career. He did make one final this year, in Pleasanton at the Golden State Open in Oct 2025, but his season was marred by a slew of early losses. He took a round of 32 loss to Sam Murray in Chicago in Mar 2025 (not a bad loss, but a bad round to lose in from a points perspective), and he had three round of 16 losses (to Portillo, Carter, and Gastelum) this season. Those are just not losses a top 4 player can take and continue to stay in the top 4. He was Jeckyl and Hyde all year, and probably had his best win of the season in the very last event, when he beat up-and-coming Jhonathan Flores 12,14 in St. Louis.

Prognosis for 2026-27: I think Montoya’s struggles continue, and he falls down the standings a bit. It seemed rare for him to make all the events, and that combined with weird early losses will conspire against him. I think he slips a little bit to like #6.

——

#6 Jhonathan Flores, 1777 points. 1 win, 3 semis.

At the beginning of the 2025 season, Flores was an enigma. He was the reigning 18U junior champion from Bolivia … but Bolivia has had a slew of 18U champions over the years who did not impact the pro tour. Flores had one big run at the 2024 Shamrock Shootout, but that was it. Even for the first half of 2025 his results were “close but no cigar” type events; he had a couple close losses to top pros, a couple of11-10 losses to Parrilla, he took Moscoso to a breaker. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2026 that players started taking note. He blew through both Parrilla and Jake to get to the semis of the Minnesota event. He played Moscoso tough in Sioux Falls. Then, he got a favorable draw in Chicago to take the title. He won a Tier 1 in just his 11th ever IRT appearance, which is heady territory. He continued pushing the top players the rest of the season, finishing 6th despite missing three events.

Prognosis for 2026-27: In between Sept 2025 and the final event of the 2026 season, the only players on tour who Flores lost to were Kane and Conrrado. That’s no coincidence. I feel Flores is going to continue to push his way into the semis on the regular, and will soon settle into the #3 seed on tour, regularly facing Moscoso in the semis and starting a fun rivalry. For now, Conrrado has his number, but perhaps not forever. I think he finishes 3rd this season and will start to push for #2 by season’s end.

——

#7 Eduardo Portillo, 1520 points, 3 finals, 1 semi, 5 missed events.

Portillo’s schedule is the only thing holding him back. Despite missing 5 of the 13 events this season thanks to his flying schedule, he still managed to finish 7th. If you turned all those absences into quarters or semis runs, he’s closer to 3rd. Talent wise, Four of his 8 losses this season were to Kane, who he then put a loss on himself at the final event of the season.

Prognosis for 2026-27: Lalo has what it takes to finish top 4, but he can’t help his schedule. I think he continues to beat everyone not named Kane or Conrrado on the regular, misses some events here and there, but still manages to finish 5th.

——

#8 Andree Parilla, 1500 points, 1 final, 3 semis.

Parrilla missed out on 7th place by just 20 points, but is now in that dangerous 8th spot that plays a tough round of 16 and then the top seed every week. After six straight seasons in the top 5, he’s slipped a bit, and may struggle to get back there.

He’s competitive against his fellow top 8 players, with wins against Acuna, Flores, jake, and Adam this season. The truth is that he’s in a group of players who, any given Sunday, are beating each other up in the quarters.

Prognosis for 2026-27: I see no reason that he doesn’t stay right in the same 7-8 range; I don’ t think he can beat the top 3 players, and he’s struggled against Acuna if he can get that match up in 4/5 seed, which means he’s regularly ending events in the quarters.

——

#9 Adam Manilla, 1479 points, 2 semis, 6 quarters.

Manilla worked his way back from an injury that cost him his career high ranking at the end of 2024 of #3 and saw him slip all the way out of the top 10 by March of 2026. He battled back, got some solid wins and finished #9.

Prognosis for 2026-27: its tough to see where the wins in the quarters are coming from for Adam. He got a win over Moscoso this season, but it was a career first. He’s just 3-5 career against Acuna. He’s a regular in the quarters, hard to see wins past that on the regular, which puts him right in the same 8-9 spot he’s in this year.

—-

#10 Javier Mar, 1469 points, 1 semi, 8 quarters.

Mar had a career high finish this season, his first time in the top 10. Which is amazing, given that he’s been a constant presence on tour for a decade. He’s almost automatic for the quarters, but has struggled to get much past that juncture. Like several others in this 5-10 range, he’s got a full time job that sometimes prevents him from traveling. He also battled injuries here and there for the past year and a half or so. His best result of the season came way back in Mar 2025, where he blasted Sam Murray in the quarters for his best win of the season.

Prognosis for 2026-27: For years, Mar was always my dark horse upset pick. But after missing just one event in the last year and a half, his place on tour is pretty solidified; he’s a lock for the quarters, and needs something crazy to happen to either get upset before that or to move past that. that puts him right back in the same 8-10 spot he is now, trying to hold off the guys in the 11-15 range. He’s got a big enough lead that i think he can hold on to #10 one more year.

——————-

That’s it for the top 10 on the @International Racquetball Tour last season.

Posted on

IRF 2026 Central American & Caribbean Championships wrap-up

Herrera wins her first ever International singles title. Photo Denver 2021 KenFife

The IRF hosted its recurring Central American & Caribbean Games, returning to the Dominican Republic for the 2026 iteration of the event.

This is the 10th iteration of these games that have had a racquetball component. The first one was in 1990, when Mexico hosted the event and its two singles components were won by Raul Torres and Hilda Rodriguez of Mexico, two very early pioneers of Mexican racquetball. In fact, Mexico has always dominated this competition, winning 12 of the previous 16 singles titles and sweeping all 5 titles in the 2023 version.

Countries participating this year: host Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and Cuba. Venezuela is an odd entry, as they are in neither Central America or the Caribbean, but hey I don’t make the rules. It is not the first time a South American country has bee included in this event. Heck, in 2018 Colombia HOSTED this event. I’m not entirely sure why Mexico is in this event year after year; they’re regularly included as a “North American” country, but I was a Math major, not Geography, so don’t listen to me.

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: Rodrigo Montoya

– Women’s Singles: Alexandra Herrera

– Men’s Doubles: Eduardo Portillo/Andre Parrilla

– Women’s Doubles: Montse Mejia/Alexandra Herrera

– Mixed Doubles: Andres Acuna/Larissa Faeth

Exec Summary: Mexico wins 4 of the 5 titles, but 15yr old Faeth gets another win for Costa Rica’s Adult team internationally.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54300

Match Reports in the PRS database post-load:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/18bf6e

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/8dc8e2

– Men’ Doubles: https://rball.pro/9544e2

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/45b3f5

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/2bcd18

——————

Lets review the five main draws, calling out upsets and interesting results.

Men’s Singles:

The group stages were nearly 100% chalk, and with very few matches that even went beyond three games. The best match of the group stages was probably to determine 1st place in Group D, as Costa Rica’s Gabriel Garcia took out Guatemalan veteran Juan Jose Salvatierra in four close games to secure the #4 seed in the knockouts.

In the knockouts, the host Dominicans played well, with Luis Perez taking a game off of #1 seed Portillo in the quarters, and Dominican #1 Ramon De Leon upsetting Guatemala’s Garcia to reach the semis. Portillo had to go 5 games to top De Leon to make the final from the top, while two IRT top-10 players in Rodrigo Montoya and Andres Acuna battled it out from the bottom half, with Montoya advancing to return to the final. In a rematch of the 2023 final, Montoya blitzed Portillo 4,4,6 for the gold. It is first CAC singles gold, and his 4th career International gold medal.

——————–

Women’s Singles:

The group stage was mostly without incident; the two Costa Rican women entries were probably slightly overseeded thanks to their performance in the most recent Int’l event, and both were “upset” in the group stage. This gave Venezuelan veteran Marina Tobon the 4th seed in the knockouts, where she was summarily upset by Dominican Maria Cespedes in the quarters.

The biggest upset of the tournament though was from Costa Rican 15yr old Larissa Faeth, who upset the 3rd seeded Montse Mejia in four games. Faeth, who is the two-time defending 14U world Junior champion, is now regularly representing Costa Rica in Adult competitions and advanced to the semis here before falling.

In the top semi #1 Alexandra Herrera cruised past Cespedes in three, while from the bottom half Guatemala’s Gaby Martinez ended Faeth’s run in three, setting up a top-10 LPRT final between two old rivals. In the final, Herrera got her first ever IRF win over Martinez to claim her first ever International singles title.

——————–

Men’s Doubles:

A chalk group stage led to a 7-team knockout round with two heavy favorites … and one of them got upset in the semis. Costa Rica’s all-Acuna team of brothers Andres and Sergio got upset by the Guatemalans Salvatierra & Aldana in the semis to setup an unlikely final. In the gold medal match, team Mexico blitzed Team Guatemala to keep it an all Mexico gold affair.

——————–

Women’s Doubles:

The entire Women’s doubles draw went chalk, in both the group stage and in the knockouts. Top seed and defending champ Team Mexico was represented by Herrera & Mejia, one of the best doubles teams in the history of the sport and winners of dozens of titles both internationally and professionally; they advanced to the final from the top half. From the bottom half, long-time Guatemalan partners Gaby Martinez and Maria Renee (Rodriguez) Josey also cruised into the final to face off. In the final, Team Mexico made it 4-for-4 with a 8,4,8 win over the Guatemalans.

——————–

Mixed Doubles:

An upset free group round set the stage for the two top seeds (from Mexico and Costa Rica) to meet, but both were pushed before they got there. Team Costa Rica (featuring top-4 IRT player Andres Acuna and 15-yr old phenom Larissa Faeth) had to dig deep to top the Cubans in one semi, while team Mexico (featuring Rodrigo Montoya and Jessica Parrilla) got pushed to 5 games by team Guatemala before advancing. In the final, the top seeded Costa Rican team won their second straight IRF event, following up on their gold together in the PARC event in March, with a solid 4-game win over team Mexico. The 15yr old Faeth held her own along the right against veteran pro Parrilla and they got the win.

——————

The players will remain in the DR for a couple more days playing a Team event before heading home.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Next up on the calendar is the 2026 Mexican Junior Nationals next weekend. There’s an IRT-600 satellite event later in the month. Sometime in early August, look for Season in Review articles from yours truly recapping both the IRT and LPRT seasons.

Posted on

2026 Outdoor Nationals & World Championships Recap

The McDonald clan, headlined by eldest son Chris, took home six titles this weekend in California. Photo 2023 Outdoor Nats via Lara

This past weekend, the 52nd annual Outdoor Nationals tournament was held at Marina Park in Huntington Beach, California. Here’s a recap of the weekend’s event.

Congrats to your Pro/Open winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: Kane Waselenchuk and Chris McDonald

– Women’s Open Doubles: Karen Grisz and Marie Gomar

– Mixed Open Doubles: Jack McDonald and Martha McDonald

There were no pro singles draws this year.

Exec summary: Kane wins his third straight Outdoor Nationals title, and his second straight with Chris McDonald. Martha and Jack McDonald defended their 2025 Mixed Open title, avenging a group stage loss in the final. Lastly in Women’s, Gomar, Marie and Grisz, Karen became first time winners.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=51162

ProRacquetballStats.com Match Reports by Pro division (notification that the results have been loaded to the database):

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/3194ac

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/15da8c

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/15da8c

Triple Crown Reports: (these show the winners of all Pro divisions at all WOR outdoor majors across time)

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/j47

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/2vv

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/y43

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/86z

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/x8g

————————–

Lets do a quick recap of the Pro/Open draws.

Men’s Pro Doubles: The men’s pro doubles draw had a slew of legends playing this year, including Greg Solis and Ravi Sohoni, past winners Brandon Davis & Josh Tucker, future hall of famer Rocky Carson & recently inducted Jesus Ustarroz, and of course my podcasting partner Brian Pineda . However, the draw was no match for the power of last year’s champs Kane Waselenchuk & Chris McDonald, who blew through the draw to repeat as champs.

Rocky & Jesus outlasted the long-time outdoor legends Solis & Ravi in the quarters, but fell 11-9 in the semis to Davis & Tucker. In the final, Kane & Chris ground out a 15-12 first game win, then blew their way to a 15-3 second game and the title.

—————–

Women’s Open Doubles:

Four teams of ladies Open/Elite outdoor players played a well-balanced round robin draw, where three of the teams wen 2-1 and the finalists had to be determined by point differential. In the final, Marie Gomar & Karen Grisz avenged a group stage loss to Sandra Ramos Mowry & Susie Boulanger to take the title.

—————–

Mixed Open Doubles: The legendary @Martha McDonald teamed with younger son Jack to finish 2nd in the group stage to the surprise team of Adrianna Moncada & Georges Barrera, then avenged the group stage loss in the final to repeat as champions.

—————–

Other Major Draws in California:

– CPRT: Kane & Chris got the double win this weekend, taking out Carson & Ustarroz in the final.

– Men’s 75s: Brothers Chris and Jack McDonald teamed up to take the title, beating Sweet Lou Orosco and Max Heymann in the final.

– Men’s 100/Centurion: The biggest draw of the event was 100+, with 13 teams. In the final, Miguel Arriola / Tony Hernandez rebounded from a 15-0 first game loss to beat Scott St Clair / Tony Burg in a breaker for the title.

– Men’s Open: Brandon Davis / Brian Pineda ground their way to an Open title, beating Greg Solis / Lou Orosco in the final.

————————–

Congratulations to the 2026 Hall of Fame Class, who were inducted Saturday afternoon. Kevin Booth and Greg Freeze both had decades-long dominance in the sport and in Outdoor Nationals and are well deserving. To read their bios, go to these links:

Booth: https://www.usaracquetball.com/news/2026/june/23/kevin-booth-wor-hall-of-fame-inductee-class-of-2026

Freeze: https://www.usaracquetball.com/news/2026/june/23/greg-freeze-wor-hall-of-fame-inductee-class-of-2026

————————–

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez, Mike Coulter, and the whole 3WallBall crew, who have now taken over Outdoor Nationals. Thanks once again to all the sponsors who make this event possible.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…

NMRA Masters is next weekend in Tempe, then August has both Mexican Junior Nationals and the IRF Central American & Carribean games, always a fun regional event.

——————-

@3Wall Ball

@WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

Mike Coulter

Posted on

2026 USA Racquetball Junior Nationals Recap

DJ Mendoza has both outdoor and indoor chops, and won the Triple Crown at USA Junior Nationals this past weekend. Photo via Rick Bernstein

USA Racquetball held its 53rd annual Junior Nationals event last week in Des Moines, Iowa, getting some really huge draws for some of the mid-teen brackets in a promising sign for the future of tournament racquetball in the states.

With this post, is official notification that the Junior Nationals results have been entered into the ProRacquetballStats.com database. For Juniors, we upload full bracket results for 21s, 18s, 16s, and 14s, but just load up winners and finalists for all age groups younger than 14U. For doubles, we load up just the finalists.

The best way to see Junior Singles winners is with the cross-year/cross-age group Matrix reports built into the site. They show all the winners for all age divisions going back to 1974. Here’s direct links for each Matrix report:

– Boys USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/mey

– Girls USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/cpf

Each full division draw can be accessed from the “event” pulldown after you enter either the Juniors or the Junior Doubles section. One Junior Nationals results in 18-20 singles draws plus another 15 doubles draws being entered into the database, so there’s a lot of new data here this week.

R2sports home page for the 2026 event, with all the full brackets:

https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=50993

For 2026, congrats to your Boys Singles winners:

– Boys 21U: DJ Mendoza

– Boys 18U: London Townsend

– Boys 16U: Grant Williams

– Boys 14U: Scott Haacke

– Boys 12U: Ryan Joeckel

– Boys 10U: Damian Gil

– Boys 10Udb: Finn McGrath

– Boys 8U: Saharsh Gorthy

– Boys 8Umb: David Lopez

– Boys 6Umb: Vaihbhav Gorthy

Congrats to your Girls singles winners:

– Girls 21U: Naomi Ros

– Girls 18U: Alexis Boyko

– Girls 16U: Rebecca Christopher

– Girls 14U; Yana Alegria

– Girls 12U: Yana Alegria

– Girls 10U: Sameera Rai

– Girls 10Udb: Alyana Machado

– Girls 8U: Sasha Rai

– Girls 8Umb: Almira Pridatko

– Girls 6Umb: Nainika Singi

Congrats to your Boys Doubles winners:

– Boys 21U: Cole Sendrey & DJ Mendoza

– Boys 18U: Grant Williams & Evan Whitley

– Boys 16U: Grant Williams & Evan Whitley

– Boys 14U: Scott Haacke & Nicolas Suarez

– Boys 12U: Reyansh Chandel & Ryan Joeckel

– Boys 10U:Damian Gil & Luca Fernandez

Congrats to your Girls Doubles winners:

– Girls 21U: Naomi Ros & Ava Kaiser

– Girls 18U: Meyer, Elaina & Ortwerth, Stella

– Girls 16U: Boyko, Alexis & Christopher, Rebecca

– Girls 14U: Strobach, Addie & Whitley, Morgan

– Girls 12U: Singh, Riva & Marivada, Sloka

– Girls 10U: Rai, Sameera & Lu, Meiqi

And Congrats to your Mixed Doubles winners:

– Mixed 21U: Mendoza, DJ & Garcia Fatima Sanchez

– Mixed 18U: Reyes, Brandon & Torres, Montserrat

– Mixed 16U: Mangalampalli, Vaishant & Bawa, Sarah

– Mixed 14U: Haacke, Scott & Strobach, Addie

– Mixed 12U: Chandel, Reyansh & Marivada, Sloka

– Mixed 10U: Gil, Damian & Rai, Sameera

(Apologies for any typos: these were hand typed into this post, but should get typo-corrected in the database).

—

Here’s some quick commentary on the Singles champions by grouping.

Boys Singles quick recaps

Boys 21U came down to Mendoza and Sendrey once again, and once again DJ came out on top. These two have also met on the IRT recently, and after early career h2h dominance Mendoza has now taken over in their rivalry. In 18U, London Townsend (finalist last year) was able to take it one step further and claim his first Junior National title. Grant Williams, who was the losing finalist in four straight Junior National events prior to this year, finally got the gold, taking the 16U title with a dominant performance end to end.

In 14U, Scott Haacke took his second title (he won 12U two years ago). In 12U, Ryan Joeckel won his second straight title. Damien Gil took his first junior title in 10U while Finn McGrath took his first 10Udb title. Saharsh Gorthy took his 2nd straight 8U age group title, this year moving up from Multi-bounce. David Lopez took this year 8Umb title, and Saharsh’s younger brother Vaibhav Gorthy won the 6Umb division.

—————–

Girls Singles quick recaps

LPRT touring pro and 2025 US National champ Naomi Ros won her 6th straight junior national title since converting over from Mexico; she has one remaining year in U21. Alexis Boyko, who has had a couple of silver medals in the past, broke through in 18U for her first Junior National title. Yana Alegria, who two years ago won 10U, took both the 12U and 14U title, something we havn’t seen in Junior Nationals for some time. Sameera Rai took the 10U title for her 2nd career win. Alyana Machado won her first title in 10Udb, beating the 8U gold medalist Sasha Rai in the final. The two multi-bounce champions were both first time winners: Almira Pridako in 8Umb and then Nainika Singi in 6Umb.

—–

Multi-title winners

The following players took home the coveted “Triple Crown,” winning singles, gender doubles, and mixed doubles this year:

– 21U DJ Mendoza: singles, doubles with Sendry, Mixed with Sanchez

– 14U: Scott Haacke: singles, doubles with Suarez, Mixed with Strobach

– 10U: Damian Gill: singles, doubles with Fernandez, Mixed with Rai.

Also, special mention to Grant Williams, who won three golds this weekend: 16U singles, 18U doubles with Whitley, and 16U doubles with Whitley.

The following players took home the “double,” winning both Singles and a Doubles title in their age groups:

– Boys 12U: Ryan Joeckel

– Girls 21U: Naomi Ros

– Girls 18U: Alexis Boyko

– Girls 10U: Sameera Rai

Special mention to Yana Alegria for winning gold in both 14U and 12U.

These players took the “Double Double,” winning both Gender and Mixed doubles titles.

– 14U Girls and Mixed: Addie Strobach

– 12U Girls and Mixed: Sloka Marivada

—

Phew. that’s it for USA 2026 Junior Nationals. Congrats to all the 2026 winners. The National team includes the two singles finalists and the doubles winners in each division; those players have first right of refusal to represent Team USA at Junior Worlds later this year at a date/site yet to be announced.

Next up on the racquetball calendar? 2026 Outdoor Nationals, teaming with 3WallBall this year in Huntington Beach! We’ll preview and recap that event as we always do. We also will announce the 2026 WOR Hall of Fame Class at 2026 Outdoor Nats.

Posted on

Official Season-Ending data capture into Pro Racquetball Stats DB for both IRT and LPRT

This is just a quick note to the community that, as of 6/24/26, all tournament points from last season have officially rolled off, and the points are finalized for the 2025-26 seasons for both pro tours.

I have captured the season-ending stats for both the IRT and LPRT, done the data ingestion, name cleanup, and updated historical artifacts.

Here’s some links for you to peruse, if interested, related to this work. All the below have been updated for the rankings, Kane’s title, etc for the latest season:

IRT Season-Ending Links

  • 2025-26 Season ending rankings in the DB: https://rball.pro/b147b4
  • Distinct winners report for 2025-26: https://rball.pro/aca563 . We had 5 winners this season, including two first timers.
  • 2025-26 Season Summary Report, with rankings populated: https://rball.pro/f8328f
  • Tour History Major events: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/tour_history.html
  • List of Year End title Winners: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/year_end_titles.html
  • Number of Overall titles: Kane now at 16: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/number_of_titles.html
  • IRT Tour Year end Summary: a detailed list of events related to the tour, its players, and the sport. https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/year_end_summaries.html
  • 2026-26 Season Seed Report: https://rball.pro/2bda1d . This is a cool query that shows all the players and their seeds in each event for the whole season.

LPRT Season-Ending links. Here’s the same links for the LPRT.

Note: Late in the 2025-26 season, the LPRT introduced ‘Frozen Rankings’ concept for injured or players out on maternity leave. On the LPRT website, this meant that Paola Longoria (maternity) finished in a frozen #2 ranking, while Samantha Salas (injury) finished in a frozen #9 ranking. We are showing their actual season-ending ranking based on performance in the database (Longoria finishing #3 on points, Salas finishing #20). This is consistent with the purpose of the frozen rankings in Tennis, which is to maintain seeding after a break so that a player does not have to enter qualifying upon their return

  • 2025-26 Season ending rankings in the DB: https://rball.pro/6ec129
  • Distinct winners report for 2025-26: https://rball.pro/fe6aba: Vargas won 5 of the 6 events, and Longoria failed to win a tournament for the first time since the 2006-7 season.
  • 2025-26 Season Summary Report, with rankings populated: https://rball.pro/07bb70
  • Tour History Major events: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/lprt/lprt_tour_history.html
  • List of Year End title Winners, which also has a couunt of the # of overall titles in the same file:
    https://www.proracquetballstats.com/lprt/lprt_year_end_titles.html
  • 2026-26 Season Seed Report: https://rball.pro/0507e0. This is a cool query that shows all the players and their seeds in each event for the whole season.

Next up? We’ll be doing our typical season-ending summary posts for both tours, breaking down the top10 finishers and making some predictions for next season. Look for those the rest of this month and into July.

After that, Look for Brian Pineda and I to do some off-season content and hopefully a Mailbag or AMA session where we take questions from the fans.

Posted on

IRT 2026 Gateway City Pro/Am Recap

Acuna gets his second ever career win. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Andres Acuña

The Costa Rican takes advantage of a slew of upsets to come out on top and win his second career Tier 1 title.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54042

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/760e6e

—————-

In the 32s:

– LA-based former touring pro John Wolfe got an 11-9 win in the 16/17 seed match against Chicago’s Base Zera.

– DJ Mendoza needed a tiebreaker to beat his junior national doubles partner Cole Sendrey to move on.

—————-

In the 16s:

– #8 Portillo got an injury walkover against Alonso in his 8/9 match to move on and save some effort on the court.

– #5 Montoya blasted Gastelum, who had upset him in the previous event, to move on.

– #4 Flores cruised past upset-minded Trujillo 5,4 after having been stretched to a breaker against him earlier this season

– #6 Parrilla had to go breaker to beat countryman Martell.

– #7 Manilla took out fellow American lefty #10 Carter to move on.

—————-

In the Quarters

– #8 Portillo took out a somewhat disinterested Kane Waselenchuk in a breaker 9,(11),5. Kane often found himself slightly out of position on these very slow panel courts, hitting a number of balls between his legs or going for circus shots as the pace of play seemed to be throwing him off. Meanwhile, the slow courts and slow ball seemed better suited to Lalo’s game, as he cruised to a game 1 win and a lead in Game 2. At that point, a frustrated Kane, who the previous point had wanted an avoidable on a jam serve he was aiming at the right corner, blasted a full force forehand into Portillo’s leg, attempting again to hit that reverse pinch and again demanding an avoidable. To many, it seemed like an intentional shot meant to inflict pain, or intimidation. Lalo worked through the blast without comment or complaint, and eventually took the match, but the resulting bruise nearly covered his entire quad. Nonetheless, it ended Kane’s title-winning season early, and gave Portillo his second ever win over Kane (Lalo was on the court when Kane tore his Achilles back in Sept 2022).

– Montoya took out Flores 12,14 in a tight match of hard hitters.

– Acuna eased past Parrilla 8,5 and seems “on” this weekend for sure.

– Manilla beats his second US National teammate in a row, topping Jake 9,13 to make the semis.

—————

In the Semis, a wide-open field now missing both top seeds meant a title was there for the taking.

– #8 Portillo continued his run, beating #5 Montoya to make his 3rd final of the season.

– #3 Acuna beat #7 Manilla in a tactical battle 8,13 to move into just his second career final.

In the Finals, Acuna topped Portillo 7,12 to win his second ever Tier 1 title.

—————-

Points Implications of results

Neither #1 Kane or #2 Moscoso changed their overall best 10 results, and finish the year 1-2 easily. Acuna’s title moves him to #3, jumping over Jake for 4th. Montoya’s h2h win over Flores seals 5th place for him over the Bolivian, while Portillo’s run to the title secures 7th place.

Mar’s last minute absence drops him to 10th, while Natera’s absence costs him a season top 10 finish; he drops to #11.

We’ll do our annual season-ending deep dive into the players once the season points are finalized.

Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS..

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

—————-

Open Singles, other notable draws

– There was no pro doubles, but the Open Doubles was stacked. It was taken by #3 seed Mexican youngsters Erick Trujillo / Alvaro Guillen.

– Guatemalan Juan Jose Salvatierra took the Open singles title, beating Mexican Miguel Angel Arteaga Guzman in the final.

– StL High school league grads Kyla Davis / Ella Boaz took the Women’s Open doubles title.

– Kelly Gremley / Blase Zera took the Mixed Open doubles title.

—————–

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre, and the entire IRTLive crew.

Thanks to the Tourney Director @dan whitley for putting this event on!

Thanks to the Tourney Sponsors KWM Gutterman, Downey Ethics, St. Louis Redbirds, Wood Phillips Patent/Trademark/Copywright attorneys, and

Thurman Brooks – TLBJ CPA Firm.

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

In two weeks, we have US Junior Nationals, to determine the players eligible for the 2026 World Juniors later this year. That will then take us to the end of the 2025-26 season officially. July features Outdoor Nationals, NMRA Nationals. August will feature Mexican Junior Nationals, an IRF regional competition in the DR, and a lower tier IRT event in Costa Rica to kick off the 2026-27 season.

——————-

tags

Posted on

IRT 2026 Gateway City Pro/Am Preview

Andree Parrilla is a newlywed, and could make a deep run. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory

Welcome to the final event of the 2025-26 IRT season, the 2026 Gateway City Pro am, being held at the Vetta Sports clubs in the St. Louis area. This event takes the place of the postponed US Open, which was initially set to fall on this date but has been pushed a year due to unforeseen circumstances.

St. Louis holds an important spot in the history of our sport. It hosted a number of the early IRA Nationals events (in 1969, 1970, 1973, and 1975). It also was home to a slew of the sport’s early stars, including Marty Hogan, Jerry Hilecher, Steve Serot, Benny Koltun, Doug Cohen, Kenny Wong, Jerry Zuckerman, and the Gross brothers. More recently, StL hosted a decade-long event annually, named the IrtNetwork.com open initially, then Party with the Pros and Winter Rollout.

St. Louis’ High School league remains unique in the country, and the area still churns out hundreds of tournament players per year.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54042

There are 33 players in the Men’s Pro singles draw, including four St Louis-area top high school players, the entire Guatemalan men’s national team and the entire Costa Rican men’s national team, who make up a bulk of the players seeded 20 and above. This event is the last pro event prior to this summer’s Central America and Caribbean Games event, which every north American country not called USA or Canada is playing.

top20 players missing; unfortunately we got word earlier this week that civil unrest in Bolivia made it impossible for #2 Conrrado Moscoso to get his visa processed in time to make the flight up here. This robs Moscoso of one final pay day for the season, and thins the draw considerably. He and Kane met 8 times this season, but we won’t get a 9th. I suppose i’m thankful that the tour race didn’t get decided by this event, in that Kane’s win a month ago in Montana sewed up the title for the season.

– #2 Moscoso (visa issues)

– #10 Natera

– #17: Carrasco (presumably also visa issues)

– #18, #20: Miranda and Garcia: funding, possibly visa issues (both still live in Bolivia as well)

– #19 Sam Bredenbeck: stepping back

——————————

Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the round of 32:

– Wolfe-Zera in the 16/17 should be close

– US Junior national team member Grant Williams faces down the always tough Jordy Alonso in the first round

– Sneaky good Costa Rican player Gabriel Garcia faces Montoya.

– We get an all-USA Junior U21 matchup between DJ Mendoza and Cole Sendrey, who have together won two straight US Junior national doubles titles together.

– Evan Whitley, son of the tournament director, gets to face #2 Jake Bredenbeck in his pro debut.

——————————-

round of 16:

– I like the 8/9 Portillo-Alonso match; that could go either way depending on who’s hot or who is rusty.

– Montoya has to play Gastelum again; last time they played, Diego beat him.

– The red-hot Trujillo plays into the similarly red-hot Jhonathan Flores; this is too early to see this matchup, which on form is at least a quarterfinal match.

– Parrilla faces Martell in a throwback to a decade-old WRT matchup

– An all USA lefty showdown between Manilla and Carter in the bottom half of the draw.

——————————

Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Kane will face the Portillo/Alonso winner. Both have wins over him, but neither will be favored.

– In the 4/5, assuming seeds hold, we get a banger between Flores and Montoya. Two of the hardest hitters on tour could be awesome. Or, we could get a shocker rematch between Gastelum and Trujillo if things don’t fall the way the top seeds want.

– I’m projecting an upset in the 3/6 Acuna-Parrilla match; Parrilla owns a dominant 7-2 h2h lead in my database over Acuna, dating all the way back to a 10U world juniors matchup 20 years ago.

– Another all-USA matchup awaits Jake Bredenbeck, who will face either Manilla or Carter for a semis spot.

Semis:

– Kane vs Flores/Montoya winner; love this match, hope its Kane-Flores, who have met twice in their careers, both being relatively interesting matches to watch.

– Recently married Parrilla shocks the tour with his second upset in a row, beats jake to make the final of the event.

Finals; Kane over Parrilla in a fun contrast in styles.

——————————-

Doubles review: There are no Pro doubles this weekend, as the tour is focusing on driving more prize money to the singles draw, making this an IRT-800 event. There will be some solid teams in the Open Doubles draw, which we’ll recap on Monday.

———————————

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre, @JTRball, and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the microphone, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Director @dan whitley for putting this event on!

Thanks to the event sponsors: KWM Gutterman, Downey Ethics, St. Louis Redbirds, Wood Phillips Patent/Trademark/Copywright attorney, and Thurman Brooks – TLBJ CPA Firm.

Thanks to tour sponsors: KWM Gutterman, Papa Nicholas coffee, Black & White Energy drinks, Reignstorm Group; tax and wealth management, Frank Hotels

Gearbox , and Formula Flow.

IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Posted on

LPRT 2026 Northern Virginia Invitational Recap

Centellas has a career event, making her first pro final. Photo unknown.

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alejandro Herrera.

TL/DR executive Summary: Vargas finishes off the most dominant season on tour since the end of Longoria’s dominant run in the 2019-20 season, making the final of every event and winning all but one this season. Also, 3 of the 4 semi-finalists were Argentines, including a career run from Valeria Centellas to the pro final.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54043

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/d9335b

In the 16s, there were no real upsets, as all the top seeds cruised to victories against lower seeds and a few of the teenagers who made the trip.

—————-

In the Quarters

– Vargas took out Munoz 4,10

– Mendez upset Herrera 14,9. I know this wasn’t an “upset” by seed, but historically Herrera has been the better player.

– In a monumental upset, #3 Gaby Martinez was upset by #6 Valeria Centellas in an 11-10 thriller. This is her career best win, and she makes the semis for just the second time in her career.

– Mejia cruised past Amaya 6,1.

—————

In the Semis

– Vargas downed her Argentine teammate Mendez without much trouble to get to the final for the 7th straight event.

– Centellas, one day after beating Gaby 11-10, beats Montse 11-10 to set a new “career best win” mark and to make her first pro final, ever.

In the all-Argentina finals, Centellas finally ran out of gas and Vargas blew her out 8,0 to take the crown.

—————-

Points Implications of results

Vargas easily finishes #1, and by virtue of Longoria’s absence Mejia should take over #2 to finish the season. Centellas’ big run jumps her to #6 for the season, easily a career-high ranking. Munoz’ quarter final run gets her back into the top 10 for the end of the season, while Annie Sanchez’ absence dumps her out of the top 10 and she misses out on a first pro top-10 finish.

Here’s a link to my Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

When the tour publishes its final rankings, I’ll correct this xls, capture the data and do year-end data capture and posting.

—————-

Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/efecfc

Mejia & Herrera blasted Vargas & Centellas 3,2 to prevent a double title for Vargas on the weekend.

—————-

Open Singles, other notable draws

– Atlanta’s Maurice Miller won the Men’s Open singles draw.

– Miller and Troy Warigon took the Men’s Open Doubles draw.

– Costa Rican’ teenager Larissa Faeth beat out three members of team Guatemala to take Women’s Open singles

– Christopher Ruano / Suresh Vemulapalli beat two former contemporaries of mine, when I used to actually play racquetball at something of a high level, topping Jeff Wilson and Rich Benderoth for the Combined 75+ doubles title.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

This coming weekend is the final IRT event of the season, 2026 Gateway City Pro/Am in St. Louis. I’ll be doing podcasting work with @Brian Pineda this week, preview videos for the streaming, etc. Then the last event of the “season” will be US Junior Nationals later this month.

——————-

tags

Posted on

LPRT Northern Virginia Invitational preview

Vargas has #1 sewn up; can she win one more? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Well, it has been a minute since the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour was in action, but here we are with one last event for the 2025-26 season. This is the 2026 LPRT Northern Virginia Invitational, being held at the Worldgate Club in Herndon, VA. This has always been one of the nicest clubs in the DC-area, just a few minutes from Dulles Airport and the flagship of a work/shopping complex that is home to more than a few tech firms that you may have heard of.

The Ladies tour has not had an event since January, a huge amount of time to be off, and a sign of the difficulties pro racquetball faces these days. The LPRT has lost half a dozen tournaments in the last few years alone; we used to have a slam in South Carolina at the Sweet Caroline Open, the Boston Open was a spring fixture, Malia Bailey used to get the crew together in Chesapeake at the end of every season, the Battle at the Alamo in San Antonio was a long-running LPRT stop, and of course for years the season ended with a Super Max slam in Kansas City thanks to Randy Root. All of these events are now gone for one reason or another, and the tour has struggled to get replacements.

The draw in DC is just 15 pros, and for the first time that I can remember there’s a bye in the round of 16 of a pro event. Hopefully the tour can rebound and put together a good slate of events for the fall.

#1 Maria Jose Vargas has officially sewn up the #1 ranking for the season; she has an unassailable lead at the top of the standings. We’ll cover her title and its implications in our season wrap up later this month. However, there’s still top 10 spots to jockey for, and the ladies in attendance are set to finish their season on a high note.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54043

draw size, observations

top 10 players missing; #3 Longoria (pregnant, work or both), #6 Laime (who just recently graduated grad school, congrats), #9 Lotts.

——————————

Let’s preview the draw.

round of 16:

– Munoz vs MRR (ahem, Josey) in the 8/9 is a fun one.

– Teenager Costa Rica phenom Larissa Faeth takes on Tier 1 winner Alexandra Herrera.

– the newly minted Hall of Famer @Rhonda Rajsich battles @Valeria Centellas, who is now up to #8 in the rankings and is seeded 6th here.

– Stephanie Synhorst, new Northern Virginia resident with her USMC-related transfer to the Pentagon, takes on Amaya.

——————————

Projected Qtrs:

– Vargas over Munoz, a frequent 1-8 matchup

– Herrera over Mendez. They’ve played 12 times across LPRT and IRF, and though Mendez got her the last time they played (2025 PARC), Herrera h olds a commanding lead in their meetings.

– Gaby over Valeria: Centellas has been impressing, but Gaby still is the better player here.

– Mejia over Amaya

Semis:

– Vargas over Herrera: Maria Jose is too powerful.

– Mejia over Gaby in a battle that’s been fought for more than a decade.

Finals; Vargas takes out Mejia to finish the season with another title.

——————————-

Doubles review

Just 5 teams entered, but world’s two top teams are seeded 1 and 2. Look for Vargas/Centellas to meet Mejia/Herrera and for Vargas to take the double.

———————————

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Lok for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors X and X for putting this event on!

Thanks to our main sponsors X and X and X; it goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.

Posted on

Racquetball Canada 2026 National Championships Recap

Juliette Parent wins her first ever Canadian National Singles title. Photo by Mike Sudoma/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*

This past weekend, Racquetball Canada held its all-encompassing National championships in Burlington, Ontario. National titles and National team spots were handed in in Singles, Doubles, and Juniors. Here’s a quick summary of the winners and a recap of the surprising results in the Adults.

Congrats to your 2026 Canada National Open Singles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: Samuel Murray

– Women’s Singles: Juliette Parent

Congrats to your 2026 Canada National Open Doubles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Doubles: Samuel Murray & Tommy Murray

– Women’s Doubles: Frederique Labert & Michelle Morissette

(Reminder: Canada doesn’t separately compete Mixed Doubles as US & Mexico does, instead selecting the international Mixed partners from the qualified pool. There was a Mixed Doubles event in Burlington but it was not a National-level field).

Lastly, Congrats to your 2026 Canadian Junior National Singles Champions:

– Boys 21U: Leyton Gouldie

– Boys 18U: Asher Pocsai

– Boys 16U: Evan Aiello

– Boys 14U: Oren Gouldie

– Boys 12U Friendship: Christopher Martin-Wiens

– Girls 21U: Chloe Jauvin

– Girls 18U: Kaitlyn Couckuyt

– Girls 16U: Ariana Buller

– Girls 14U: Talia King

We’ll do some commentary for each of the groups down below.

Trackie Sports App home page for event:

https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/…/racquetb…/1017489/

——————

Men’s Open Singles

PRS report: https://rball.pro/ce1246

Change comes slowly at the top of Canada Racquetball, as the country’s two top players Sam Murray and Coby Iwaasa met for the title for the 8th straight season. Murray re-took the title after Iwaasa’s big upset in 2025, topping him in four to give him his 7th national crown.

Props to Leyton Gouldie for making the semis at Nationals for the first time.

See https://rball.pro/879898 for a list of all Men’s Canada National finals historically, going back to the mid 1970s.

——————

Women’s Open Singles

PRS report: https://rball.pro/6e1877

Juliette Parent, who has slowly been working her way up the ranks in Canadian Racquetball, finally broke through for her first ever National title, beating 5-time defending champion @Frederique Lambert for the title. These two met in the last four finals, but on this day Parent dominated, winning 4,6,8. Her younger sister Marjolaine took 3rd place.

See https://rball.pro/5deb35 for a list of all Women’s Canada National finals historically, going back to the mid 1970s. Fun fact: the very first Canadian National Women’s champion was none other than Monique Parent … and this year her daughters came in 1st and 3rd.

——————

Men’s Doubles:

PRS Report: https://rball.pro/f9b837

Brothers Sam and Tommy Murray returned to the top after several years away with a solid 3-game win over defending doubles champ Coby Iwaasa and his new partner Mitch Brayley.

——————

Women’s Doubles:

PRS Report: https://rball.pro/3f62a1

Frederique Lambert and partner Michele Morissette won their 5th straight Canadian National title over the Parent sisters7,8,8. It’s the 7th overall Doubles national title for both ladies, who each earned an additional two titles prior to their first title together in 2022 with other partners.

——————

Boys Junior Results.

Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/ny4

Leyton Gouldie wins in 21U after taking the last two 18U titles; this combined with his semis finish in the Adult bracket portends well for his future in Canadian Racquetball. Asher Pocsai takes 18U, for his first junior title since 2022. Evan Aiello gets his first Canadian title in 16U, while Leyton’s younger brother Oren Gouldie wins 14U for the third year in a row.

——————

Girls Junior Results.

Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/5zu

Chloe Jauvin takes the 21U title in the absence of last year’s winner, and in doing so completes a rather rare feat: she’s won every possible level of Junior titles. She now owns an 8Umb, two 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U last year, and now a 21U junior title. Amazing. Kaitlyn Couckuyt wins her 4th junior national title in a row in 3 successive age divisions. Ariana Buller’s 16U title his her 2nd career title, while 14U winner Talia King repeats as champion.

——————

That’s a wrap for Racquetball Canada Nationals for 2026. We’ll be back next fall with their qualifier. Congrats to all the new Canadian National team members, adults and juniors.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2…/edit…

June gives us one last pro stop for both the IRT and the LPRT for the 2025-26 seasons; the ladies are in Northern Virginia at an old haunt of mine in Worldgate, while the Men travel to St. Louis to play at the Vetta center. At the end of June, we get the final USAR event of the season in Junior Nationals, being held in Des Moines, Iowa this year.