Monday, February 22, 2010

Weekend Round Up - Crowther beats Huczek & Vanderson

Chris Crowther had two surprising wins to take the Seattle Open, a Tier 4 event on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT), on the weekend. Crowther beat Jack Huczek in the final, 11-5, 11-5, 11-3, and Shane Vanderson, 11-1, 11-2, 11-4, in semi-final. Huczek and Vanderson were the top two seeds of the tournament with Crowther as third seed.

Huczek was hampered by an injury to his quadricep that kept him out of the US National Doubles Championship. Nonetheless, it's a great victory for Crowther.

Vanderson defeated Taylor Knoth in the third place match, 7-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-2, 11-5. Huczek defeated Knoth in the other semi-final.

Grant Barker was the winner of the Winter Classic, another Tier 4 IRT event, in Overland Park, Kansas. Barker defeated Kevin Buehler in the final, 11-5, 11-4, 11-2.

In the semis, Barker beat Daniel Pflaster, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7, while Buehler needed a tie-breaker to get past Travis Kern, winning 11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 6-11, 11-7.

Coming up this weekend is the San Diego Open, a Tier 3 IRT event. Crowther and Vanderson are both entered in that event, and joining them are Rocky Carson and Mitch Williams.

Follow the bouncing ball....

2 comments:

Mark said...

Is this the first ever IRT tournament victory for Crowther?

The Racquetball Blog said...

Crowther has won lower Tier IRT events before. He won the Pomona Open in California in November 2008. However, he has not won a Tier 1 IRT event, or even been in the semi-finals, in fact.

And thanks for the kind words.

Follow the bouncing ball....

TRB