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Croft Captures First Top Level Pro Tournament

SALT LAKE CITY — It was an all HEAD Penn Final at this weekend’s International Racquetball Tour’s (IRT) event in Utah, where top players Ben Croft and Rocky Carson battled it out in the final. After a five game match that lasted two and a half hours, Croft prevailed to earn his first IRT Tier One tournament of his career with his HEAD Blackjack.

With the win, Croft becomes just the fourth player on the IRT to capture a tournament title in the past three years. Of that quartet, three of the players were swinging racquets from HEAD Penn during their tournament victories (Croft, Carson and Huczek). HEAD Penn’s Shane Vanderson also reached the semifinals in Salt Lake City, his best IRT tournament finish in more than a year.

Since exclusively using equipment from HEAD Penn Racquet Sports, Ben has climbed the rankings of the IRT to his current peak of No. 3. A regular in the Top 8 in 2009-10, Ben reached the semifinals in 11 Tier One events in 2010-2011. In the first seven events of the current season, Croft has reached the semifinals five times, including his pass through to the finals in Salt Lake City.

Croft earned IRT Rookie of the Year honors in 2007 and has been on a steady rise every since. During his college career at Colorado State University-Pueblo, Croft captured three National Intercollegiate Singles Titles and four National Intercollegiate Doubles Titles. He is a two time USA Racquetball National Doubles Champion and also the 2009 Pan American Games Doubles Champion. In 2010 Croft became a World Doubles Champion at the IRF World Racquetball Championships in Korea and helped capture the gold medal for Team USA.

To follow Carson, Croft and Vanderson through the rest of the IRT season, visit head.com/racquetball or facebook.com/headpennracquetball.

Posted on February 7, 2012
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