"The Four Wall Game"
CALIFORNIA DUO CONTINUES
NPA DOUBLES DOMINATION
By LOU GIAMPETRONI
ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- Kelly Gelhaus had a different partner this
time but he still won his third straight National Paddleball Association
national doubles championship on April 23, 2006.
Gelhaus teamed with Todd Entrikin to easily handle Mike Wisniewski
and Mike Czabala, 21-8, 21-13, at the Old IM Building of the University
of Michigan.
Gelhaus, 35, and Entrikin, 25, both of Riverside, CA, didn’t
have much trouble with Wisniewski, 47, of Bay City, Mich., and
Czabala, 29, of Los Angeles.
Gelhaus, who lost his chance to win a third straight national
NPA singles title a month earlier, won the previous two doubles
championships with Steve Lerner, also of Riverside.
Entrikin was a fantastic replacement.
Gelhaus was his usual, dependable self -- despite just coming
off a grueling, three-game loss in the Seniors final to Andy Mitchell
and Don Kirkconnell.
Entrikin, who does power-washing of buildings and homes, got just
about everything on the right side thrown at him by his opponents.
And when he wasn’t doing that, he was covering on the left,
front side for Gelhaus. Wisniewski-Czabala just had great difficulty
scoring because of Entrikin.
And most of the time, he was scoring. A lot. On drives and quick
corner shots. The only thing he seems to lack in that department
is the almost incredible soft, corner shots of Gelhaus.
“He’s the quickest player I’ve ever seen,”
said Gelhaus.
Wisniewski and Czabala just never seemed to get comfortable and
probably hoped that the Seniors match had taken a lot out of Gelhaus.
It did but he recovered enough to carry his share of the offensive
load.
The first game saw both sides feeling each other out and just
trying to get some rhythm.
It was 3-0 for Gelhaus-Entrikin before Wisniewski-Czabala got
their first point.
Not much happened for a while with the score tied at 4. Then the
new champs ran off 10 unanswered points to take a 14-4 lead. That
was pretty much the outcome with Gelhaus-Entrikin outscoring their
foes, 7-4, the rest of the way.
The start of the second game was similar to the first. Wisniewski-Czabala
seemed to be stuck on 4 points for quite a while. The biggest
lead for the winners was 18-8 before a late flurry cut the margin
to 19-11. Both sides then scored two each to close out the match.
Afterward, Entrikin was referred to as a “great sub”
for Lerner but Gelhaus said: “He’s no sub. We’re
permanent.”
Entrikin said he has been playing paddleball about five years
and previously played a lot of racquetball “since I was 2.”
His father, Terry, was a top-level racquetballer for a number
of years.
Entrikin also found time to team up with Vince Carlone to win
the Men’s A championship earlier in the day. And he played
just about as magnificently in that one.