Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Awards and Rankings

The professional players tours handed out their annual awards at the US Open banquet Saturday night. The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) named Rocky Carson Player of the Year based on his 2007-08 season ending finish at #1. Hiroshi Shimizu was named Most Sportsmanlike, and Alvaro Beltran was named Most Improved Player.

Rhonda Rajsich was the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) Player of the Year. Angela Grisar was given the Janet Myers Sportsmanship Award and Veronica Sotomayor was named the Most Improved Player.

IRT Rankings

The IRT has released its rankings following the US Open. Kane Waselenchuk, winner of the US Open, has now moved up to 9th from 11th, so he will still have to qualify at the next Tier I event, which will be the Juarez Open in Juarez, Mexico, November 13-16 (assuming the top 8 players are also at the event).

Waselenchuk's move up has pushed Chris Crowther and Andy Hawthorne down one spot each to 10th and 11th, respectively.

The other significant change in the top 8 is Ben Croft's move past Mitch Williams on the strength of Croft's quarter final placing at the US Open. Williams lost in the 16s to Waselenchuk.

IRT Rankings (October 27, 2008)
Rank - Name - Points

1 Rocky Carson 4905
2 Jack Huczek 4616
3 Alvaro Beltran 3450
4 Jason Mannino 3439
5 Shane Vanderson 2783
6 Ben Croft 2505
7 Mitch Williams 2475
8 Jason Thoerner 2164
9 Kane Waselenchuk 2148
10 Chris Crowther 2108
11 Andy Hawthorne 1583
12 Juan Herrera 1425
13 Hiroshi Shimizu 1290
14 Alejandro Herrera 1260
15 Javier Moreno 1159
16 Kris Odegard 1155
17 Travis Woodbury 990
18 Andres Herrera 695
19 Lee Connell 671
20 Tony Carson 652

Follow the bouncing ball....

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