Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Liberty hosts second MACRC tourney at The Sports Racket
11/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Racquetball
Pablo Jaramillo, a junior who grew up playing tennis in Columbia and Mexico before his family moved to the United States, has made a successful transition to racquetball, as he showed in Liberty University's second Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Racquetball Conference (MACRC) tournament this past Friday through Sunday at The Sports Racket in Lynchburg.
"Juan Pablo did really well this weekend," said Flames senior David Schreck, who won the Division I singles White bracket of last year's USA Racquetball National Intercollegiate Championships in Tempe, Ariz. "Usually, I beat him, but he beat me in a tie-breaker (in the Level 1-2 Red division final)."
Jaramillo lost to Old Dominion University's Bradley Williams in the first round of Gold division play before defeating ODU's Sid Chowdhny in the semifinals of the Red bracket.
"He did very well," Flames Head Coach Danny Rodriguez said of Jaramillo. "He's moving up the ranks quickly. Last year, he played Level 3 and this year, he's playing Level 2, but we have combined the top two divisions in the first two tournaments, so he's actually playing against Level 1 players now."
Liberty senior Eric Piering, Schreck's doubles partner, placed third in the Red bracket, defeating Chowdhry in the consolation match.
Since the Flames did not have another Level 1-2 player available, Jaramillo teamed with Blue Ridge Community College's Max Nunez, the Gold bracket singles runner-up, to compete in a round-robin doubles bracket. That duo went undefeated, finishing 4-0 by sweeping Williams and Chowdhny in their final match.
"This is our first time playing together," Jaramillo said. "We're trying to learn from each other as well as trying to win. We won all four matches, but two went to tie-breakers. We played better in the final."
Liberty senior Ben Musick and junior Kolton White finished runner-up at Level 4 Gold doubles, falling to the UNC duo of Jackson McKenzie and Ken Fan in the final. Musick also placed second in the Level 4 Blue singles draw, dropping his final match to Nathan Thomas.
Flames sophomore Seth Jordan was the White bracket winner, defeating Harsha Malapati before teaming up with Jacob Simrell to place second in the Level 3 Gold doubles bracket.
Liberty Assistant Coach Shawn Furman won the coaches singles bracket, beating VMI coach Matthew Schwartzmann, before teaming up with Rodriguez to claim the coaches' doubles title.
Liberty's only female player currently in action, senior Morgan Drake, finished fourth, losing to Celine Barriere in the Level 2 women's singles playoff match, before pairing up with Barriere to place third in Level 3 women's doubles. The Lady Flames may have sophomore Sadie Abramowicz back from the knee surgery she had in May in time for their third MACRC home tournament, Nov. 20-22 at The Sports Racket, before North Carolina hosts the fourth and final conference event of the season in January.
"The competition was higher quality and we learned a lot so we'll be ready for our next tournament," Schreck said, noting teams from James Madison University and Virginia are expected to be in the field. "More DI and DII players will be coming next time and there should be about 80 players here."
