The 2007-2008 WCRC season is off to a HUGE start as we had 55
players from 10 different schools compete in our Fall tournament
at Berkeley. We are growing every year, and at this tournament
we had 4 people from LA county, 3 players from San Luis Obispo,
and Dylan Carr from San Diego who competed in the USRA
Collegiate Nationals earlier this year!
Our women’s draw continues to grow as we had our largest
group to date: 15 women! Danielle Evans (UC Santa Cruz) and Amy
Benson (UC Davis) – both new to the WCRC – played
a dramatic 3 game match for the Women's final, with almost every
rally bringing applause. After losing the first game, Danielle
was able to squeak out a win in the second, and in between the
second game and the tie break – buzzing with energy and
emotion – she gave us our quote of the tournament. As she
said with a smile:
It’s my birthday ... I have to win,
there’s no other
option!
Danielle was able to win the close tie break, but things are going
to be very interesting this year.
Alejandro Ron from Sacramento State won Men’s Division
I ! He started playing with the WCRC last year, won the Mar 2007
WCRC tourney at SJSU to finish last year’s season, and is
continuing where he left off ... He is going to be hard to beat
this season!
Jake Abernathy (Cal) - a long time WCRC veteran - won Division
II ! Jake finished around the middle of the pack at
last year's Berkeley tourney, and now has no where to go but to
Div I. Stephen Hibbs (Stanford) is new to the WCRC and finished
a close second ... Welcome to the WCRC and be ready for the next
tourney!
The Men's Division III is growing, and we split the division
into two groups. Siva Gunda (UC Davis) and David Wong (Cal) won
their respective Division III groups, and played to be the winner
of the entire Division III. Siva won Division III, and he also
finished around the middle of the pack at last year's Berkeley
tourney ... Great improvement, and get ready for Division II at
the UC Davis tourney.
As we gain new players, others graduate and move on. Carlos
Penagos played for a number of years in the juniors as he was
growing up, but hung up his racquetball when he moved to a new
area. Mid way through college, he found the WCRC and started playing
racquetball competitively again 2 years ago.
In his first WCRC tourney – Feb. 2006 UC Davis –
Carlos won Division II. Last year at our Oct. 2006 Berkeley tourney,
Carlos finished 7th in Division I. In this Nov. 2007 Berkeley
tourney, Carlos finally made it to the finals, but lost to Alejandro
Ron. Carlos has been very successful in racquetball tournaments
outside of the WCRC, and he won Men’s Under 24 A in the
2007 California State Singles Championships! We hope to continue
to see Carlos on the courts.
THANK YOU EVERYONE for your patience with the
shorter format for the games in the earlier rounds. We are growing
and may need to find a larger venue for next year's tournament!
We have every intention of using facilities that are large enough
to handle our tournaments and have games to 15 points in all
of the rounds, while keeping costs to a minimum. We were able
to secure an additional court this year at Berkeley, and they
have several other courts that may be repaired in time for next
year's tournament.
THANK YOU Matt Hills for putting together and running the draws!
And, THANK YOU Allan Santos (Berkeley) for the successfully working
through many details to get this tournament hosted at UC Berkeley,
and for getting us a much needed 4th court.
Our
next Tourney is confirmed for
Sat. Feb. 2, 2008 at UC Davis
with 6 racquetball courts !!! |
-- John
Bardos, Nov. 11, 2007
