USA Intercollegiate Championships

There are many ways in which the United States differs from the rest of the world, but one of the biggest in the world of sport can be summed up in two words: college sports. The United States cares passionately about sports at the college and university level. In the rest of the world, even if they have college sports they tend not to care about them much.

As pointed out by a reader of The Racquetball Blog, the USA Racquetball National Intercollegiate Championships are going on now in Tempe, Arizona. With 332 players, it's a big event. And big players have participated in it. Rocky Carson, Jack Huczek, and Shane Vanderson have been collegiate men's champions, while Adrienne Fisher, Kristen Bellows (née Walsh) and Kerri Wachtel (née Stoffregen) have been collegiate women's champions.

In fact, Ben Croft and Mitch Williams, who will play men's doubles for the USA at the Pan American Championships starting Saturday, were the 2007 collegiate doubles champions.

Several players who've played in some of this season's pro events are playing in Tempe, including last year's champions Kara Mazer (University of Alabama) and Tony Carson (Colorado State). They'll face some stiff competition though. Ashley Willhite (Oregon State) and Sheryl Lotts (Baldwin Wallace) are the second and third seeds in the women's draw, while Anthony Herrera (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs), Allan Crockett (University of Alabama) and Jose Rojas (Delta College), are the second, third and fourth seeds.

The competition began yesterday and will continue through Saturday. No big upsets have happened so far. The competition has individual and team components, as the individual performances are added together to create the team total. A full team is 6 men and 6 women, so there are 6 singles categories and 3 doubles categories. The #1 seeds on each team compete against each other, as do the #2s, #3s and so on.

Here are the results from the last two intercollegiate championships for the #1 seeds.

2008

Women's
1. Kara Mazer, University of Alabama
2. Sarah Hettesheimer, Baldwin Wallace
3. Ashley Willhite, Oregon State
4. Sue Sublaban, Delta College

Men's
1. Tony Carson, Colorado State
2. Anthony Herrera, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
3. Bradly Rogers, Wichita
4. Allan Crockett, University of Alabama

2007

Women's
1. Kimberly Irons, Ohio University
2. Jesi Fuller, University of New Mexico
3. Da'monique Davis, University of Alabama
4. Sarah Hettesheimer, Baldwin Wallace

Men's
1. Ben Croft, Colorado State
2. Agustin Tristan, University of Alabama
3. Evan Ussery, University of New Mexico
4. Phil Matthews, University of Illinois

Follow the bouncing ball....