{"id":1036,"date":"2020-03-06T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2020-03-06T15:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T15:08:11","slug":"irt-pueblo-shootout-and-minnesota-hof-tourney-previews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/06\/irt-pueblo-shootout-and-minnesota-hof-tourney-previews\/","title":{"rendered":"IRT Pueblo Shootout and Minnesota HoF tourney Previews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Kane returns to Pueblo to defend his PAC shootout title. \n Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s not one but two lower Tier IRT events going on this coming weekend, and both have solid and intriguing draws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll do a quick preview of the top-named pros playing in each event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–
First, the Pueblo Athletic club Shootout, a Tier 3 in Pueblo , CO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

r2sports lnk: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/portfolio\/r2-event.asp?TID=32062<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s iteration features the return of #1 Kane Waselenchuk<\/a>, who played this last year (and won it) and he’s back to defend his title. Its one of the few (if only?) non-Tier 1 events I think he’s ever played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s 31 in the pro draw at this event, a great draw, led by by Kane Waselenchuk. He’s joined by a slew of locals along with some familiar names. Top seeds will include
– intercollegiate champ Erik Garcia
– top 20 IRT touring player David ” Bobby” Horn<\/a>
– top 20 IRT touring player and Colorado native Adam Manilla<\/a>
.
– Adam’s sister Erika Manilla, who is entered into the pro draw for the rare female IRT entrant
– Current #11 ranked Rodrigo Montoya Sol\u00eds<\/a>, fresh off his Mexican National doubles title
– Colorado native and IRT touring semi-regular Nick Riffel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d imagine the top four seeds would go Kane, Montoya, Horn and Manilla, and its likely to go chalk to the finals, where the locals look to have a great Kane-Rodrigo power v power shootout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————
The Minnesota Hall of Fame tournament becomes IRT sanctioned for the first time, and is rewarded with a pretty solid draw. There’s more than 150 entrants in total and a solid 12-man pro singles draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

r2sports link: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/portfolio\/r2-event.asp?TID=31350<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top IRT touring pros present include Mexican youngster Lalo Portillo<\/a>, who made a tourney final earlier this year. He’s likely the #1 seed here and is joined by IRT veterans and Minnesota natives Jake Bredenbeck<\/a> and his brother Sam Bredenbeck, as well as IRT regular Texan Justus Benson<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’ll face off against a slew of tough mid-western racquetball stars, including the likes of the Hansen brothers Blake Hansen<\/a> and Brad Hansen, tough Minnesota amateur Lee Meinerz<\/a>, a blast from the past in Brad McCunniff – State Farm Agent<\/a> (last pro appearance: 2002 US Open!), and Iowa junior Andrew Gleason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d imagine the seeds will go Lalo, Jake, Sam and Justus, meaning we may have Bredenbeck-on-Bredeneck crime in the semis unless there’s an upset along the way. I’d expect Lalo to top Jake in a final here, in that Eduardo has never lost to Jake and topped him 3,2 earlier this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————
We’ll have to see how streaming goes for these events; I recall watching some local streams from the Pueblo event last year. I’m hoping for some locals with iphones streaming all weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————
Tags<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Racquetball Tour<\/a>
USA Racquetball<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Mexicana de Raquetbol<\/a>R<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s not one but two lower Tier IRT events going on this coming weekend, and both have solid and intriguing draws. We’ll do a quick preview of the top-named pros playing in each event. ——————–First, the Pueblo Athletic club Shootout, a Tier 3 in Pueblo , CO r2sports lnk: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/portfolio\/r2-event.asp?TID=32062 This year’s iteration features the return … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “IRT Pueblo Shootout and Minnesota HoF tourney Previews”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,98],"tags":[21,286,699,287,300,40,91,146,151,35,38,11,670,33,92,230],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irt","category-singles","category-usa","tag-adam-manilla","tag-andrew-gleason","tag-blake-hansen","tag-brad-hansen","tag-brad-mccunniff","tag-david-horn","tag-eduardo-portillo","tag-erik-garcia","tag-erika-manilla","tag-jake-bredenbeck","tag-justus-benson","tag-kane-waselenchuk","tag-lee-meinerz","tag-nick-riffel","tag-rodrigo-montoya","tag-sam-bredenbeck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}