Hagen leads HHS to third-place finish at home meet

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY STAFF
In their first shot at singles play this season, Michael Hagen and Jared Hefley fueled the Hillsboro High School tennis team to a third-place finish in the seven-team Trojan Invitational Thursday at the Sports Complex.



Hagen finished second in No. 1 singles, beating Kevin Arnhold of Hutch Trinity 8-0 and Jon Hecker of Circle 8-1 before losing to Christopher Schaubmayr of Chapman 2-8.



Coach Lonnie Isaac was pleased with Hagen?s play and said Schaubmayr, a foreign exchange student, should be a contender for the Class 4A state title.



Hefley, meanwhile, finished third in No. 2 singles, defeating Sean Dennard of Chapman 8-1, losing to Justin Laymon of Circle 7-8, then coming back to beat Nick Finecy, Hutch Trinity, 8-0.



The Trojans? No. 1 doubles team of Brandon Ratzlaff and Nick Unruh went 1-2 on the day, beating Breeden/LeClair of Greensburg 8-4 before falling 2-8 to Gerber/Lynn of Conway Springs and 6-8 to Dill/ Murphy of Chapman.



Caleb Dirks and Zach Unruh, the No. 2 doubles team, defeated Gumble/Harris of Hutch Trinity 8-4, then lost to Griffin/Sandbo, Smoky Valley, 3-8, and Dalbom/Hallocy, Conway Springs, 1-8.



To fill out the brackets for a full eight teams, Isaac played Adam Driggers in the No. 1 singles flite and Kaleb Borg and Jordan Woelk in No. 1 doubles.



Driggers lost to Dennis Matzen of Conway Springs 1-8 and Zane Wedel of Greensburg 6-8, then defeated Clancy O?Connor of Smoky Valley 8-3.



Borg/Woelk lost all three of their matches: 0-8 to Gerber/Lynn Conway Springs; 1-8 to Breeden/ LeClair, Greensburg, and 7-8 to Stucklik/Emerson, Circle.



Smoky Valley?Playing in perhaps their toughest tournament of the regular season, the Trojans finished in eighth place in the eight-team Smoky Valley Invitational April 4.



?They had some of the top 4A teams there, and a lot of state qualifiers in that group,? Isaac said.



The No. 1 doubles team of Michael Hagen and Jared Hefley earned the only Trojan wins on the day, finishing fifth among 15 doubles teams with a 3-1 record.



All the doubles and singles teams each played in one 16-team bracket rather than playing in two flites.



Hagen and Hefley defeated Regnier/Deal of Concordia 8-2, lost a tight match to Lunt/Dutoit of Pratt 7-8 after leading 7-4 at one point, defeated Alfaro/Jantz of Hesston 8-4, and defeated Boyd/Gaccions of Abilene 2-8.



The Trojans? other doubles team of Nick Unruh and Zach Unruh lost to Francisco/Jost of Collegiate 0-8 and to Yoder/Sullivan of Nickerson 4-8.



In singles play, Brandon Ratzlaff lost to Travis Emerson of Nickerson 2-8 and Eric Paxton of Collegiate 6-8. Adam Driggers lost to Brian Harvey of Pratt 0-8 and David Jones of Abilene 2-8.



On Thursday, the Trojans travel to a meet at Towanda. Matches begin at 3 p.m. by S

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