Hillsboro fourth at first home tourney

Paced by their performances in singles, the Hillsboro tennis team finished fourth among seven teams at the Hillsboro Invita?tional Thursday at the Sports Complex.

The tournament was delayed briefly by rain. By the end of the evening, Sterling emerged as the winning team with 58 points, edging Conway Spring by one point and Hutch?inson Trinity by four. Hillsboro followed with 46 points, Smoky Valley 29, Circle 21 and Chap?man with 13.

?For having four of our six varsity guys being sophomores, the guys competed very well,? coach Stuart Holmes said.

Junior Grant Shewey placed second in No. 1 singles and senior Jarod Hamm third in No. 2 singles.

Shewey defeated Greg Rader of Chapman 8-2 and Ross Ras?mussen of Conway Springs 8-5 before losing 8-1 to Jordan Stewart of Sterling in the title match. Rasmussen had defeated Shewey a week earlier.

Hamm shut out David Prosch 8-0 in the first round, then lost 8-3 to Eric Banning of Trinity before coming back to beat Shane Wheeler of Sterling 8-1 in the third-place match.

In doubles, the Trojans? No. 1 team of Harry Faber and Daniel Gray placed fourth. They beat Keating and Kern of Chapman 8-5 in the first round, then lost to Banning and Lindt of Trinity 8-2 and Cullop and Fair of Sterling 8-2.

?They got some great experience playing against some of the top doubles teams in the state,? Holmes said.

In No. 2 doubles, Jeff Pritch?ard and Tyler Funk lost their opening match to Ohl and Thi?bault of Trinity 8-0, then beat Schneider and Hemmer of Smoky Valley 8-6 and Hughes and Terry of Chapman 8-1 for fifth place.

At Lindsborg?Hillsboro finished fourth among eight teams at the Ron Dahlsten Tennis Classic hosted by Smoky Valley April 5.

The Trojans managed 18 points to trail Smoky Valley Orange with 48, Hesston with 47 and Abilene with 25. Pratt took fifth with 15, followed by Wichita Collegiate 9, Smoky Valley Black 6 and Concordia 5.

Grant Shewey finished fifth in a format that featured one singles bracket and one doubles bracket. The junior defeated Lian Kahmeyer of Pratt 8-5, lost in a tie-breaker to Conner Chambers of Smoky Valley Black 8-6, defeated teammate Jarod Hamm 8-4 and defeated LeFevre of Hesston 8-6.

Before his match with Shewey, Hamm defeated Kay?man Anderson of Abilene 8-6, then lost to the eventual champion, Quinn Dippel of Smoky Valley Orange, 8-1. Hamm finished with an 8-3 win over defeated Thomas Mayberry of Pratt for seventh place.

In doubles, Harry Faber and Daniel Gray rallied from an opening-round 8-7 tie-breaker loss to VanRanken and DeWitt of Smoky Valley Orange to beat Hullman and Schotte of Pratt 8-4, Pihl and Suppes of Smoky Valley Black 8-4 and Dunlap and Kyowski of Abilene 8-7 to capture ninth.

The Trojan team of Jeff Pritchard and Nodari Lomidze lost 8-0 to eventual champions Nelson and Howard-Talbott of Smoky Valley Orange, then lost 8-0 to Dunlap and Kyowski, and 6-5 to Hemmer and Schneider of Smoky Valley Black.

Coming?Hillsboro was schedule to compete at its Trojan Invitational Tuesday, then to play Thursday at Circle.

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