@USA Racquetball held its 51st annual Junior Nationals event last week in Pleasanton, California. The first Junior Nationals was held in 1974, in San Diego. The first junior national only featured boys competitions and was won by future touring pro Jerry Zuckerman. None other than the legendary @Marty Hogan won the second 18U national tournament in 1975, the same year he won his first NRC pro event (in Burlington, Vermont in the fall). Ever since, Junior National winners have fed into the pro tours and many of the game’s top American players cut their competitive teeth at Junior Nationals each year.
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 event, with all the full brackets: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=41777
For 2024, congrats to your Boys Singles winners:
– Boys 21U: Vedant Chauhan
– Boys 18U: Nikhil Prasad
– Boys 16U: Nathan Rykhus
– Boys 14U: Vaishant Mangalampalli
– Boys 12U: Scott Haacke
– Boys 10U: Fernando Miguel Carpena
– Boys 10Udb: Jasur Pridatko
– Boys 8U: Jasur Pridatko
– Boys 8Umb: Zane Horner
– Boys 6Umb: Xavier De La Torre-Berrera
Congrats to your Girls singles winners:
– Girls 21U: Annie Roberts
– Girls 18U: Naomi Ros
– Girls 16U: Aanshi Thakur
– Girls 14U; Aarya Shetty
– Girls 12U: Addie Strobach
– Girls 10U: Yana Alegria
– Girls 10Udb: Sameera Rai
– Girls 8U: Sameera Rai
– Girls 8Umb: Nithya Mangalampalli
– Girls 6Umb: Sasha Rai
Congrats to your Boys Doubles winners:
– Boys 21U: Iain Dunn & Paul Saraceno
– Boys 18U: Cole Sendrey & DJ Mendoza
– Boys 16U: Nathan Rykhus & Eshan Ali
– Boys 14U: Vaishant Mangalampalli & Grant Williams
– Boys 12U: Scott Haacke & Noah Jackola
– Boys 10U: Dhruv Venalapalli & Reyansh Chandel
Congrats to your Girls Doubles winners:
– Girls 21U: Annie Roberts & Shane Diaz
– Girls 18U: Naomi Ros & Ava Kaiser
– Girls 16U; Victoria Rodriguez & Montserrat Torres
– Girls 14U: Aarya Shetty & Sarah Bawa
– Girls 12U: Lexie Sikorski & Anna Sikorski
– Girls 10U: Sameera Rai & Sloka Marivada
And Congrats to your Mixed Doubles winners:
– Mixed 21U: Iain Dunn & Shane Diaz
– Mixed 18U: Cole Sendrey & Naomi Ros
– Mixed 16U: Eshan Ali & Victoria Rodriguez
– Mixed 14U: Ayan Sharma & Aarya Shetty
– Mixed 12U: Noah Jackola & Anna Sikorski
– Mixed 10U: Dhruv Venalapalli & Sloka Marivada
—-
Note: there are some combined divisions here. I determined the champions when age groups were combined by looking at head to head results to “name” an age group champion. In some cases there are uncontested winners for younger entrants who competed with the next higher age group.
—-
Here’s some quick commentary on the Singles champions by grouping.
Boys Singles;
Vedant Chauhan returns to the winner’s circle in 21U for the first time since he won 12U in 2017, and he did it as the #8 seed and by dominating the defending champ @Krish Thakur in the quarters. In 18U, @Nikhil Prasad repeated as 18U champ and won his 9th career Junior National title. This ties him for 2nd all time among all Boys, sitting only behind the legendary @Jack Huczek , who won 13 junior titles in his career (amazing b/c he didn’t even have 3 years in 21U to pad his totals back when he played, nor did he have 10Udb).
In 16U, @Nathan Rykhus, the 2-time defending 14U champ, moved up and beat last year’s champion @Eshan Ali in the final. This draw featured 23 players, the largest draw of the event. This is Rykhus’ 5th career junior title. In 14U, Vaishant Mangalampalli gets back on top for his 2nd junior title after winning 12U a couple years ago.
We got a first time junior national singles winners in Scott Haacke in 12U and with Fernando Miguel Carpena in 10U. Jasur Pridatko took home two titles: the Boys 8U and the boys 10U double bounce. Zane Horner followed in his older brother’s footsteps by taking the 8UMB: Benjamin Horner took the same division a decade ago in 2014. Lastly, the 5-man 6UMB draw, famously won by Jake Bredenbeck in 1998, was taken by Xavier De La Torre-Berrera.
—————–
Girls Singles quick recaps.
In 21U, Annie Roberts took her third straight Junior 21U title. It seems a little odd to refer to Roberts, a married woman and soon to be a college graduate, as having won the “Girls 21U” title, honestly. This will be her final time at Junior Nationals, but she still has one intercollegiate title to chase. In 18U, @Naomi Ros cruised to the title, her 4th straight since switching from her native Mexico to represent the USA back in 2020. Aanshi Thakur got her first jr title since 2017 by upsetting @Victoria Rodriguez in the 16U final. In the 14U, Aarya Shetty wins her 2nd career Junior title by blitzing the competition.
All six divisions from 12U to 6Umb were taken by first time winners. Congrats to Addie Strobach and Yana Alegria for taking 12U and 10u respectively. Sameera Rai took both the 8U and the 10U double bounce divisions. Lastly we had three competing for the 8U and 6U mb competitions, including one 6yr old with a rather famous name: that being Raelynn De la Rosa, playing in her first junior nationals competition, following in the footsteps of both her quite-accomplished parents.
—–
Notable multi-title winners
The following players took home the coveted “Triple Crown,” winning singles, gender doubles, and mixed doubles this year:
– Naomi Ros (18U)
– Aarya Shetty (14U)
The following players took home the “double,” winning both Singles and gender Doubles in their age groups:
– Nathan Rykhus (Boys 16U)
– Vaishant Mangalampalli (Boys 14U)
– Scott Haacke (Boys 12U)
– Annie Roberts (Girls 21U)
These players took the “Double Double,” winning both Gender and Mixed doubles titles.
– Iain Dunn (21U)
– Cole Sendrey (18U)
– Eshan Ali (16U)
– Victoria Rodriguez (16U)
– Anna Sikorski (12U)
– Dhruv Venalapalli (10U
– Sloka Marivada (10U)
—
Phew. that’s it for Junior Nationals. Congrats to all the 2024 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 in Guatemala. Hopefully the proximity of Junior Worlds this year (as in, its not in South America in a country that just underwent an attempted coup) means we field a stronger team and have a chance to take back some world team titles.
Next up on the racquetball calendar? 2024 Outdoor Nationals in Huntington Beach! We’ll preview and recap that event as we always do, plus it’s the second leg of the 2024 Outdoor Cup Series. There’s already some big names and fun partnerships committed to HB, so can’t wait to see the draws and the competitions.