The 2007 Kansas City Pro Am
Overland Park Kansas – The 2007 Kansas City Pro Am kicked off at the Overland Park Athletic Club on Thursday afternoon with a large qualifying draw. A few players made the trip directly from Colorado Springs the week before and came in a few days early. There would be a few barn burners in the second round of qualifying with Anthony Herrera of Grand Junction CO taking out #10 Andy Hawthorne to advance to his first round of sixteen match and John Goth ousting Charlie Pratt. All the other seeds advanced on to the main draw.
The round of sixteen started off with Motorola World Champion Rocky Carson defeating John Goth in three and Chris Crowther besting Anthony Herrera. Anthony is attending the University of Colorado and will be making most of the events this year. Next up Jack Huczek took out Canadian Kris Odegard and Ben Croft outlasted Jason Thoerner in four games. The matinee matches saw Jason Mannino get slightly pushed by Juan Herrera winning in four games and Mitch Williams ousting Alejandro Herrera. Shane Vanderson got by the always dangerous Hiroshi Shimizu from Japan in four and the last match was a rematch of the Colorado semi-finals and the outcome was the same as Alvaro Beltran defeated his countryman from Mexico Javier Moreno in four hard fought games. That set up the quarterfinals for Friday night and the some good match ups.
The first quarterfinal of the night in front of a packed house was Rocky Carson against Chris Crowther. Crowther who is always a threat for an upset played well but Carson was to much as he advances on in three games 7 5 2. The next match was Jack Huczek and Ben Croft. Jack was definitely ready to play after his first round loss the weekend before and Croft pushed Jack the best he could before losing 2 8 2. Next up on the main court would be hard hitting Mitch Williams and Jason Mannino. Mannino was also coming off a first round loss in Colorado and he looked ready this weekend as he took this match from Mitch in three straight 7 9 6. The last match of the evening would be the longest as the rematch from Colorado featuring Shane Vanderson and Alvaro Beltran got underway at 930pm. Shane was looking to avenge his loss in Colorado and he did so in a five game war that ended at midnight (4) 9 14 (5) 5.
The semi-finals would begin late Saturday afternoon and the Kansas City crowd was ready for some IRT hard hitting racquetball. Mannino and Carson would square off first and it would be full of great gets from Mannino and blistering backhands from Carson. Just when Mannino looked like he would close the match out in four games Carson found a second wind and forced a game five. A few unforced errors would cost Rocky the match and put Jason in the final on Sunday. The following match would showcase Jack Huczek and Shane Vanderson. Huczek would put a lot of pressure on Vanderson in this match and unforced errors would plaque Shane. Huczek kept focus and would take the match in three to meet up with Mannino in the Sunday noon final.
Never in the history of the sport have the number one and two players in the world suffer first round defeats on the same weekend and then come back and meet in the finals in the next event as Jack Huczek and Jason Mannino would be the first to do so. Battling back like true champions these two did not let the full house crowd down on Sunday afternoon. Best friends, these two are not and each played the match like it was their last. Mannino would get the upper hand in this long three game match on just a few unforced errors by Jack. That was the difference as Jason Mannino took the Kansas City Open title from the reigning champion 11-9 11-9 11-8 and make it his first title of the season.
Kansas City Pro Am Side notes:
I want to thank the Overland Park Athletic Club for opening their doors to the IRT and fans for the second year in a row and putting on a first class event. If you have not had the pleasure of playing at this fine racquetball facility make sure you do if you get a chance. Jeff it is so nice having a hands on GM that is involved in the event and thanks for all you do including the DJ job.
Mike, Deb and Gary you are awesome!!! It is such a pleasure to work with you and it is great to see how everyone at the event enjoys playing your tournaments.
The event also raised money for the Children’s Mercy Hospital and what a great cause. Thanks to all that contributed to the fundraiser. I would also like to thank all the sponsors of the event especially Luci Delsarto of Mannatech and Rosco Halsey of Edward Jones, your support does not go unnoticed.
Also thanks for having a great dinner with me Ron Marr it was a blast and very filling.
Hats off to Jack and Jason for bouncing back after tough losses in Colorado and congrats to Jason for adding another title to his resume.
We look forward to coming back next year!!!!