The stage is set for Wednesday and Thursday’s medal rounds as Day 2 of USA Games competition is complete. Check out this video below for a recap of Tuesday’s action, and keep on reading below for more information on pickleball and golf headed into the final days here in Minnesota.

Pickleball: Day 2 takeaways and medal round preview

Today was the final day of pickleball’s preliminary round, which officials have used to create groupings of similarly-skilled athletes for the medal rounds. I had the chance to meet a couple of those athletes during today’s action.

Team Missouri has the largest delegation for pickleball in its inaugural year at the USA Games, and much of that delegation comes from the same family. The Petterson family (parents Ken and Jennie and son Aidan) are all unified partners for the team.

Jennie Petterson has been paired up with Florica Gault, and the duo went undefeated in the unified female doubles round robin that took place over the course of the preliminary round. Meanwhile, Aidan Petterson has been paired up with Scott Larue. While Linda Wiederholt is the coach of this Missouri pickleball squad, she described Aidan as not only Scott’s partner but also his personal pickleball coach. I had the chance to speak with Aidan and Scott after their first match of the day:

I also met Team Virginia standout CJ Gallagher, who is undefeated in two different events, one with unified partner Robert Luk and the other with fellow Virginia athlete Dominick Powell. See my full interview with CJ below:

Gallagher landed in Division 1 for the medal rounds of each of his events. The officials aimed to use the divisions to match athletes of similar skill level. While this often led to teams with more wins landing in higher divisions, wins and losses were not the deciding factor in forming these groups. You can see the full divisions for all 3 events below.

Florica Gault and Jennie Petterson made the move from unified female doubles to male/mixed doubles in order to be matched up with similarly skilled duos. They’ll face off against two mixed doubles duos in their medal round tomorrow.

The unified doubles events will both wrap up tomorrow, with pairs of Special Olympics athletes teaming up for their doubles medal round on Thursday.

Below is the schedule for both of tomorrow’s events:

Unified Female Doubles (times in CDT)

• 10:00 AM: Price/Slayton (Arkansas) vs. Ximanies/Ximanies (Florida)
• 10:00 AM: Heflin/Osgood (Tennessee) vs. Rus/Bernick (Iowa)
• 12:00 PM: McDaniel/James (Missouri) vs. Price/Slayton (Arkansas)
• 12:00 PM: Rus/Bernick (Iowa) vs. Marez/Hinojosa (Texas)
• 2:00 PM: Ximanies/Ximanies (Florida) vs. McDaniel/James (Missouri)
• 2:00 PM: Heflin/Osgood (Tennessee) vs. Marez/Hinojosa (Texas)

Unified Male/Mixed Doubles (times in CDT)

• 9:00 AM: Gallagher/Luk (Virginia) vs. Eckart/Petterson (Missouri)
• 9:00 AM: Cannon/Wade (Arkansas) vs. Malone/Rapp (South Carolina)
• 9:00 AM: Habermann/Rasmussen (Iowa) vs. Fox/Dyson (Texas)
• 9:00 AM: Petterson/Larue (Missouri) vs. Wright/Rivers (Tennessee)
• 11:00 AM: Powell/Walker (Virginia) vs. Eckart/Petterson (Missouri)
• 11:00 AM: Gault/Petterson (Missouri) vs. Malone/Rapp (South Carolina)
• 11:00 AM: Stemm/Calixto (Florida) vs. Fox/Dyson (Texas)
• 11:00 AM: Upson/Ingram (South Carolina) vs. Petterson/Larue (Missouri)
• 1:00 PM: Gallagher/Luk (Virginia) vs. Powell/Walker (Virginia)
• 1:00 PM: Gault/Petterson (Missouri) vs. Cannon/Wade (Arkansas)
• 1:00 PM: Habermann/Rasmussen (Iowa) vs. Stemm/Calixto (Florida)
• 1:00 PM: Upson/Ingram (South Carolina) vs. Wright/Rivers (Tennessee)

Golf: Day 2 takeaways and medal round preview

Unfortunately for the golfers, rain stole the show at Victory Links Golf Course this afternoon. All outdoor activity at the National Sports Center (NSC) was suspended at 1:30 p.m., forcing all the Level 5 golfers to end their rounds early.

All four groups made it through around 50-70% of their round, but their scores from today were not counted as each group had completed a different number of holes. Scott Rohrer and Peyton Mattingly each made par on Hole 11 before their round ended in the middle of their time on the Par 5 12th hole.

With today’s round scratched, divisions for the medal rounds were entirely based upon scores from Monday. Those divisions, as well as the leaderboard for each are below:

Rohrer and Mattingly each have a strong lead over their groups, but the final medals will account for the golfers’ combined scores from Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Given that, there is plenty of time for Rohrer and Mattingly’s opponents to catch up. Divisions 2 and 3 will be an even tighter battle, as the three golfers in each of those divisions are within just two strokes of each other. Daniel Steele is no stranger to those tight battles since he is a member of STARS of the Spectrum Golf, the Flutie Foundation’s competitive and evenly matched golf tour.

While golfers have been split into the above divisions of three, the golfers will play with their Tuesday tee groups again on Wednesday. Those groups are as follows:

• Group #1 (10:00 tee time): Brett Geiger, Miles Stroud, Wake Mullins
• Group #2 (10:10 tee time): Zachary Duncan, Jeremiah Doane, Caleb DeMaio
• Group #3 (10:20 tee time): Scott Rohrer, Peyton Mattingly, Tyler Tolleson
• Group #4 (10:30 tee time): Daniel Steele, Garrett Stortz, Zachary Lewis

A delicious stop for lunch

Between stops at the NSC Sports Hall for pickleball and Victory Links for golf, I swung by the NSC Media Center to grab some lunch. I was excited to see that Jersey Mike’s subs were waiting for me. There is no better lunch for a Flutie Foundation reporter!

Despite the rain cutting it short, I really enjoyed my second day at the USA Games. I would like to thank Scott Larue and CJ Gallagher for taking the time to speak with me, as well as the coaching staffs for Team Missouri and Team Virginia for facilitating my interviews. I’d also like to thank the Flutie Foundation for making this entire journey possible.

Tomorrow’s coverage will look a little different. I’ll still have a brief update here on BostonSportsMania.com, but I’ll also be taking over the Flutie Foundation’s Instagram page. Follow along on @flutiefdn to get all the live updates from Day 3.