Monday, June 18, 2012

The final IRT 2011-12 Rankings

The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) has released its 2011-12 season ending rankings, which are topped by Kane Waselenchuk for the fourth consecutive season. Waselenchuk now been in a top 10 IRT player at the end of 9 IRT season and 7 times he's been #1. It's an astonishing record.

Rocky Carson finished at the #2 player, and was the winner of the New York City Pro-Am after Waselenchuk could not finish the final due to injury. But Carson was a finalist in only two of the six tournaments since then.

Alvaro Beltran was the finalist in the other four tournaments since New York, and that helped him into the top 10 for the first time since the 2008-09 season when he finished 4th. Yet Beltran only finished 5th this season, as he didn't play two of the events in the first part of the season, choosing to focus on the Pan American Games, which were held in his home country of Mexico in October, and he also lost in the Round of 16 at the US Open to Charlie Pratt.

Waselenchuk missed two events due to injury, but those events weren't won by Carson or Beltran, but rather by Jose Rojas and Ben Croft, who finished the season ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively. Third is a career high for Rojas, who's only in the top 10 for the third time in his career. Rojas's rise pushes Croft down one spot from last season, when he finished third.

Chris Crowther finished 6th, Shane Vanderson 7th and Andy Hawthorne 8th. It's the 9th time Vanderson's finished in the top 10, tying him for 10th most top 10 appearances all time with several players including Waselenchuk, Sudsy Monchik, and Ruben Gonzalez, who finished 16th this season just a couple months short of his 60th birthday.

Tony Carson finished in the top 10 for the first time in his career, as he came in at #9 one ahead of Pratt, who was 9th last year.

Finally, Rocky Carson is now 3rd all time in most appearances in IRT season ending top 10s, as he been there 13 times. Beltran has moved up to 6th on that list with 10 seasons of top 10 finishes. Cliff Swain has finished in the IRT top 10 more than any other player. He did it 20 times. Jason Mannino is second with 15 top 10s.

IRT Rankings - 15 June 2012

Rank - Player - Points

1 Kane WASELENCHUK 4200
2 Rocky CARSON 3428
3 Jose ROJAS 2715
4 Ben CROFT 2588
5 Alvaro BELTRAN 2503
6 Chris CROWTHER 2280
7 Shane VANDERSON 2085
8 Andy HAWTHORNE 1890
9 Tony CARSON 1560
10 Charlie PRATT 1515

11 Javier MORENO 1385
12 Anthony HERRERA 1208
13 Juan HERRERA 785
14 Brad SCHOPIERAY 765
15 Alejandro LANDA 745
16 Ruben GONZALEZ 728
17 Polo GUTIERREZ 548
18 Arthur SCHMEISER 515
19 Daniel DE LA ROSA 504
20 Taylor KNOTH 428

Follow the bouncing ball....

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