Wednesday, November 29, 2017

2017 IRT John Pelham Memorial / Tournament of Champions Preview

Kane Waselenchuk, the #1 player on the the International Racquetball Tour (IRT), has been running rampant. He’ll have a chance to continue that rampage this weekend at the John Pelham Memorial / ProKennex Tournament of Champions in Portland, Oregon. Waselenchuk has surrendered only 12.07 points per match this season (not counting the three matches where his opponent has forfeited), which astonishing. He has dropped a couple of games, after sweeping through all of his matches last season.

Waselenchuk’s record since the US Open in October is jaw dropping, as in five matches (the three forfeit wins have come in the last two events) he’s only allowed 24 points to be scored against him. That’s an average of 1.6 points against per game! Anyone want to argue against Waselenchuk being the best men’s racquetball player of all time?

Nevertheless, there will be 23 other players trying to prevent another Waselenchuk win this weekend in Portland. The field includes the top IRT players, such as #2 Rocky Carson, #3 Alvaro Beltran and #4 Daniel De La Rosa.

Other players of note include former top 10 players Tony Carson and Charles Pratt. Mauro Rojas will also be in Portland off his Boy’s U18 World Junior Championship win earlier this month.

The IRT Round of 16 will be streamed live Friday from 10 AM via the IRT Network with the quarterfinals Friday afternoon from 5 PM on. Also, the semi-finals will be Noon and 1 PM Saturday with the final Saturday night at 7:00 PM. All times Pacific.

2017 IRT John Pelham Memorial / ProKennex Tournament of Champions, November 30-December 2
Portland, Oregon


Qualifying Round 1 - Thursday

Q8) Adam Manilla v. John Wolfe
Q1) Robert Collins v. Matthew Goolsby

Q4) Thomas Carter v. Sunji Spencer
Q5) Scott McClellan v. Tony Carson

Q6) Charles Pratt v. Dylan Reid
Q3) Justus Benson v. Tim Prigo

Q2) Jose Diaz v. Sam Bredenbeck
Q7) Nicholas Riffel v. Mauro Rojas

Round of 16 - Friday

1) Kane Waselenchuk v. Q8 - Noon
8) Mario Mercado v. Q1 - Noon

5) Samuel Murray v. Q4 - 1 PM
4) Daniel De La Rosa v. Q5 - 1 PM

3) Alvaro Beltran v. Q6 - 10 AM
6) Jansen Allen v. Q3 - 10 AM

7) Felipe Camacho v. Q2 - 11 AM
2) Rocky Carson v. Q7 - 11 AM

Follow the bouncing ball….

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hats off to Hank Marcus for still hosting an IRT event. He is one of the good guys in the sport!