Cody Elkins reaches Junior Nationals semifinals after near-scratch entry

Cody Elkins nearly talked himself out of the USA Racquetball Junior National Championships, then left Des Moines as a semifinalist in the tournament’s deepest boys’ bracket. In the 21-and-under Gold Division at the Wellmark YMCA, Elkins reached the final four and finished alongside DJ Mendoza after their semifinal match, a result that put him in All-American territory and changed the way the weekend reads for his season.

That matters because Junior Nationals is not a side stop on the calendar. USA Racquetball calls it the sport’s most important annual event for young players, and the 2026 edition ran June 24-28 with singles and doubles divisions from 8-and-under through 21-and-under. The top finishers can move on to Team USA and international competition, and the semifinal line carries extra weight: under USA Racquetball’s junior criteria, singles semifinalists earn All-American status. Elkins did not just survive a difficult draw. He reached the stage that separates good junior results from nationally recognized ones.

The matchup with Mendoza was as close on paper as it was on the rankings page. The International Racquetball Tour listed Mendoza at No. 26 in men’s singles with 294 points and Elkins at No. 27 with 290, a four-point gap that underscored how even the pairing was entering Des Moines. Mendoza also brought recent pedigree into the bracket, having won 21-and-under boys singles at the 2025 Junior National Championships. Elkins still put himself in semifinal company against one of the division’s benchmark players, which is the kind of result that can reset expectations fast in junior racquetball.

Elkins’ broader profile makes the run even more relevant. He is a sophomore psychology major at Santa Clara University and has been ranked as high as 25th this year. His father, Brett Elkins, remains active in senior-level racquetball, giving Cody a direct line to the sport’s competitive and logistical grind. That matters in a junior game where progress is measured not just by shot-making, but by the ability to keep showing up, traveling, training and beating players who have already proven they belong.

Des Moines has become a familiar stage for USA Racquetball, which has repeatedly used the Wellmark YMCA for national and junior events in recent years, including the 2018 National Junior Olympic Championships and the 2022 USA Racquetball National Junior Championships. Elkins nearly missed this one altogether. Instead, he turned a last-minute entry into a semifinal run that places him squarely in the next tier of American junior talent.