Month: August 2026

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2026 Mexican Junior Nationals recap

In Mid August, The Federacion Mexicana de Raquetbol (FMR) held the 2026 Mexican Junior National tournament in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals (Canada held theirs along with their Adult nationals at the end of May, while USA had theirs at the end of June), and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in December in Bolivia.

Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary. It always takes me some time to get to the data entry for junior tourneys (its like entering the data for 18-20 pro events at once), but with this posting the PRS database is live with these results.

Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination singles draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss.

Mexico does not normally play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the 2 singles qualifiers will form the gender doubles teams at Worlds. However, this year they played a full slate of Mixed doubles draws which WILL determine the representatives at Junior Worlds in the Mixed doubles competition. Thanks to Tourney Director and IRT broadcasting legend Favio Soto for the details.

R2 site for 2026 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=54254

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Congrats to the following Boys Singles winners and finalists for team Mexico (each has the winner’s bracket titlist listed first, then the consolation bracket champion and second national team representative second)

(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Boys 21U: Jorge Gutierrez, Sebastian Chevaile

– Boys 18U: Sebastian Reulas Reza, Nicolas Galindo

– Boys 16U: Santiago Castillo, Axel Sanchez

– Boys 14U: Alejandro Robles Picon, Matias Sandoval

– Boys 12U: Kerman Damian Gracia, Daniel Rodriguez

– Boys 10U: Daniel Alejandro Ayala, Angel Perez Rodriguez

– Boys 10Udb: Leon Sebastian Cardona

– Boys 8Udb: Mateo Ochoa

– Boys 6Umb: Carin Mora.

Commentary on the divisions:

In 21U, Gutierrez (the 2023 and 2024 18U champion) returns to holding a Mexican title with the graduation of 2-time defending champ Sebastian Hernandez, while Chevaile tops last year’s 18U champ Eder Renteria in the consolation bracket final to claim the 2nd national team spot as the 5th seed.

In 18U, all four top-4 seeds lost in their first round of playing in a rather large indictment of the seeding in this bracket (not an uncommon issue in these Mexican Junior tournaments). The 9th seeded Sebastian Ruelas ended up winning his 4th Junior national title and first sine holding the 2023 16U title. Top seeded and 2024 16U champ Galindo came all the way back in the loser’s bracket after losing to Ruelas in the quarters to claim the 2nd spot.

In 16U, Santiago Castillo repeated as 16U champ, beating his top rival Brian Axel Sanchez in the final. Sanchez won two 14U titles over Castillo, but now Santiago has his number. Sanchez secured the 2nd qualifying spot after losing the title game by winning the consolation bracket.

In 14U: US Expat Alejandro Robles Picon, who converted along with his older sister to represent Mexico in early 2024, won his first Mexican Junior National title as the #1 seed in 14U. He beat multi-junior titlist Hermann Raciel Gracia in the final, but Gracia got pipped for the other national team spot by #2 seeded Matias Sandoval, who Gracia had beaten earlier in the event.

In 12U, Kerman Damian Gracia, despite being the 2x defending 10U champ moving up to 12U, was the 12th seed but nonetheless made it 3 titles in a row. He beat 14th seeded Daniel Rodriguez in the title game, who then came back around to join him on the national team.

10U was won by Daniel Alejandro Ayala, his 2nd career Jr title. In the younger divisions, we got first time winners in 10Udb, 8Umb, and 6Umb by Leon Sebastian

Ochoa, Mateo, and Mora, Carin respectively. World Juniors no longer holds divisions for age groups younger than 10, so these national titlists will have to wait to compete internationally.

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Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:

(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girl’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Girls 21U: Ivanna Balderrama, Yanna Salazar

– Girls 18U: Miranda Barraza, Andrea Perez-Picon

– Girls 16U: Maria Malo, Selene Bernal

– Girls 14U: Michelle Gomez, Valeria Covarrubias Delgado

– Girls 12U: Lia Medrano, Lia Montserrat Gonzalez

– Girls 10U: Jocelyn Dominguez Chavez, Valeria Carmona

– Girls 10Udb: Regina Castillo and Andrea Cancino both went 3-1 in their gruop stage.

– Girls 8Umb: Natalia Serrano

Commentary on the Girls divisions:

In 21U, Balderrama wins back the 21U title she lost last year in her final year of eligibility. She’s joined by Yanna Salazar on the team, who was the 18U champ two years ago. All Five ladies in this draw are former Jr National champs, and last year’s 21U champ Angelica Veronica Ortega didn’t even make the consolation bracket final to defend her title.

In 18U, Miranda Barraza ascended to #1 seed with the matriculation of both of last year’s finalists, then cruised to the title. She’s joined on the national team by Andrea Perez-Picon, last year’s 16U champion who made her way through the consolation bracket and secured the national team slot with a walkover against the player (Guillen) who knocked her out of the winner’s bracket.

In 16U: Maria Malo, who hadn’t won a junior national title since 8U in 2019, took the title. She’s joined by Selene Bernal, the 14U finalist two years ago to give the Mexican team some new faces in this age group.

In 14U, Michelle Gomez repeated as 14U champ by cruising through the draw. She was joined on the national team by Valeria Covarrubias Delgado, a newcomer.

in 12U, first time winner in Lia Medrano. In 10U, Jocelyn Dominguez Chavez repeated as the titlist. There were no girls-only multi/double bounce draws; they played co-ed in these draws and the champions were declared in the database from the best-finishing girl in each division.

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Here were the winners of the Mixed Doubles competitions:

– Mixed 21U: Cristhian Sanchez / Cynthia Gutierrez

– Mixed 18U: Nicolas Galindo / Miranda Barraza

– Mixed 16U; Danna Hernández / Santiago Castillo

– Mixed 14U: Max Soto / Michelle Gomez

– Mixed 12U: Lia Montserrat Gonzalez Perez / Kerman Damian Gracia Castro

– Mixed 10U: Daniel Alejandro Ayala Garcia / Jocelyn Dominguez Chavez

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Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners and National team qualifiers for 2026. See you in December for World Juniors in Bolivia.

@International Racquetball Tour

@LPRT

@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol

@International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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IRT 2026 Costa Rica Open Satellite Recap

Parrilla takes the Costa Rica Open with three solid wins. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory

The 2026-27 @iInternational Racquetball Tour season technically kicked off this past weekend with a Satellite event in San Jose, Costa Rica at the home club of current #3 ranked pro @Andres Acuña , the 2026 Costa Rica Open.

This was rated as an IRT-600 event, so one level below a full Tier 1 IRT-700 event. However, because it’s a satellite, the rules governing entry limit the field to only four of the current top 8 players, with no limit on the number of players entering outside the top 8 at the time of the event.

The top 8 ranked players in this event were: #3 Acuna, #4 Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , #5 @jhonatan flores, and #8 @Andree Parrilla. They formed in this order the top four seeds. But, the event drew a slew of IRT regulars as well, making this a very solid event from the 16s onward. The rest of the top 8 seeds were all IRT veterans: Mar, Carter, Trujillo, and Gastelum, and then the event featured a slew of international regulars who we normally see in IRF events.

Here’s a quick recap of the notable results.

In singles: the top 8 seeds advanced into the quarters without too much trouble: #8 Diego Gastelum was pressed to 13,12 against Guatemalan number one and #9 seed @Juan Jose Salvatierra, while #7 Trujillo dropped a game to former top Bolivian junior and current DC area native Ezequiel Subieta, but the rest of the top 8 made it through unscathed.

In the quarters, #1 Acuna was pressed in game 2 but beat Gastelum 5,14 to move on. Parrilla had to dig deep to top Mar 7,12. Flores had little trouble with Thomas Carter 1,6, and then Montoya ground out a 12,11 win over Trujillo in a matchup that seems to be closer and closer as Trujillo continues to move his way up the ranking boards on tour.

In the semis, Parrilla got an injury walkover against Acuna, leading 12-8 in the first game when Acuna couldn’t continue. Parrilla continues his career dominance over Acuna (he’s 7-3 in tier-1/international events over the Costa Rican). In the other semi, another injury issue, as Montoya won a close 1st game over Flores 15-13 then got a walkover early into the second game.

In the final, Parrilla got a in in the latest episode of their long running rivalry with Montoya, winning 12,11 for the title. Montoya leads the Tier1 h2h 13-9 over their long career, so this isn’t a completely unexpected result, but a good sign for Parrilla as he tries to work his way back up the rankings for next season.

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In doubles, the world’s best team Montoya/Mar took the title as the top seed, beating the #2 seeds Parrilla/Trujillo in two quick games for the doubles title.

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We’ll get a couple more IRT satellites in September (one in DC, one in Kansas) before our first tier 1 event in October in Fullerton.

In the meantime, i’ve updated the Running IRT points spreadsheet for this event as the points calendar switches back to a 12 month schedule.

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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.

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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…

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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/

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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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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#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.

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