IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame & Shamrock Shootout Recap
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by By Todd Boss (Pro Racquetball Stats) and Karen Grisz
IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame Wrap-up
The IRT once again returned to Minnesota for the 36th annual Hall of Fame Tournament, presented by KWM Gutterman. Thanks to all of the sponsors and volunteers for hosting the IRT!
Congratulations to our Pro winners on the weekend:
Singles: Kane Waselenchuk
Doubles: Erick Trujillo and Jordy Alonso
Kane Waselenchuk won his record-extending 130th career title. Alonso & Trujillo won their first career doubles titles without taking the court in the semis or the finals, unfortunately, due to a few injuries. Let’s recap the injury and upset-filled weekend in Minneapolis.
Singles Recap:
In the 64s:
Although Jhoel Alexis Acha may not be a known name in the US, DJ Mendoza’s win over Acha was notable. Mendoza struggled at the 18U worlds last December, losing in the round robins twice, but in Minnesota took out the reigning U21 world junior champ in Acha (who had to beat both Trujillo and Hernandez to do so). This was a great win for Mendoza.
In the 32s:
Sam Bredenbeck had a solid win over Kadim Carrasco 15-11, 15-10. Diego Garcia beat Jordy Alonso 15-10, 15-2. A good win against a top 10 player. Bolivian Jhonatan Flores had match point-against him, but came back to win over Javier Mar. A great win for the reigning 18U world champion. Another Bolivian international in Gerson Miranda gets a top 10 win, this time over Erick Trujillo. Given their junior histories, this wasn’t as much of an upset as people might have thought. US junior Cole Sendry gets a nice win over the tour veteran Robbie Collins.
But the biggest result of the round: Moscoso tweaks his knee mid-first game against Bobby Horn. Although he didn’t forfeit, he was hobbling around as he completed the match, giving Horn a 15-13, 15-0 win and a quarter final appearance for the first time since the 2018-19 season
In the 16s:
Garcia continues his winning streak with an upset over hometown favorite Jake Bredenbeck.
Flores played a great match against Andree Parrilla, but lost 11-10 in the tiebreaker after not being able to convert match point. Miranda continues his run, topping Thomas Carter to get to the quarters.
In the Quarters
Waselenchuk continues to cruise, setting down the Argentine Garcia 15-7, 15-4. Andres Acuna continues playing well with a win over Parrilla to get back to the semis. Rodrigo Montoya pulled a rabbit out of his hat, somehow coming back from 4-10 down in the tiebreaker despite injuring his shoulder and basically hitting patty-cake with the racquetball and keeping it in play. Miranda was in control, but saw the injury and couldn’t capitalize. Although he won 11-10, Montoya had to forfeit both singles and doubles after the match. Alan Natera gets a career best semis appearance with his win over Horn.
In the Semis
Kane was pushed by the tactical Acuna, who took a game from him but couldn’t continue in the tiebreaker with the upset. Sometimes it’s hard to look at Acuna’s game and realize that his steadiness may make him the most likely to put a loss on Kane right now, but time and again he hangs against the King. Natera gets his first career final with an injury walkover against Montoya.
In the Finals, with Kane going half-speed, he lost game two but won his 130th career title.
Doubles review
The injuries to Montoya and Moscoso took out the two top doubles teams in this draw. The last team standing ended up being Trujillo & Alonso, who got walkovers in the semis and finals to claim their first title. They did get a very solid win over No 3. seeds Acuna/Natera.
IRT 2025 Shamrock Shootout Recap #
The 40th Annual PapaNicholas IRT Shamrock Shootout was a bittersweet send-off for the Glass Court Swim & Fitness in Lombard Illinois, an iconic, old-school racquetball club that is closing at the end of this month. The IRT thanks Glass Court’s owners and staff for years of support not only of the IRT, but also the LPRT and NMRA. You will all be sorely missed!
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
Singles: Jake Bredenbeck
Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar
Bredenbeck comes out on top of an upset-filled event to win his 3rd career Tier 1 title and to retire the Glass Door club in style. Montoya & Mar cruise to the doubles title despite Montoya’s shoulder injury limitations.
International Racquetball Tour
There were a bunch of top U18 and U21 internationals in this draw; it’s worth pointing them out in case you are not familiar with some of them:
– 2024 U21 World Champ Acha
– 2024 U21 semi finalists Trujillo and Barrios
– 2024 U21 USA Junior National titlist Horner
– 2024 U18 World Champion Flores
– 2024 U18 USA National team members Sendrey and Mendoza
– 2024 U18 USA Junior Nationals quarterfinalist Herrera II
– 2023 U21 World Champion Gastelum
– 2022 U21 World champ Garcia
– 2019 U18 World champ Miranda
That’s a lot of players who are all in their early 20s or younger, and they should represent the next big wave of players in this sport. It’s great to see. Although it is sometimes difficult for South American players to travel to the US regularly, perhaps we’ll see more of the likes of Flores, Miranda, Garcia, and Acha given the taste of success they’re having. Keep your eyes out!
In the 64s:
Sam Murray kicked off his return to pro racquetball with a pretty dominant win over a tough Bolivian junior opponent in Hector Barrios 15-5, 15-3
In the 32s:
Reigning U21 champ Jhoel Alexis Acha got the match of a lifetime, playing Waselenchuk and losing 15-4, 15-6. Sam Bredenbeck beat 18U junior Cole Sendrey 15-13, 15-6. Old WRT rivals Jaime Martell & Bobby Horn had a battle for the ages, with Horn running out of gas in the tiebreaker. Thomas Carter easily beat Kadim Carrasco 15-2, 15-0 to move into the next round.
Reigning 18U champ Jhonathan Flores made a statement in his win over U21 international Diego Gastelum 15-7, 15-6. Flores has played in the US several times now, and always impresses.
Murray cruised past Montoya 15-11, 15-6. This was not necessarily surprising, as Montoya hurt his shoulder the previous weekend in Minneapolis and wasn’t sure he was going to play singles. Erick Trujillo made fast work of DJ Mendoza, not giving the USA junior national a chance.
In the 16s:
Bredenbeck solidly got past Martell. Flores beat Natera 15-9, 15-6. This was a tough draw for Natera his first time in the top 4, but Flores is the real deal. Murray eased past Gerson Miranda 15-5, 15-8. Javier Mar was in control of his match with Alonso when he retired at the very end of game two. Lalo Portillo made fast work of Trujillo 15-5, 15-6.
In the Quarters
Bredenbeck got a game one win over Kane, then the #1 seed retired. He tweaked something the previous week in Minneapolis, and it was still bugging him. In the post-game interview, Waselenchuk said he knew he was going to have to forfeit at some point, and played until he figured he couldn’t go any further without injuring himself more significantly.
Andree Parrilla survived a close match against the Bolivian junior phenom Flores and won 11-10 in the tiebreaker. Flores blew him out in game one, then the two played neck and neck racquetball for the rest of game 2 and 3. Flores had match point on his serve and missed a wide-open forehand into the ground to give the ball to Andree, who converted and advanced.
Mar easily beat Murray 15-5, 15-1 who finally showed some rust from being absent for a while. Andres Acuna lost badly to Portillo 15-3, 15-0.
International Racquetball Tour
In the Semis/Finals
Bredenbeck and Parilla played their typical dogfight, with Jake advancing 155-11, 15-12. Portillo came back from a deep hole in the tiebreaker to beat Mar 11-9.
In the Finals, Bredenbeck beat Portillo handily, 15-11, 15-3, for his third career pro win. Jake joins a small group of 3-time winners on tour that includes Parrilla, Strandemo, Ed Andrews, and Alvaro Beltran.
