WOR Nor Cal "Beat the Heat" Love note The 2013 WOR “Beat the Heat” Shootout was a rousing success! Thanks to EVERYONE! We, Nor Cal WOR, have an amazing group of folks; great players, know how to have fun and most of all, the type of hard playing yet honest and considerate individuals that make this great game even greater and far more enjoyable. And… MUCH easier on us tournament directors!! Again, THANKS EVERYONE. And a special thanks to those of you that plugged your nose and took the dive into playing outdoor racquetball the first time, AWESOME. My thanks too: Teresa Diaz, Larry Miramontes, Brian Montgomery, Jared Nessland, Saxon Peters, Ivan Salas, Maily Salas, Raj Vadapalli and Antony Wong. WOW! Nice showing and… hint… a few of these listed here are now WOR champions too. MEN’S PRO/OPEN There were many big winners this past Saturday but probably the biggest were Jeff Barron and Dale Millhollin and their FOUR PEAT championship in the Men’s Pro/Open. Yes Dale and Jeff I can now proudly say it, FOUR PEAT, you deserved it as it was an effort of complete domination, congratulations guys!! The finals pitted these four-peaters against Brian Harris and Kevin Kringle. Brian’s sneaky and powerful game and Kevin’s get-everything mentality just were not enough to take down the champs. The semi’s saw Jeff and Dale take down James “Swifty” Swift and Danny boy Newman in a tight battle. Up front I had pegged these two as the two to take down the boys from Vacaville and end their run, but it wasn’t to be. I still have faith in James and Danny and I’m sure a few more times on the court together and they can take down this 4 headed (err… 4 peat) monster. The other semi-final match saw Brain Harris / Kevin Kringle up against Greg Vezey and Mitch Forest Jr. All four of these dudes LOVE TO POUND the ball so I kept a few extra Ektelon Fireballs available. Although no balls broke, (these Fireballs are indestructible!), there are a few more paint chip holes in the wall. When the paint dust settled Brian and Kevin came out victorious in the closest match of the playoffs with an 11-10, 11-10 victory. WOW! Note: Kevin, although not a winner in this division, made a very strong showing making the finals in both his divisions. Kevin’s wife Andy matched hubby’s efforts by also making the finals in her two events, Women’s A doubles and Mixed Pro/Open (with hubby). Nice going Kringles!! WOMEN’s A This is the first time WOR Nor Cal had an ALL WOMEN’S DIVISION played.! This is just simply AWESOME!! Not only was this in itself awesome, but all 6 players are TOUGH! I called this the most interesting division to follow, as the three teams were so evenly matched. And… my amazing predictive abilities turned out to be all that. :-D There was an initial round robin of one game to 15 to seed for the playoffs and guess what, each team won a game. Hence, since there was no outright winner in games won we had to go to total points to decide the top seed to get the bye in the playoffs. Laura Morin / Susie Gulde: 15 & 14 for a total of 29 Andy Kringle/Jazmin Trevino: 15 & 13 for a total of 28 Kelly Werner/ Mary Bills: 15 & 12 for a total of 27 Just can’t get any closer than this. In the playoffs the one semi-finals match then pitted Kringle/Trevino vs Werner/Bills with Kringle and Trevino winning the right to face top seed Laura “Gumby” Morin and Susie “Bigg Energy” Gulde in the finals. Morin/Gulde, as a team, are generally invincible as once again they win the title. I say once again, as the last event we didn’t have a women’s division so they played the Men’s A and WON! Congratulations all 6 ladies for a great division! MEN’s A There were four teams here. What is exciting here is we had three outdoor first timers playing. Larry Miramontes, Saxon Peters and Raj Vadapalli. Way to step up and dive in! In the seeding round robins they knocked each other around and the playoffs were set. In the playoffs the first semi-finals pitted Howard Favichia and Rick Rocchetti against the young Ben Jenkel and John Mahoney with Howie and Tricky Ricky coming out victorious. The 2nd semi-finals match was the newcomers; Larry Miramontes and Saxon Peters vs Jonathan Warren and another newcomer, Raj Vadapalli (way to go Raj!) As it turned out the double newbies, Miramontes and Peters were victorious and found themselves now heading to the finals. Now, one would probably have put money on outdoor veterans Howie and Tricky to come up with the championship but the first timers proved their outdoor meddle by taking it to the vets 11-5 and 11-8. Congratulations Larry and Saxon!!! WOW!! CHAMPS! (you’re movin’ up next event buddies! ) And lastly… MIXED PRO/OPEN We had 9 TOUGH teams here to battle it out. Last event’s champions James Swift and Laura Morin were back to once again to stake their claim to the championship but would have to fight a tough battle to even get through the playoffs. Kevin Kringle and Andy Kringle, also past champions of this division, and with each playing very tough in their early session this day were looking to be a force here. Brian Harris, always a tough nut, and Susie Gulde, a super tough nut, and just plain nutty (way to leave a few donuts for the rest of us by the way, and double by the way, how does one eat soooo many donuts and still be, what, 90lbs?), were newly teamed for this event but outdoor veterans in their own right and could be the ones to come out on top. Then, there were WOR Nor Cal outdoor newcomers John Ellis and Teresa Diaz. They came up from way down south (Stockton) to see how we do it and prepare for the WOR Champs in Huntington Beach in a month. Once the pool play completed to seed the teams in the playoffs the battles began. Initially there was a ‘feeder’ match into the quarters that saw Greg Vezey and Kelly Werner beating out Ivan and Maily Salas in a long tough tie-breaker battle. Where this comes into play is Vezey and Werner had to play the defending champs and top seeds Swift/Morin next. When they did play… Swift and Morin’s championship run… ended as Vezey and Werner took out the champs! Way to go! In the other quarter-final matches: - Ellis and Diaz beat crusher Mitch Forrest Jr and equally crusher Jazmin Trevino - Brian Harris and Susie Gulde beat first timer and crusher Jared Nessland (by the way Jared, GREAT PLAYING!) and a tough and strong Mary Bills - Finally, the Kringles took out the tournament directors Bill and Michele George in a VERY close match until after about the 5th point of the first game. :-D The semi-finals - The feeder team of Vezey/Werner now had to take on world renowned John Ellis and powerful Teresa Diaz. With Ellis/Diaz ending the Vezey/Werner nice run up the ladder. - A good battle was to in store with the match of Harris/Gulde vs the Kringles, with the Kringles triumphant and heading to the finals against Elli and Teresa. The Finals The Kringles, looking for their 2nd WOR Nor Cal Mixed Pro/Open championship, knew they had their hands full with Elli and Diaz. As the battle ensued, Elli was pounding everything and serving his patented leaping overhead serve throughout the match. Teresa was pounding cross court winners and showing the smarts of a veteran outdoor’er even though this officially is her first outdoor event. Kevin was balls out getting everything and crushing winners. Andy had her down the line and cross courts looking tough! Fun match to watch but in the end…. John Ellis and Teresa Diaz are the new WOR Nor Cal Mixed Pro/Open Champs! Congrats and don’t be strangers to our outdoor! We need a chance to take you down! FINAL THOUGHTS WOW, great time people! I would like to see each and EVERYONE OF YOU in Shingle Springs next weekend for the In-Shape double shootout. Contact John Ellis or see the R2 site to sign-up! BE THERE! Also, contact Danny boy Newman regarding the Woodland “Old School” shootout. Only old school racquects (no mid-sized). I played this last year and the first time I’ve ever used those mini racquets and IT WAS A BLAST!!! Also… BE THERE!! Thanks again EVERYONE! Bill and Michele George
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:56:20 +0000
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