The Great Gorilla Handball Tournament
Ft. Collins, CO, WPH Press, 2/4/18- The Fort Collins Handball Club proudly hosted the Great Gorilla Handball Tournament in Ft. Collins, CO on the first weekend on February, featuring WPH Race 4 Eight pros Sean Lenning, Killian Carroll, Luis Cordova, Daniel Cordova, Vic Perez, Ryan Pesch, and hometown favorite Jonathan Iglesias.
Race 4 Eight #4 pro and 5-time Race 4 Eight champion Sean Lenning entered the Great Gorilla Handball Tournament as the two-time defending champion but would face a stern test from R48 #9 Vic Perez en route to his quest for his third Gorilla title. Perez was in top form in the quarterfinals, dispatching R48 #6 Daniel Cordova and appeared to be on his way to his second upset of the day against Lenning. Perez defeated Lenning 21-20 in game one of their semifinal clash, but was unable to sustain his momentum, scoring just 12 points in the next two games. “Sean just got into his groove and turned it up after dropping game one,” stated Danos Cordova.
Seven-time R48 champion and R48 #1 Killian Carroll made his first trip to the Gorilla Open and cruised to the semifinals by ousting R48 top 30 pro Ryan Pesch and faced 2017 Player’s Championship finalist Luis Cordova in Saturday night’s semifinal. Cordova overcame hometown favorite Jonathan Iglesias in two close games to face Carroll for the fourth time in 10 months. Cordova bounced back from a two-game thrashing at the hands of Carroll in last week’s Red Death quarterfinals to push the R48 #1, but ultimately came up short in two competitive games. “I definitely played better today than last week,” stated Lucho. “I just need to play more consistently.”
Carroll and Lenning met for the second time in eight days and the third time since October in the Gorilla final. Carroll defeated the two-time Gorilla champion in two sensational games, ending “The Freak’s” Gorilla run and adding another title to his glistening resume, winning 21-10, 21-11.
“Sean put me under immense pressure with his awesome half-volley, two-wall corner kills, deep court kills and crazy hops in the rally,” stated Carroll. “Sean’s serve didn’t kick in, much due to a bit of fatigue with the altitude and sure would have been a different story (if he was fresher). I was certainly diving a lot more and pushing harder than usual. The scores didn’t reflect the match.”
“The match was fantastic!” stated top Colorado handball star Armando Ibarra. “The scores didn’t really show how the match went. It felt tight but Killian took over.”
Quarterfinals
Sean Lenning def Thomas Lyle 21-8, 21-3
Vic Perez def Daniel Cordova 15-21, 21-2, 11-2
Luis Cordova def Jonathan Iglesias 21-17, 21-14
Killian Carroll def Ryan Pesch 21-6, 21-11
Semifinals
Lenning def Perez 20-21, 21-6, 11-6
Carroll def L. Cordova 21-10, 21-17
Final: Carroll def Lenning 21-10, 21-11
3rd place final: L. Cordova def Perez 21-6, 16-21, 11-3
Thank you to Great Gorilla Handball Tournament Directors Dennis Madden, Terry Nett, Guy Arnesen, and the Fort Collins Handball Association for an incredible event.
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David Fink
WPH Senior Writer