Diego Gastelum with the double in DC. Photo via Ken Fife
The second satellite event of the new 2026-27 @International Racquetball Tour season was last weekend; here’s a quick recap of the pro draws.
Severna Park used to host a full tier stop in the fall, but for the last couple of years has downsized to a Satellite event (this event was an IRT-400, which prevents any of the top 4 players from even entering), but it still draws from the big Bolivian community in the DC area as well as from the general mid-Atlantic region. In fact, it is at this very club where Waselenchuk tore his Achilles in Sept 2022, which sent the player and the tour on a several-year whirlwind of results and champions, now ended with the return of Kane to the top for the last couple of seasons.
Here’s a quick recap of the play this past weekend.
Men’s Pro Singles
The draw featured two touring regulars; #1 Thomas Carter and #2 @Diego Gastelum. They’re currently ranked 12th and 14th on tour, but Gastelum has been getting a bit of attention lately for his solid results on tour at the end of last season, especially a win over Montoya at Pro Nationals that earned him his first quarterfinal. Also lurking in the draw was @Sebastian Franco, a long-time top-10 pro who lives in the area after retiring from touring. Franco made fast work of solid NY-based open player Aaron Dardani, then took out Carter in the quarters 10,10. He ground out a tie-breaker win from Ohio-based Victor Migliore to make the final from the top side.
From the bottom half, another solid international living in the area Ezequiel Subieta advanced to the semis before falling to Gastelum in two. In the final, Diego cruised past Franco 4,6 to take the singles title.
Men’s Doubles
Gastelum teamed with Subieta to take the Pro Doubles title, beating Juan Pablo Rodriguez / Thomas Carter in the final to give the Mexican the double for the weekend.
——————-
Next up for the tour? Another Satellite in Garden City, Kansas later this month, then the first Tier 1 is in October in Fullerton. We’ll be back on the Fantasy Fastbreak Podcast before then.
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.
—————–
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.
—————–
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.
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 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.
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:
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.
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:
– 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
(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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Vargas wins the double in Guatemala. Photo via usaracquetballevents.com
The singles and doubles competitions for the 37th annual Pan American Racquetball Championships tournament are in the books. Here’s a recap of the group and knockout action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.
Congratulations to the winners:
– Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso , Bolivia – Women’s Singles: @Maria Jose Vargas, Argentina – Men’s Doubles: @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball / Javier Mar, Mexico – Women’s Doubles: Maria Jose Vargas/Valeria Centellas, Argentina – Mixed Doubles: @Andres Acuna/Larissa Faeth, Costa Rica
Executive Summary: The favorites survived a crazy singles competition full of surprises and early upsets, with Moscoso beating Portillo on the Men’s side and Vargas topping Gaby in the Women’s singles final. Costa Rica’s mixed team won the title featuring the precocious Faeth alongside top IRT pro Acuna in a huge upset.
Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results in the DB:
PARC now includes a “Team Competition” where the countries compete against each other at the end of the individual competitions, which is going on as you read this for the next couple of days, but for decades the “Team Standings” were determined by an algorithm that awarded points based on group stage and knockout performance. I’m unclear whether IRF continues to name “team winners” in this same way, but here’s the team results using the historical methods, which I also enter into the database for consistency across IRF events back to the beginning.
(You can get these “team results” via queries available from the IRF singles page off of proracquetballstats.com for past history)
If you’d like to see the worksheet that calculates these points, see here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SblLg5EbQ2KzXOmKHqxg-9iPPSMytmbH46Ay5hYJzZU/edit?usp=sharing
—
Combined Team (Overall)
1st — Mexico 2nd – Argentina 3rd – Bolivia 4th — Costa Rica
Summary: Mexico’s overall performance dwarfed even 2nd place Argentina as it reasserted its dominance after getting pipped by Bolivia in competitions lately. USA dips to an embarrassing 7th in the team points competition.
Summary: USA out of the top four after poor singles results really cost them points, while Mexico dominated on the men’s side, with a win and a final in doubles and singles respectively. Despite missing Flores, Bolivia finished in second.
Women’s Team
1st – Argentina 2nd – Mexico 3rd – Guatemala 4th – Bolivia & Costa Rica tied
Summary: a double by Vargas powered Argentina to a clear win here. Once again, the USA is out of the top 4.
——-
Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.
Men’s Singles:
In the group stages, not too many major surprises or upsets. Argentina’s Diego Garcia beat Jake Bredenbeck to take their group but that’s not too much of a surprise upset. Bolivian 16U player Sebastian Borja lost in 5 to Argentina’s Gerson Miranda to lose the group, but that’s also as expected. The biggest RR upset may have been Canada’s Coby Iwaasa taking out Alan Natera, but again not too big of a surprise as Iwaasa is one of the best players in the world who never really played the pro tour regularly.
In the knockouts, massive upsets early. Borja took out Garcia in the 16s; he was the champion in this event last year. Iwaasa then took out Andree Parrilla; that’s two IRT top 10 players beaten for the Canadian. Lastly, Sam Murry took out No. 3 seed Gerson Miranda in a huge seeding upset, but probably an expected result based on the head to head matchup. All told, 5 of the top 8 knockout seeds were beaten in the first round.
16yr old Borja more than held his own, making the semis and losing to his own countryman Moscoso. Murray topped Acuna but couldn’t get past Portillo, giving the draw a 1v2 final despite all the carnage earlier. In the final, Moscoso dropped the first game but won the match in 4 for his 7th international title.
—
Women’s Singles:
Four of the five RR groups were straight forward, and then we had Group 4 with this quartet of players: Natalia Mendez, Annie Sanchez, Gaby Martinez, and Camila Rivero.
Editorial tangent: If there was ever a better argument for more intelligent seeding at IRF events, this is it. That’s two LPRT top 6 players in Mendez & Martinez, the current #12 LPRT player in Sanchez, and the 3-time defending 21U Junior world champ Rivero. Come on. In a competition that included, not to name names, literal B- players from lesser countries why would you stack a group like this? In the end, the players all beat up on each other, Sanchez went 0-3 and Mendez went 2-1 but finished 3rd on point differential to be omitted from the knockouts despite currently being ranked #5 on tour.
In the knockouts, the four top-ranked players in the competition all advanced to the semis as expected. There, Gaby took out Herrera and Vargas took out Mejia to get a solid final, where Vargas won and claimed her 5th career IRF singles title.
—–
Men’s Doubles.
No surprises in group stages, and all 13 entered teams advanced to the knockouts. There, the lack of Bolivia’s top team showed out, as they threw out two juniors who couldn’t do much with the powerful Canadian team. It probably didn’t matter, as the lopsided country-based seeding and the weird collapse of the Argentinian team cleared the way for Murray & Iwaasa to make the final. The bottom half was stacked, featuring Mexico, USA, and Costa Rica, but the Montoya/Mar juggernaut persevered and setup a dream final.
In the final, Montoya & Mar won a 5-game battle to claim their 5th career IRF doubles title together.
—-
Women’s Doubles:
No surprises in the group stage. In the knockouts, the powerful Argentine team of Vargas & Centellas outlasted a great push by the young Bolivian team of Rivero & Amaya to get to the final. In the stacked bottom half, Guatemala sent USA home early in the quarters but then fell to Mejia & Herrera in the semis. The Mexican pair, who has dominated Women’s doubles for years on tour, was upset in the final by the Argentine pair.
—-
Mixed Doubles
Perhaps the most wide open draw in the event was the Mixed Doubles event, which featured a number of teams who have had past success. Last year’s champs husband/wife pair of Natera & Munoz were knocked out in the semis by Bolivia’s Moscoso & Amaya, who then fell to Costa Rica (sporting the 16-yr old Larissa Faeth more than holding her own in this competition). In the final, Acuna & Faeth shocked the world with a win over Argentina’s Miranda & Mendez to claim CR’s second ever international title.
——
Commentary on the State of the PARC and International competitions
The 2026 PARC competition saw the return of a team from Colombia after several years away (their federation collapsed, causing stalwart Colombians like Cristina Amaya to decamp for other countries). We also saw Venezuela send a time for the first time in years, along with players from Cuba (who missed last year), Puerto Rico, and Peru. In fact, the only regularly attending country missing this time around was Honduras. So, that’s good to see.
Four of the countries however didn’t send any females at all (Ecuador, Cuba, Peru, and PR). Peru and PR’s attendees may have been completely independent/self financed, but the other two federations should have sent full teams.
Bolivia continues to be plagued by financial support issues, which cost them the attendance of Jhonathan Flores and any of their top females … instead he was replaced by their reigning 16U world champion Borja in singles and by two other youngsters (Aldin & Aguilar) in Men’s doubles, plus a female in Amaya who doesn’t even have any junior results, which likely cost them a shot at the overall team titles. They held their own .. but if international competitions are so important to the Bolivians, perhaps they should figure out how to support their teams.
——
Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.
Next up on the Racquetball Calendar: the IRT is back in action in Fountain Valley in two weeks’ time. Plus, I hear we may have an LPRT event in the making before the season ends.
This past weekend the UL-Monroe racquetball crew in Louisiana held their annual Warhawk Open, a well-sponsored and well-attended event in North Louisiana run by three very active racquetball community members in Mark Thompson, Parker Ewing and Steve Semones.
For the second year running, they teamed up with the IRT’s World Team Racquetball Division (WTR), run by @mike Kinkin, and hosted team competitions. This team concept has had some excellent showings in the past, and is something everyone is still trying to get off the ground, so we wanted to give a shout out to those running the event.
Here’s a recap of the team and open events from last weekend.
– Louisiana Lasers : Jhonatan Flores • Maurice Miller • Marquis Miller
The team competition format was as follows: The 3 players would play for 5-point stretches (any 5 points scored, so it could be 0-5 one way or 3-2 the other way) then switch off, with the matchups determined by the “home team” in each match. They played one-serve, best of 3 USAR scoring style, using the IRT’s FormulaFlow ball.
– In one semi: the Culligan Waterboys upset the top-seeded and defending champs KWM Gutterman 11-8 in the breaker.
– In the other semi, the Louisiana Lasers crushed the Dovetail thunderbolts in two games behind the latest IRT champ Flores.
In the final, the Lasers beat Culligan 12,4 to take the title.
——————
In the “Amateur” team event, The Culligan Waterboys Elite team squeaked out an 11-10 finals win over the KWM Gutterman Kingz Elite.
——————
Men’s Open Singles: Gastelum took out Subieta in the final.
Men’s Open Doubles: Gasetelum got the double win, taking the doubles final with partner Craig Clement in an injury walkover over Flores & De marco.
——————
Thanks to the tourney directors and the litany of sponsors for keeping Racquetball Alive in north Louisiana.
