Category: Juniors

Posted on

USA 2024 Junior Nationals Recap

Naomi Ros took home the triple crown at 2024 Junior Nationals. Photo Ken Fife

@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.

Posted on

Canadian Nationals 2024 Recap

Murray continues his reign atop Canadian Men’s Racquetball. Photo 2019 US Open Kevin Savory

This past weekend, @Racquetball Canada held its all-encompassing National championships in Calgary. Unlike other countries where singles, doubles, and Juniors are held separately, Canada now has them all on the same weekend. So we have a ton of titlists to cover.

Congrats to your 2024 Canada National Open Singles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: Samuel Murray

– Women’s Singles: @Frederique Lambert

Congrats to your 2024 Canada National Open Doubles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Doubles: @Christian Pocsai and @Trevor Ward

– Women’s Doubles: Frederique Lambert & Michele Morissette

(Canada doesn’t separately compete Mixed Doubles, instead selecting the international Mixed partners from the qualified pool)

And, Congrats to your 2024 Canadian Junior National Singles Champions:

– Boys 21U: Christian Pocsai

– Boys 18U: Leyton Gouldie

– Boys 16U: Raphael Guillemette

– Boys 14U: Oren Gouldie

– Girls 18U: Ofelia Wilscam

– Girls 16U: Kaitlyn Couckuyt

– Girls 14U: Ariana Buller

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

Trackie Sports App home page for event: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/entry-list/matches/1000485/4657/0/F/

——————

Men’s Open Singles

PRS report: https://rball.pro/d6m

Murray wins his 6th straight Canadian Nationals title and his 18th Canadian National-level singles event in a walk-over win against his frequent finals rival #2 seed Coby Iwaasa , who couldn’t reschedule some work-related exams and forfeited the final. This event featured the fun return of former Canadian great Roger Harripersad, two-time Canadian champ in 1985 and 1989.

——————

Women’s Open Singles

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

Lambert won her 4th straight Canadian national title, and her 6th overall, with a straightforward tournament where she did not lose a game. #2 seed and finalist Juliette Parent made her 2nd straight national final and seems to have taken the reigns as “next best” female Canadian right now from the likes of Morisste, Key, and Ramsay in the Canadian pecking order.

——————

Men’s Doubles:

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

Sam & @Tommy Murray were upset in the finals of Canadian doubles for the 2nd year running, this time by @Trevor Webb and @Christian Pocsai. Webb wins his 2nd ever title while long-time junior champion Pocsai takes his first ever Canadian adult title.

——————

Women’s Doubles:

Lambert wins her 5th Canadian National title, the first of which came way back in 2010. Morissette also wins her 5th, and the pair have won the last three straight. The Parent sisters return to the final for the first time since 2021 but are still waiting for their big breakthrough.

——————

Boys Junior Results.

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

Christian Pocsai graduates out of 18U and dethrone’s last year’s 21U champ Gauri, and wins his family’s 10th career junior title. Meanwhile, the Gouldie brothers Leyton and Oren take 18U and 14U respectively. Rafael Guillemette repeats as 16U champ, almost 20 years after Francis Guillemette took the 16U title in Canada in 1995.

——————

Girls Junior Results.

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

Ofelia Wilscam wins the Wilscam clan’s 7th junior title in 18U, after a couple of down years on the Canada junior circuilt. Kaitlyn Couckuyt moves up one division after taking last year’s 14U division and wins again. Lastly a debut jr title for Ariana Buller, two years after her older sister won 14U.

——————

That’s a wrap for Racquetball Canada Nationals for 2024. We’ll be back next fall with their qualifier.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

In two weeks time the season ending LPRT event!

Posted on

USAR 2024 High School Nationals Recap

Congratulations to the winners of 2024 USA Racquetball High School Nationals:

– Boys #1 Singles: Nathan Rykhus, Franklin HS (Stockton Area)

– Girls #2 Singles: Andrea Perez-Picon, Sierra HS (Mantcea, CA).

– Boys #1 Doubles: Eli McCulley / Jonathan Bell, Lindbergh HS (St Louis)

– Girls #1 Doubles: Margaret McPheeters / Mia Risch, Kirkwood HS (St Louis)

And, the Team competitions:

– Boys Team: Kirkwood HS, St Louis

– Girls Team: Kirkwood HS, St Louis

– Overall Team: Kirkwood HS, St Louis

———–

Click here for the r2 site for the event and all the brackets: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=41500

I do not load High School nationals data to any database, but I do keep track of the Gold #1 singles winners and Team winners in a spreadsheet that i’ve put online here:

https://docs.google.com/…/17vIFomdx6JewlD5dgtRi2mLD1rC…/

Here’s some fun facts about HS Nationals from this year and years’ past:

—-

Both singles titles were taken by Stockton-area players, each of whom has some history at US Junior Nationals. Boys winner Rykhus is a 4-time Junior Nationals winner and is the 2-time defending 14U champ as we speak, which I imply to mean he’s a current HS freshman. He defeated Juan Herrera II from Illinois in the final. Rykhus seemingly has a chance to do something that no boy has ever done: be a 4-time High School Nationals champ. Taylor Knoth came the closest, winning 3 straight between 2007-09.

Meanwhile, the HS girls title was taken by Andrea Perez-Picon, also from the 209 Stockton area. She, like Nathan above, is also a 2-time defending 14U Junior National champ and thus seems to be a freshman, and has kicked off her HS nationals career on a winning note. She owns 7 junior national titles herself, with a chance for at least two more to finish off her 18U career and really place her name near the top of the record books. She has three more chances to join @Adrienne Haynes and Lexi York as four-time HS national champs (to be fair, Annie Roberts was poised to be a 4-time champ but her senior year was robbed by Covid, so she gets mentioned here). Perez-Picon topped California’s @Victoria Rodriguez in the final.

The doubles competitions where dominated by St Louis-area teams as one would expect, given the massive high school league there.

————–

Team competitions:

Kirkwood High School swept the three team competitions, which hasn’t happened since 2010. One of the big reasons it hasn’t happened in so long is the fact that St Louis University HS (aka “SLUH”) has dominated the boys competition for some time, having won the last 12 straight boys team titles. But this year, Kirkwood took the boy’s title, then crushed the girls title to easily win the overall title.

Kirkwood wins their 6th ever overall title and moves into 3rd place all time.

Posted on

2023 Mexican Junior Nationals Recap

This past weekend featured the 2023 Mexican Junior National tournament in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in Bolivia in Late November. Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.

Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination 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 play any doubles; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds.

R2 site for Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=41515

Congrats to the following Boys singles finalists for team Mexico:

(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: Diego Gastelum & Elias Nieto

– Boys 18U: Jorge Gutierrez & Luis Renteria

– Boys 16U: Sebastian Ruelas & Eder Renteria

– Boys 14U: Brian Axel Sanchez & Emilio Jurardo

– Boys 12U: Elias Medrano & Elias Garcia

– Boys 10U: Max Soto & Hermann Gracia

– Boys 8U: Isaac Soto & Mateo Zaala

– Boys 6Umb: Jose Maria De Alba & Enrique Rivera

Commentary on the older divisions:

The Mexico U21 division is stacked right now, and has several names that you should know about. IRT fans know the name Erick Trujillo , who tours regularly and was the 2021 18U Mexican Junior national champ, but Trujillo did not win this draw. He was beaten in the winner’s bracket final by Gastelum in 3, then lost to Nieto to miss out on the Jr. worlds team. Nieto took out last year’s 18U champ Sebastian Hernandez and IRT regular Erick Cuevas before falling to Trujillo in the winner’s bracket semis … but avenged the loss in the consolation final to qualify.

None of these players was the #1 seed/defending champion Jose Ramos (aka “Pepe”), who fell in the semis to Gastelum, then was topped by Nieto in the consolation semis. Nieto, in case you forgot, beat Murray at the Parc 2022, then went to World Singles & Doubles a few months ago and beat Castro, Sam Bredenbeck and Alan Natera before falling to Montoya in a tie-breaker. But none of these guys could touch Gastelum in this event (Gastelum also was in Denver; he was the guy who nearly took a game off of Jake before falling 14,4).

As good as the U21 players are, the 18U champ may be even better. Jorge Gutierrez (playing in his age 17 season) is the 2-time defending Mexico and Junior world 16U champ, and moved on up to 18U with no issues. He also has h2h wins over both Gastelum and Trujillo in amateur events recently. He’s only got one IRT appearance when he was 15; we hope to see more of him.

In the 16U, the last two champions of the 14U (Sebastian Ruelas in 2022 and Eder Renteria in 2021) faced off in the winner’s bracket final, with Ruelas winning. Renteria then took the consolation bracket to qualify and guarantee that both he and his older brother Luis were heading to Bolivia.

In the 14U, last year’s 12U finalist Brian Axel Sanchez moved up and took his first Junior National title, topping fellow newcomer Emilio Jurardo in the final.

—-

Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:

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

– Girls 21U: Maria Gutierrez & Leonela Osorio

– Girls 18U: Cynthia Gutierrez & Ivanna Balderama

– Girls 16U: Mariafernanda Trujilo & Yanna Salazar

– Girls 14U: Lilia (Lily) Farias & Danna Portillo

– Girls 12U: Michelle Gomez & Grissel Gómez Rubio

– Girls 10U: Maria Jose Jurado & Lia Montserrat Gonzalez

Commentary on the older divisions:

21U’s Maria Gutierrez repeated as 21U Mexican champ with a 5-game win over Osorio. Gutierrez made the finals of JrWorlds 21U last December, losing to Barrios, but she’s never made an appearance on the LPRT.

18U’s Cynthia Gutierrez, Ivanna Balderrama, and last year’s 18U champ Angela Veronica Ortega all finished the RR stage 3-1, with no h2h winner, so the draw came down to points, with Gutierrez finishing atop the standings for her first Junior title. Balderrama (the 2019 14U champ) finished second, leaving Ortega on the outside looking in. Of these three, only Ortega has even played an LPRT event, losing in the opening round of the 2022 US Open.

In 16U, defending champ Yanna Salazar was upset in the final by 2021 14U champ Mariafernanda Trujillo, moving up to compete in 16U for the first time. This is Trujillo’s 4th junior national title.

in 14U, Lily Farias won her second junior national title by topping the 7-person bracket.

———————–

Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners for 2023, and congrats to the National team qualifiers as well.

Congrats to Favio Soto for another successful Mexican national tournament.

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol

International Racquetball Federation

Posted on

2023 USA Junior Nationals Recap

2023 USA Junior Nationals Recap

The 49th iteration of @USA Racquetball Junior Nationals was held this past weekend in Pleasanton, CA, crowning a slew of top juniors US champions and qualifying them to represent the USA at Junior Worlds in November in (I believe) Bolivia. Every year since 1974 (save for the 2020 covid year) the USAR (or its predecessor) held Junior Nationals and named national champs.

r2sports home page for all the brackets:

https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40456

A reminder on our data entry policies for juniors: we put in full brackets for 14+ and older divisions, just the finalists for younger divisions, and just the finalists for doubles.

The finalists of each Singles division and the Champions of each Doubles division qualify for the US Junior National team, and have first right of refusal to compete at Worlds in November.

Congrats to the Singles champions

Boys 21U: @Krish Thakur

Boys 18U: Nikhil Prasad

Boys 16U: @Eshan Ali

Boys 14U: Nathan Rykhus

Boys 12U: Alejandro Robles-Picon

Boys 10Udb: Chris Nelson

Boys 8U: Luke Vanderbeek

Boys 8Umb: Luke Vanderbeek

Boys 6U: Jasur Pridako

Girls 21U: Annie Roberts

Girls 18U: @Naomi Ros

Girls 16U: Sonya Shetty

Girls 14U: Andrea Perez-Picon

Girls 12U: Lexie Sikorski

Girls 10U: Anna Sikorski

Girls 10Udb: Marivada Sloka

Girls 8Umb: Marivada Sloka

Girls 6Umb: Sashi Rai

And congrats to the Doubles champions:

Boys 21U: Iain Dunn / Paul Saraceno

Boys 18U: Josh Shea / @Vedant Chauhan

Boys 16U: Eshan Ali / @London Townsend

Boys 14U: Nathan Rykhus / Vaishant Mangalampalli

Boys 12U: Alejandro Robles Picon / Ayan Sharma

Girls 21U: Shane Diaz / Graci Wargo

Girls 18U: @Heather Mahoney / @Naomi Ros

Girls 16U: Sonya Shetty / Victoria Rodriguez

Girls 14U: Andrea Perez-Picon / Aanshi Thakur

Girls 12U: Lexie Sikorski / Anna Sikorski

Girls 10U: Sloka Marivada / Sameera Rai

Mixed 21U: DJ Mendoza / Annie Roberts

Mixed 18U: Cole Sendry / Naomi Ros

Mixed 16U: Eshan Ali / Sonya Shetty

Mixed 14U: Nathan Rykhus / Andrea Perez-Picon

Mixed 12U: Jacob Gutierrez / Lexie Sikorski

Mixed 10U: Noah Jakola / Anna Sikorski

Congratulations to all your triple crown winners on the weekend: Eshan Ali, Nathan Rhykus, Naomi Ros, Sonya Shetty, Andrea Perez-Picon, Lexie Sikorski, Anna Sikorski, and Marivada Sloka. Singles, Doubles, and Mixed. That’s a great weekend.

———————

The best ways to see all the Junior singles winners in one place are via the Junior Matrix Reports at the website.

Click here: https://rball.pro/mey for the Boys Junior winner’s matrix for all USA junior titles, dating back to 1974.

Click here: https://rball.pro/cpf for the same report for the Girls.

However, for each of the singles draws you can see all the match results by pulling down the event at the main Junior home page. Go here, then hit the event pulldown: http://rb.gy/rnps1f

—————–

—————–

Thanks to the streaming teams who helped out all weekend. Thanks to the local tournament directors, the Junior Committee, and all the USAR staff who made tournament happen.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

The Central American & Caribbean games started up while Junior Nationals were finishing; we’ll recap that event upon its completion. After that, we’ll write our annual LPRT season recap with a deep dive into each player’s finish.

——————-

tags

View insights

0 post reach

Like

Comment

Send

Posted on

USA Racquetball Intercollegiates Recap

Congrats to John Dowell of the University of Missouri and to Annie Roberts of the University of the Pacific for taking Gold #1 Intercollegiate titles this past weekend at the 2023 USA Racquetball Intercollegiates championships.

This was the 49th edition of this event, dating back to 1973. Jerry Hilecher won the very first intercollegiate title, playing out of the same University of Missouri that Dowell does.

In the team competition, Oregon State was able to reclaim their overall title from Missouri, and thus tied Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) with 12 overall team titles in the competition’s history. Oregon State also took the Men’s title, while Missouri took the Women’s title.

Posted on

USAR High School Nationals recap

r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40258

Congrats to the 231 HS entrants who traveled to Portland to compete in this year’s USA Racquetball High School championships. This was the 35th iteration of the tournament, held every year (save for Covid) since 1988.

Here’s a quick run-through of your Gold division winners:

– Boys Singles Gold #1: Benjamin Horner from Iowa takes the crown; its the first time a player from Iowa has won a HS national. He defeat’s Texas’ DJ Mendoza in the final.

– Girls Singles Gold #1: @Naomi Ros repeats as Prep champion out of Douglas MacArthur HS in San Antonio. @George Bustos ‘s program continues to churn out top junior talent.

– Boys #1 Doubles: Luke Dannegger & Nicholas Heinlein out of St. Louis University HS in Missouri take the crown, going wire to wire as the #1 seeds.

– Girls #1 Doubles: Avery Oppermann & Gabbie Roseman out of Kirkwood High in Missouri also take the crown as the #1 seed, continuing St. Louis’ dominance.

– Mixed #1 Doubles was taken by Ros & Mendoza, giving Ros the weekend double.

In the team competition:

– Overall Team: Kirkwood HS in St. Louis, who repeat as overall Team Champions and win their 5th ever Combined National title.

– Boys Team: St. Louis University HS from St. Louis: this boys-only school wins for the 12th consecutive time and 16th overall. SLUH has now won 16 of the 30 Boys titles competed since High School Nationals started in 1988.

– Girls Team: Kirkwood also took the Girls title here, which powered them to the overall title. This is their first ever Girls title.

————–

The Missouri High School Association maintains the best historical site for results i’ve seen of basically any racquetball organization: see this page for a full list of team winners: https://www.mohsrball.com/national-champion-teams

Congrats to all our National HS players!

Posted on

Junior Worlds 2022 Wrap-up

Barrios takes the triple crown of U21 at World Juniors. Photo via Barrios’ facebook page.

One of the biggest tournaments for us to enter each year just wrapped up; Junior Worlds 2022, held this year for the second year running at the fabulous brand new facility in Guatemala City.

Champions were crowned in Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles in six age groups: 21U, 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U, and 10U, as well as a team competition, meaning that in essence this tournament actually held 30 separate competitions to enter into the database. Its the rough equivalent of doing 30 small pro tournaments all at once, with the added benefit of typing in brand new names never before seen for a good chunk of the participants. If you see any typos, or name corrections, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Reminder: as a practice, Pro Racquetball Stats does not capture full draws for any groups younger than 14yr olds; for the 12s, 10s, and younger we just capture the champions for historical reporting.

Congratulations to your champions:

Boys Singles:

– Boys 21U: @Diego Garcia , Argentina

– Boys 18U: @Sebastian Hernandez , Mexico

– Boys 16U: @Jorge Gutierrez, Mexico

– Boys 14U: Nicolas Galindo, Mexico

– Boys 12U: Pablo Ignacio Lagos, Bolivia

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Boys singles titles.

Girls Singles:

– Girls 21U: Angelica Barrios , Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Michaela Meneses , Bolivia

– Girls 16U: @Naomi Ros, USA

– Girls 14U: Adriana Noelia Blacutt, Bolivia

– Girls 12U: María Laura Villacreses, Bolivia

– Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Bolivia takes 4 of the 6 Girls Singles titles, while Ros secures the USA’s sole singles gold at the event.

———————

Boys Doubles:

– Boys 21U: Erick Trujillo / @Jose Carlos Ramos , Mexico

– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez / @Luis Renteria, Mexico

– Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez / Eder Renteria , Mexico

– Boys 14U: Diego Romano / Sebastian Ruelas, Mexico

– Boys 12U: Axel Sanchez / Santiago Castillo, Mexico

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia / Arturo Gonzalez, Mexico

Mexico does a clean sweep of all 6 Boys doubles titles.

Girls Doubles:

– Girls 21U: Angelica Barrios / @Natalia Mita, Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Valeria Miranda / Rebecca Amaya, Bolivia

– Girls 16U: Cynthia Gutierrez / Yanna Salazar, Mexico

– Girls 14U: Larissa Faeth / Giuliana Faeth, Costa Rica

– Girls 12U: Angelica Villaroel Garzon / Luciana Illanes Quenta, Bolivia

– Girls 10U: Grissel Gomez / Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Bolivia takes 3 of the 6 Girls doubles titles.

Mixed Doubles:

– Mixed 21U: Hector Barrios / @Angelica Barrios, Bolivia

– Mixed 18U: Sebastian Hernandez / Angela Veronica Vera Ortega , Mexico

– Mixed 16U: Jorge Gutierrez / Yanna Salazar, Mexico

– Mixed 14U: Sebastian Ruelas / Miranda Barraza, Mexico

– Mixed 12U: Pablo Ignacio Lagos / Angelica Villaroel Garzon, Bolivia

– Mixed 10U: Hermann Gracia / Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Mixed doubles titles.

—————————

Grand total of Titles won by Country:

– Mexico: 17 of 30

– Bolivia: 10 of 30

– Argentina, USA, and Costa Rica: 1 each

Team Mexico really dominates the 2022 event, especially on the Boys side where they took 10 of the 12 divisions. Bolivia won 7 of their 10 titles in Girls divisions, supporting what we’ve seen on the pro tour, where Bolivian players (or Bolivian born) comprise 3 of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20 players.

Bravo to these players, who took hold Triple Crowns of Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles:

– Angelica Barrios: 21U, Bolivia

– Sebastian Hernandez: 18U, Mexico

– Jorge Gutierrez, 16U, Mexico

– Hermann Gracia, 10U, Mexico

– Michelle Gomez, 10U, Mexico

These players earned double crowns:

– Yanna Salazar, 16U, Mexico

– Sebastian Ruelas, 14U, Mexico

– Pablo Ignacio Lagos, 12U, Bolivia

– Angelica Villaroel Garzon , 12U, Bolivia

——

Every draw has a match report in the database that you can run: instead of repeating dozens of links we’ll give some examples here. Surf to www.proracquetballstats.com, click on either Juniors or “Junior Doubles” database, then at the very top you can pull down a match report. You can also run a number of different reports for singles and doubles.

——

Now some quick commentary division by singles division, mostly to recognize winners who have earned multiple Junior World titles over the years, and to provide some commentary on the older divisions with players who have already competed on the pro tours…

I use these “Matrix Reports” constantly; they show all the Junior winners across every age group for all of time. These links are for the Junior Worlds and date to 1989, the first ever Junior Worlds event, but are also available for USA, Canada, and Mexico.

Boys Singles Matrix Report: http://rb.gy/acygod

Girls Singles Matrix Report: http://rb.gy/yfsvqq

Boys 21U:

Clearly the two best players (Garcia and Erick Trujillo ) in this draw ended up in the same RR group, and then they fought their way to meet again in the final. Garcia (representing Argentina but who used to represent Bolivia) got two wins over his young Mexican to take Gold. The last time Garcia showed up on tour, he beat both Javier Mar and Rocky Carson; pretty heady company. We hope to see more of him. This is Garcia’s 7th Junior World title.

Notable here is Jose Carlos Ramos, aka “Pepe,” who beat Trujillo in the Mexican Junior nationals final and thus was the #1 seeded Mexican player here; he fell to Garcia in the semis. American #1 Micah Farmer got a great win over Bolivian @Adrian Jaldin but then fell to Garcia in the quarters.

Boys 18U:

Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez came out of nowhere to win both his country 18U and World 18U titles, his first career Junior titles. He dominated in Guatemala, and the only player to even take a game off of him was an obviously hobbled @Timmy Hansen .

Hernandez joins a pretty illustrious list of 18U boys champs: here in reverse order are past winners: Trujillo, Miranda, Portillo, Marco Rojas, Christian Longoria, Montoya, Mercado, Moscoso, Marco Rojas, and Keller. That list includes 5 players currently ranked in the top 15, multiple IRT tournament winners, etc.

16U:

Mexico’s Jorge Gutierrez repeats as the 16U Junior worlds champ, the first time we’ve had a repeat 16U singles champ since Longoria in 2015. He’s another guy who has really blasted onto the scene, with no previous Mexican Junior titles prior to 2021. We went wire-to-wire as the #1 seed and defeated his countryman Eder Renteria in the final.

14U:

Hats off to Galindo for taking this title; he was inexplicably the #18 seed here, behind two other fellow Mexican players, despite being the 14U losing finalist in Mexican Junior Nationals and thus finishing ahead of multiple other Mexican entrants to this draw. I’ve complained about questionable IRF seedings before but this one is beyond me. He defeats Ruelas in the final after losing the Mexican final to him.

12U: An all-Bolivian Final which featured two Mexican semifinalists and a first time champion.

10U: Hermann Gracia (not Garcia as r2sports shows it) follows up his 10U Mexican title with a worlds title, taking out USA’s Alejandro Robles Picon in a huge come-from behind effort in the final.

———-

Girls 21U

Current LPRT regular Angelica Barrios skipped the pro stop in Maryland to compete and secured her third ever Junior Worlds title. She was pushed in the knockouts by Argentine lefty Martina Katz before topping tough Costa Rican Maricruz Ortiz in the semis (a match that many thought was the true final). Mexico’s @Maria Gutierrez (who went by Mafer in this event) upset USA’s Shane Diaz to make the final.

Girls 18U

Bolivia’s LPRT touring pro Micaela Meneses repeated as 18U world champ and did not drop a game all event. She secures her 6th Career Junior World title. She topped both Mexican entrants en route to the title.

Girls 16U:

USA’s @Naomi Ros gave the US its sole gold medal at this event, beating both the Bolivian #1 and Mexican #1 to take the title. This is Ros’ second Junior world title; the first was in 12U when she was still competing for Mexico.

Girls 14U: Bolivia’s Adriana Noelia Blacutt wins her first junior world title.

Girls 12U: Another Bolivian first time girls winner in María Laura Villacreses took the title, defeating three of the top seeds along the way.

Girls 10U was taken by Mexico’s Michelle Gomez, who has now entered four junior events in her career and won four titles. She’s the two-time defending Mexico 10U champ, and now she’s the two-time defending World 10U champ.

——

Thanks to the International Racquetball Federation for hosting the event, thanks to the great hosts in Guatemala, thanks to all our the coaches and parents who sacrificed to get your kids down there, especially t his close to the holiday season, thanks to @Gary Mazaroff

for the streaming all tournament.

Tomorrow we’ll publish the LPRT summary, th en we’ll take a break until the end of the year when we’ll start posting some IRT season recap material.

Posted on

2022 Mexican Junior Nationals Data Loaded to Pro Racquetball Stats Database

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:

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39839

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.

———————–

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

———————–

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.

————————–

– 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.

—-

thanks to the venerable @Favio Soto for running this event on behalf of The Mexican Federation FMR.

Posted on

USAR Junior Nationals wrap-up

Annie Roberts captured the first ever Girls 21U singles title. Photo 2019 Jr Nats via Kevin Savory


r2sports home page for all the brackets:
https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39341


Congrats to your @USA Racquetball Junior National winners on the weekend. Champions were crowned in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles for six age groups on the weekend, so lots of champions to recognize.


This post is official notification that we’ve added the data to the database at www.proracquetballstats.com . This is the first time we’ve had a 21U junior division, so we’ve also made a bunch of coding changes to the behavior of the site. Please let us know if you see any issues or cannot see data as expected.

A reminder on our data entry policies for juniors: we put in full brackets for 14+ and older divisions, just the finalists for younger divisions, and just the finalists for doubles.
The finalists of each Singles division and the Champions of each Doubles division qualify for the US Junior National team, and have first right of refusal to compete at Worlds in November.
Singles

  • Boys 21U: Micah Farmer
  • Boys 18U: Josh Shea
  • Boys 16U: Nikhil Prasad
  • Boys 14U: Nathan Rykus
  • Boys 12U: Vaishant Mangalampalli
  • Boys 10U: Noah Jakola
  • Girls 21U: Annie Roberts
  • Girls 18U: Heather Mahoney
  • Girls 16U: Naomi Ros
  • Girls 14U: Andrea Perez-Picon
  • Girls 12U: Aarya Shetty
    Boys/Girls Doubles
  • Boys 21U: Assuan Castaneda & Micah Farmer
  • Boys 18U: Josh Shea & Paul Saraceno
  • Boys 16U: Gatlin Sutherland & Nikhil Prasad
  • Boys 14U: Eshan Ali & Nathan Rykhus
  • Boys 12U: Lucas Frost-Biskup & Vaishant Mangalampalli
  • Girls 21U: Graci Wargo & Shane Diaz
  • Girls 18U: Heather Mahoney & Julia Stein
  • Girls 16U: Ava Kaiser & Naomi Ros
  • Girls 14U: Aarya Shetty & Sarah Bawa
    Mixed Doubles
  • Mixed 21U: Shane Diaz & Micah Farmer
  • Mixed 18U: Heather Mahoney & Timmy Hansen
  • Mixed 16U: Naomi Ros & Cole Sendrey
  • Mixed 14U: Montserrat Torres & Axel Lopez
  • Mixed 12U: Aarya Shetty & Vaishant Mangalampalli

The best ways to see all the winners in one place are via the Junior Matrix Reports at the website.
Click here: https://rball.pro/mey for the Boys Junior winner’s matrix for all USA junior titles, dating back to 1974.
Click here: https://rball.pro/cpf for the same report for the Girls.

However, for each of the singles draws you can see all the match results by pulling down the event at the main Junior home page. Go here, then hit the event pulldown: http://rb.gy/rnps1f

Here’s some commentary on the Boys singles divisions one by one.
Boys 21U: Micah Farmer held serve as the #1 seed and held off #4 Castenada in a 5-gamer in the semis and then Elkins in the final for the win.
Boys 18U came down to #1 vs #2 as predicted, and they played a barn burner. NY’s Josh Shea cruised to the first two games to make it look like it’d be laugher, but defending champ @Timmy Hansen took the next two to force the 5th. There, Shea ground out an 11-7 win for his first Junior National title.
Boys 16U came down to 1v2 in the final, and #1 Nikhil Prasad had to come back from 2-1 games down to secure the title over #2 @Gatlin Sunderland. Prasad repeats as 16U champ and secures his 7th career junior national singles title.
Boys 14U has a new titlist, as #2 Nathan Rykhus moved up from 12U and defeated the defending champion #1 Eshan Ali in a 5-game barn burner. This is Rykhus’ third junior singles title, and interestingly his 3rd in a row in new age groups.
Boys 12U was 1v2 in the final, with Fremont’s Vaishant Mangalampalli taking his first junior national title over #2 seed Alejandro Robles Pico.

Boys 10Udb’s RR group was taken by Texan Noah Jakola. Fellow Texan Fernando Miguel Carpena finished 2nd.

Here’s some thoughts on the Girls Singles draws:
Girls 21U: @Annie Roberts took the solid RR group, with wins over fellow LPRT part timers like Diaz, Wargo, and Perez-Picon. Solid win.
Girls 18U Heather Mahoney returned to the winner’s circle, topping #2 Julia Stein in the final to secure her 9th Junior National title and her first since 2019. She can’t reach the all-time record for junior titles by a US Female (@Adrienne Haynes with 11) but she can get close with one more 18U title.
Girls 16U was taken by #1 @Naomi Ros to repeat as 16U titlist. She topped #2 Ava Kaiser in the final. Ros now holds 2 US junior national titles and at least 2 Mexican Junior National titles in younger ages (our records are incomplete).
Girls 14U was taken by #1 Andrea Perez-Picon in dominant fashion, without dropping a game. She secures her 6th US Junior National title and has a chance at the all-time record if she can run the table here on out.
Girls 12U was taken by Arya Shetty, who won the 4-person RR.
Girls 10U was won by Anum Mitha, who topped Anna Sikorski h2h for the title.

Girls 14U

We also capture Junior Doubles data, but only the winners of the draws going back in time.
https://rball.pro/o0y

Click on the PRS home page for Junior Doubles results and you can pull up winners by division.

Congrats to all the new members of the Junior National team. They qualify to represent the US at World Juniors in November, which apparently will be at the new facility in Guatemala City (though the IRF has not officially announced the site).

Thanks to @Connor Shane for running the event, thanks to Leo Vazquez for streaming and broadcasting all weekend.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Next up on the Racquetball calendar is a break for the 4th of July weekend, then the World Games happen in Birmingham from 7/10 to 7/13, then the big Outdoor Nationals happens in Huntington Beach!