IRT Rankings May 15, 2012 - Close races for 3rd & 5th

They're going to play the ultimate tournament of the 2011-12 International Racquetball Tour (IRT) season next week, when the Ektelon Nationals kicks off in Fullerton, California, and the latest IRT rankings are out. Similar to the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO), the season ending top two IRT places are set with Kane Waselenchuk solidly at #1 and Rocky Carson equally solid at #2.

But after that there's a lot to play for.

And you don't have to go any further than the 3rd position to find a tight race, as only 8 points separate Ben Croft and Jose Rojas in 3rd and 4th, respectively. Rojas has quite a few more points this season than Croft (2804 to 2558), and he also has more points to gain in Fullerton, as Rojas lost to Tony Carson in the Round of 16 there last year while Croft made the semi-finals. Thus, if Croft is going to stay ahead of Rojas, he'll have to have a significantly better result than Rojas next week.

The battle for 5th is also close, as only 60 points separate Chris Crowther (on 2399) and Alvaro Beltran (2339). Crowther also has more season points to date (2416 to 2268), but Crowther was the other semi-finalist (with Croft) last year in Fullerton, while Beltran, like Rojas, went out in the 16s, losing to Shane Vanderson.

Thus, while now Croft is ahead of Rojas and Crowther ahead of Beltran, when the season ending rankings come out, it could easily be the other way round in both cases.

Finally, Ruben Gonzalez looks like he will fall short of his goal to be in the top 10 at season's end as he's on 730 points and needs more than twice that to move ahead of Charlie Pratt, who's currently in 10th with 1474 points. Nevertheless, Gonzalez is in 14th place, and if he says there, that's quite a respectable finish for someone who's going to turn 60 in July.

IRT Rankings -  15 May 2012 


Rank Player Points

1 Kane WASELENCHUK 4299
2 Rocky CARSON 3556
3 Ben CROFT 2723
4 Jose ROJAS 2715
5 Chris CROWTHER 2399
6 Alvaro BELTRAN 2339
7 Shane VANDERSON 2127
8 Andy HAWTHORNE 1992
9 Tony CARSON 1602
10 Charlie PRATT 1474

11 Javier MORENO 1372
12 Anthony HERRERA 1251
13 Brad SCHOPIERAY 773
14 Ruben GONZALEZ 730
15 Juan HERRERA 715
16 Alejandro LANDA 649
17 Taylor KNOTH 634
18 Daniel DE LA ROSA 568
19 Arthur SCHMEISER 540
20 Jose DIAZ 387

Follow the bouncing ball....