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When Shreya Chandel shows up to the first day of her sophomore year at Amador Valley in a week, if anyone asks her if she did anything fun during the summer, she’s got a great answer.
She can answer that she went out and won a pair of national titles in racquetball.
Chandel took home titles in the USA Racquetball Junior National Championships during the last week in June at the University of Minnesota.
Chandel won the girls’ 14 and under singles title, then teamed with Ayan Sharma, also of Pleasanton, for the mixed doubles title. Finally, Chandel and Nyasa Gupta, another Pleasanton resident, finished second in the girls’ doubles bracket.
Sharma won the 14-and-under boys’ singles and teamed with Lucas Frost-Biskup of Omaha, Neb., to take the boys’ doubles, giving him three titles.
Chandel was the No. 3 seed in singles and battled the No. 4 seed Gupta in the finals, winning 15-10, 5-15, 11-9.
“It is always good to see so many junior players out there competing,” Chandel said of a possible resurgence of the sport that was huge globally in the 1980s. “The sport is really fun.”
She was introduced to the sport by her parents early on, but once COVID hit she switched to tennis and did not go back to racquetball until May of 2023.
A good student, Chandel uses her intelligence to master the game. That, combined with amazing court sense, is a tough combination to beat.
“I like a lot of wide angles and pinch-shots,” Chandel said. “I like to use my brain and hit it where the other person isn’t.”
Sharma rolled through his singles win, giving up only 13 points total in five matches. In doubles the duo of Sharma and Frost-Biskup gave up only 13 points in four matches. In the finals they beat Luke McCann and Michael Stempf 15-0, 15-5.
Next up for the winners will travel to the IRF World Junior Championships in December at Santon Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Mijatovic battles illness at Worlds
Apparently, there is something that can stop Foothill High junior-to-be Luka Mijatovic when it comes to swimming success – illness.
The 16-year-old Mijatovic was part of the “acute gastroenteritis” outbreak that hit the United States National Team in their pre-world aquatics training camp in Phuket, Thailand.
Saturday night (Sunday in Singapore) in what was the opening day of the swimming portion of 2025 World Aquatics Championship in Singapore.
Mijatovic was competing in the 400 freestyle heats, the youngest American male swimmer to do so since Michael Phelps in 2001.
Taking part in the fifth heat – featuring some of the top 400-free swimmers in the world – it was evident in the first 50 meters that Mijatovic was under duress, something confirmed by his mother via text after the race.
She texted that he had been hit since that Wednesday with a stomach virus.
Mijatovic was one of several U.S. swimmers affected. Torri Huske, Gretchen Walsh and Claire Weinstein – three of the top swimmers on the female team — were all affected as well, either being pulled from events or having their performances affected.
It was a tough way to end a year where Mijatovic won two more California Interscholastic Federation championships, and became a member of the U.S. Senior National team, earning his spot after finishing second in the 400 free 2025 National Championships.
There, he made the finals in four events, medaling in the 400 free with a time of 3:45.71.
But then again, as only a 16-year-old junior at Foothill, it is scary to see what he will accomplish.
Great season Luka and we look forward to seeing what you can do next year!
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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