WPH Press, Salem, OR
Handball was back in Oregon, as the Courthouse Athletic Club in Salem played host to the 2021 Oregon State Championships on the second weekend in June. The Men’s Open singles field was headlined by defending Oregon State champion Dalton Beall (2019 Oregon State Championships WPH recap HERE), who was seeking his ninth consecutive state singles title in the Beaver State. Beall faced one of the strongest fields in the history of the Oregon State Championships, as the best players from the Pacific Northwest and California were seeking to end Beall’s dominant run.
Beall cruised to the semifinals in the upper bracket with comfortable victories against Dan Murphy and Bob Herrera. The upper bracket semifinals pitted Beall against Loren Collado, one of California’s rising stars. Collado dominated game one and appeared to be on the verge of spoiling Beall’s quest for number nine, standing just two points from the upset, but Beall survived and dominated the tiebreaker to advance to the final.
California’s silky smooth Erik Torres entered the event as the number two seed and cruised to the final without dropping a game, including an impressive two-game sweep against multiple-time Oregon State Championship finalist Cody Townsend in the bottom bracket semifinals.
Torres continued to dominate in the final, dropping Beall by a combined score of 42-17 and emphatically announcing himself as one of the west coast’s brightest stars.
“Erik was in terrific shape and playing incredibly well,” stated WPH reporter Nick Flores.
Semifinals
Beall def L. Collado 9-21, 21-19, 11-5
Torres def Townsend 21-16, 21-13
Final: Torres def Beall 21-3, 21-14
2021 Oregon State Championships Men’s Open Singles draw HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer