2024 Colorado 3-Wall State Doubles Tournament-
Boulder, CO, WPH Press, 8/11/24
The Colorado Handball Association and the East Boulder Rec. Center 3-Wall Handball Courts played host to the 2024 Colorado 3-Wall State Doubles Tournament, featuring 53 players from Colorado, Maryland, Florida, Wyoming, and California.
The Open Doubles finals featured seven teams, including defending CO State 3-Wall doubles champions Luis Perez and Aaron Therkildsen and Race 4 Eight pro John Chapman and former SR48 pro George Repine.
The defending champions were upset in two-games in the semifinal against Team Gutierrez, while Chapman and Repine swept CJ Laffey and Armando Ibarra, Jr. to meet the defending champions in the final. “CJ was mostly playing up front and we just tried to keep the ball deep to avoid his crazy power,” stated Chapman.
Having advanced to the semifinal of the AZ State Championships at the end of July and nearly upsetting the “Big Game Hunter” Leo Canales (HERE), Chapman continued his stellar play in Boulder, leading his team to the CO State title.
“George and I played a great tournament and had some extra motivation to get back to the top after taking second last year,” stated Chapman. “Jon and Eli (Gutierrez) were playing solid and just had a good win against last year’s champ Luis and Aaron. We were able to get a lot of great serves and keep them off-balance the first game and got it pretty quick. But they came back with a strong comeback late in the second but George and I were just playing really well together, didn’t make many mistakes, kept the ball deep and capitalized on our setups.”
Final: Team Chapman/Repine def Team Gutierrez 21-5, 21-15
Thank you to John Chapman for the recap from Boulder.
Photos courtesy of John Chapman
Follow all of the draws from the 2024 Colorado 3-Wall State Doubles Tournament HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer