The Kansas City Open – Ghost of Georgetown Pro Am
The Kansas City Open – Ghost of Georgetown Pro Am
The Athletic Club of Overland Park has totally transformed into the total entertainment package with a grandstand seating for 300, a terrific player village complete with food and beverages of your choice and the music blasting to get everyone here in the mood for a great racquetball event. A full-blown trade show with the manufactures and sponsors showing off their goods was set up in the gym and decorated the whole nine yards. What a great job the Mike Wedel and the staff at the club have done to bring a world-class event to Kansas City.
The first round of qualifying got off with a bang tonight at the first IRT full ranking event of the season. There were a few good matches as the first round was completed at 615pm. Chicagoan Geoff Goldblatt made his IRT debut defeating Matt Melster in the only five gamer 9 (4) (7) 1 9 to advance on to meet Andy Hawthorne at 730pm. Andres Hererra took out Jordan Walters in three, 4 4 10 he will play his brother Juan at 730pm. Keith Minor fresh off his Men’s 40+ World Championship win in Albuquerque last week took out John Scott from St Louis in three 4 5 6. Minor will meet up with Alejandro Herrera at 730pm.The last match featured the comeback of former five-time number on Sudsy Monchik who won in three over Ben Simons. Sudsy will take on his mentor the Legend Ruben Gonzalez at 730pm. U of Memphis student, Travis Woodbury defeated Sampson Snurman (10) 2 6 4 he will meet Ben Croft at 830pm. National Canadian Junior champion Ryan Smith beat Dave Guentert and will face off against Woody Clouse at 830pm. Head/Penn guru Doug Ganim beat local Caleb Shraeder 1 4 4 and will meet Japan’s Hiroshi Shimizu at 8:30pm and Chicago’s John Amatulli won the second five gamer of the night over Nick Guinta 9 (8) (4) 1 2 and will play Chris Crowther at 8:30 to round out the first round of qualifying.
The second round had few surprises as Andy Hawthorne took out Geoff Goldblatt 2 2 4. Geoff is a high schooler from Chicago making his debut here in KC and has some promise for the future. The Herrera brothers battled a long hard five games with Andres coming out on top 8 (10) 6 (9) 9. Alejandro Herrera took out Keith Minor in four 3 (7) 10 3 and Sudsy Monchik showed signs of a little rust the first game against Ruben Gonzalez but came back strong winning in four (8) 2 6 3 to finish the 730pm matches. Doug Ganim played well against Hiroshi Shimizu to advance 2 6 6. Woody Clouse had little trouble with the youngster from Canada Ryan Smith winning 0 7 0. John Amatulli gave Chris Crowther all he could handle but it was not enough as Chris advances 5 11 10 and intercollegiate champion Ben Croft beat University of Memphis star Travis Woodbury 7 3 (9) 3 to close out the 8:30pm matches in qualifying.
It was a great night of racquetball and will get even better as 11:30 am rolls around for the round of sixteen on Friday. Stay tuned right here for all the match details.
The round of sixteen went off without a hitch, as the crowds were quite large for Friday afternoon. Sudsy Monchik made his awaited return against Rocky Carson and showed signs of the former Suds. Hitting a few monster backhands and moving fairly well after a two-year layoff he impressed the crowd in KC. Rocky would triumph in this match and spoil Sudsy bid for an upset. Rocky stayed in control the entire match and moved on to the quarters. All the other seeds advanced fairly easily with the exception of Jason Thoerner who was taken out by Chris Crowther. Chris played some outstanding ball in this match and looks ready to turn up his game this season. He moved on to the quarterfinals against Cliff Swain.
The first quarterfinal match of the evening featured Cliff Swain and Chris Crowther. The six foot six Crowther came out shooting with reckless abandon hitting everything in the first two games. He would push the veteran Swain in game one losing 10 and winning the next 8. Swain however would comeback in true Swain form and cool off Crowther taking the next two games to win the match 10 (8) 1 8 and advance on to the semis’. The next match showcased the University of Colorado at Pueblo star, Mitch Williams against top seeded Jack Huczek. Mitch played tough but Huczek was too much as he advances to the semi’s 7,5 0. Following this match was Alvaro Beltran meeting Shane Vanderson. Both players had a busy off-season playing in the World Championships in Santo Domingo and it showed. Alvaro’s pinpoint pinches were right on and did frustrate Vanderson. Vandy hit the ball well but not good enough as Beltran advances in three 8,3,7 and will meet Swain in the semi’s. The last match of the night saw Rocky Carson face off against Jason Mannino. Both players were ready to go and from the start. Rocky played flawlessly the first and a majority of the second until Jason found his groove mid way thru. Rocky would win the first two games but Jason had the answers in the third. Carson would find his focus again in game four and win the match 1,10, (7), 4 and meets Huczek in the semis.
A pack house filled the stadium arena at the Athletic Club of Overland Park for the semi’s this afternoon to witness Cliff Swain battle Alvaro Beltran. It would be all Swain in the first game as his serve put a lot of pressure on Alvaro. Beltran would settle down the three games hitting some very effective passing shots and capitalizing in any mistake Swain made. This one would go Beltran’s way in the end (8), 4,5,2 and will move on to the first final of the season. The next match looked to be a great one and it was between Rocky Carson and Jack Huczek. Carson would come out “en fuego” as Beltran sated and hit every shot in the book flat. His serves would give Huczek trouble to both sides of the court. And then the fitness level of Huczek would take over as Carson “hit the wall” and Jack would cruise in the next three games and move on to meet Beltran in the Sunday final (7), (4), 5,3,4.
The finals would offer everything you would want to see in a final, great shot making, tough serves and leaving it all on the court. The players did all that and more. Jack jumped out to a sizable lead in the first only to have Beltran settle down and fight back with some great down the line shots. Huczek would take it 11-9. In game two both players traded point up to 9-9 and Jack would hit the last two big shots to take game two 11-9 and a two game lead. Beltran would come out smoking in the third and not miss a shot and force Jack into some unusual unforced errors and take the third 11-6. The fourth would be all Huczek as he stayed in control of center court and take the match and the first title of the IRT season 11-5.
What a great event this was and the set up and presentation of the event was first class. Mike Wedel and wife Deb did a terrific job fulfilling their vision of a top event in Kansas City. Setting up grandstand seating and a professional trade booth show for sponsors and players village made the event feel like a major. The club staff was outstanding as Director of Operations Jeff Freeman manned the announcer/sound duties and Marketing Director Julie Heitkamp put all the finishing touches on the event. I cannot say enough about the event staff and club staff here in KC as they made everyone feel right at home. This facility is one of the nicest racquetball clubs in the country and that the IRT plays at.There were great crowds and plenty of amateur play as over 200 players entered this event. Legend Ruben Gonzalez won the 35+ division and was on hand promoting his paintings. The event charity Children’s Mercy Hospital was the benefactor of the event as players and fans donated their money at the silent auction and casino night at the club on Saturday night. The party featured the KC Chiefs cheerleaders as they stopped by to help raise money for a great cause.
The IRT hopes to be back next season and from all indications it should happen. Thanks again for all the support from all of those that helped with the event this weekend.
Friday matches
11:30am
Swain over Ganim 7 2 2
Crowther over Thorner 2 5 3
12:30pm
Huczek over Herrera 7 5 0
Williams over Hawthorne 1 6 5
130pm matches
Vanderson over Croft 4 7 6
Beltran over Clouse 8 2 11
230pm matches
Mannino over Herrera 0 8 1
Carson over Monchik 2 (6) 6 9
Quarterfinal matchups
5:30pm
Cliff Swain over Chris Crowther 10 (8) 1 8
6:30pm
Jack Huczek over Mitch Williams 8 8 2
7:30pm
Alvaro Beltran over Shane Vanderson 8 3 7
8:30pm
Rocky Carson over Jason Mannino 1 10 (7 ) 4
Saturday Semi-finals
4pm
Alvaro Beltran over Cliff Swain (8) 4 5 2
6pm
Jack Huczek over Rocky Carson (7) (4) 5 3 4
Sunday Noon Final
Jack Huczek over Alvaro Beltran 9 9 (6) 5
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Ron Marr at the KC event with The KC Cheerleaders raising money for Children's Mercy Hospital