The Hillsboro boys’ tennis team competed in two varsity meets last week.
The team hosted its second home tournament last Tuesday and finished in a three-way tie for third place among six schools.
Wichita Trinity Academy won the team title with 50 points, followed by Pratt 40, Hesston, Hillsboro and Sacred Heart all with 20 and Neodesha 0.
In No. 1 singles, Jacob Isaac defeated Eli Peck of Neodesha, 8-1, then lost to Pratt’s Caden Donnenwerth, 8-0, and Blake Palen of Sacred Heart, 8-2, to finish fourth.
Ethan Plenert, playing No. 2 singles, defeated Neodesha’s Jon Garcia, 8-7 (7-5 tiebreaker), then lost to Pratt’s Jacob Brucks, 8-0, and Andrew Mosher of Pratt, 8-1, to finish fourth.
The No. 1 doubles team of Dylan Wiens and Dakota Klein also finished fourth. They lost to Pratt’s Kale Wilson and Chase Folkers, 8-5, then defeated Wyatt Reynolds and Brett Dick-Wolfe of Neodesha, 8-2, before losing to Cole Deutschendorf and Will Rizza of Hesston, 8-0.
Noah Bartel and Aidan Unruh, playing No. 2 doubles, also finished fourth. They beat Neodesha’s Jordan Lowe and Turner Jones, 8-0, then lost to Pratt’s Luis Garcia-Jimenez and Hogan Thompson, 8-3, and Ben Bollinger and Josh Leinbach of Hesston, 8-6.
Smoky Valley—The Trojans played a makeup tournament at Smoky Valley on Friday, rescheduled from April 3.
The field was not flighted, so Isaac and Unruh played in one singles division. Isaac lost his opener to Laurence Dahlsten of Smoky Valley, 8-3, and won his second match, 8-4, over Kale Wilson of Pratt. He then defeated Unruh, 8-4, before losing to Elijah Steffen of Concordia, 8-6, in the ninth-place match.
Unruh lost to Jase West of Abilene, 8-0, in his first match, defeated Chase Folkers of Pratt, 8-6, in his second match. After losing to Isaac, he won the 11th-place matchup, 8-3, over Smoky Valley’s Andrew Goodwin.
In doubles, Klein and Wiens lost to N. Reinert and J. Rauchholz of Smoky Valley, 8-0, and I. Bombardier and K. Grogan of Concordia, 8-6, before defeating Plenert and Henry Hein of Hillsboro, 8-0, and losing to A. Krichati and Q. Qaki of Wichita Collegiate, 8-4.
Plenert and Unruh lost to L. Fisher and C. Schiffner of Abilene, 8-0, F. Ross and O. Farhound of Collegiate, 8-0, and the Hillsboro pair to end ◼ See Tennis, Page #
the day.
Coming—The Trojans are scheduled to compete at the Hesston Invitational April 24, then will host the Central Kansas League tournament on their home court April 30. Matches are to begin at 9 a.m.
“Overall, the freshmen are continuing to learn and, I hope, improve,” coach Bob Woelk said. “The competition is tough, especially in these open formats with no No. 1 and No. 2 flights. They are paying their dues this year.
“I am trying different mixes with them in terms of singles and doubles opportunities as we look to the future,” he added. “And, they are getting better. We had some success at a junior varsity tournament Thursday at Hesston. They all picked up some wins.”
