Gold and silver medal winner Mary Lou Faraus .
Jim Furaus
October and November were busy months for Pickleball. In September the Arizona Senior Olympics were held in Surprise. This was a qualification tournament to determine contestants for the National Senior Olympics next July in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contestants must win a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal in their event to qualify for the National Tournament. Mary Lou Furaus qualified for three events. She won a Gold Medal in the Women’s 70 plus Singles and another Gold Medal in the 70 plus Women’s Doubles with her partner Bev Youngren from Happy Trails. She also won a Silver Medal in the 65 plus Mixed Doubles with Rick Reed from here in PebbleCreek. Earlier in the year she also qualified to play in two events in Racquetball at the National Senior Olympics by winning Gold Medals in Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles in the Arizona venue.
In November the USAPA National Tournament was held at Sun City Festival in Buckeye. There were more than 800 participants from all over the USA. She won a Bronze Medal in the 70 plus Women’s Doubles with Bev Youngren, but perhaps her biggest thrill was winning a Silver Medal in the 70 plus Women’s Singles. She met the number two seed Diane Keller from New York in her first match and lost in a tiebreaker, 12 to 10, 3 to 11, and 11 to 5. Because it was a double elimination tournament, Mary Lou had to win three matches to play for a medal and four matches to play in the Gold Medal match. She won all four of those matches, including a big win over Pat Carroll from San Diego, the number one seed who has dominated women’s Pickleball in her age group for many years. The Gold Medal Match was now a rematch with the lady from New York, Diane Keller. Mary Lou made her work for her win, losing 11 to 7, 11 to 7. It was the last match of the late evening and fun to watch. Diane was a gracious winner and told Mary Lou that she enjoyed competing with her.