Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
We got a little backed up here at PRS over the past couple of months, between my real job and the work I did for the US Open and 3WallBall in October. So I’m just now doing the data entry for the 2022 Mexican Junior Nationals.
This post is the notification that this data, from the tournament ending on 9/18/22, is now in the database. Here’s some links and a recap.
R2sports tournament link for Mexican Junior Nationals:
Congrats to the Mexican Junior National Champs for 2022:
– Boys 21U: Jose Ramos
– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez
– Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez
– Boys 14U: Sebastian Ruelas
– Boys 12U: Santiago Castillo
– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia Castro
– Girls 21U: Maria Gutierrez
– Girls 18U: Veronica Angel Ortega
– Girls 16U: Yanna Salazar
– Girls 14U: Miranda Barazza
– Girls 12U: Danna Hernandez
– Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez
All these players qualify for the 2022 Junior Worlds Competition, along with the winners of the double elimination brackets for each draw. These two players then generally also form the doubles team that competes in Worlds (Mexico does not generally also compete a Junior doubles division like the USA and other countries do).
Junior Worlds commences on 12/3/22 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. See https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=40015 for the home page for that event.
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Matrix Reports: these show all Junior National champs in all age divisions going back to 2011 for Mexico (prior years are not in R2 and are not complete/not yet loaded):
– Boys Junior Champs: https://rball.pro/4cu
– Girls Junior Champs: https://rball.pro/6ja
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Here’s some commentary on the winners and qualifiers, division by division:
– Boys 21U: Jose Ramos, a name who some may not recognize, wins the first Mexican Junior 21U boys title by topping a solid bracket with several semi-regular IRT touring pros. He topped Erick Trujillo in the winner’s bracket final. The draw also featured Erick Diaz Fernandez , @Oscar Elias Nieto, and its top two seeds were Diego Gastelum and Emir Martinez . Ramos wins his 7th junior national title, but his first since 2018. Trujillo took the loser’s bracket to secure the second spot for worlds. IRT fans certainly recognize Trujillo’s name; he’s already got a couple of top-10 wins under his belt. Well Ramos is just as good but never travels.
– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez wins his first ever junior national title. He lost in the quarters last year. He’s yet to make his IRT debut. @Roberto Cornejo made the winner’s bracket final but was topped by 3-time junior national champion Luis Renteria for the second jr national team spot.
– Boys 16U: Gutierrez repeats as 16U champ. he topped 6-time junior national champion Eder Renteria in the final. Renteria earned the second spot on the national team.
– Boys 14U; Ruelas takes his 2nd ever junior national crown, topping former 8U national champ and #2 seed Nicolas Galindo in the winner’s bracket final. Galindo was then upset by #3 seed Diego Romano for the other World’s spot.
– Boys 12U: Castillo wins his 2nd ever junior title as the #1 seed. He topped #2 seed Brian Axel Sanchez in the final, who then secured the second team spot.
– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia took his 2nd straight junior title (he won 8U last year). Vico Gonzalez takes second.
– Boys 8U: Kermann Gracia (Hermann’s younger brother) goes 5-0 to win the 8U RR.
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– Girls 21U: only two entrants, who played a couple times and determined the winner to be Maria Gutierrez, her 2nd junior title. Hernandez secures the second spot. Only Hernandez has even played an LPRT event; once in 2017 when she was just 14 (she lost to Susy Acosta in straight games).
– Girls 18U: Ortega wins her 4th career junior national title. She topped #1 seed Leonela Osorio in the winner’s bracket finals, but Osorio was beaten by Ivanna Balderrama (the 2019 14U champ) to secure the 2nd team spot. Ortega has twice made the Worlds final, losing to USA’s Heather Mahoney each time, and debuted professionally at this year’s US Open.
– Girls 16U: Yanna Salazar gets her first ever junior national title, topping @Fatima Sanchez in the winner’s bracket final. #1 seed Cynthia Gutierrez , who made the finals of 16U Worlds last year, fought back in the loser’s bracket to secure a return trip to Worlds.
– Girls 14U: Miranda Barraza wins her first jr national title, winning the draw as the #8 seed and defeating several top seeds along the way. She becomes the third Barraza family member to win a junior national title. The #11 seed Lilia Farias (last year’s 12U champ; why was she ranked so low??) took 2nd place.
– Girls 12U: Danna Hernandez topped #1 seed Danna Portillo for the title; both qualified for the worlds’ team.
– Girls 10U: Chihuahua’s Michelle Gomez repeated as 10U champ, topping #2 seed Grissel Gomez Rubio in the final. Both qualified for the national team.
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thanks to the venerable @Favio Soto for running this event on behalf of The Mexican Federation FMR.