Local boys tennis players participated in the IHSAA state qualifying singles & doubles meets Wednesday.
At the 1A district in Decorah, the Aplington-Parkersburg doubles pair of Keegan Bolhuis/Tyler Wedeking placed third to become an alternate state tournament entry, defeating Elias Cakerice/Carson Laube of Grundy Center in the third place match.
“They started off really, really slow,” AP coach Dave Price says. “We did not look like a team that had earned the number one seed like we had earlier in the day. Kind of let those guys know that, and then they straightened things out. Won a second set, 6-4, and then got beaten in a tiebreaker, 10-7 against Decorah. And take nothing away from Decorah. They always have good teams. They always seem to kind of peak at the right time. Both of their teams now are in the finals playing each other as we’re talking. So proud of how the boys competed. Finishing third is something that no one wants to do after you’ve just lost the semifinal. Now you’ve got to go out and play. And I just told them, if you don’t get what you want, then you take the next best thing. And that’s the way your life’s going to be. You’re not going to get what you want all the time, but you still have a choice to make. Proud that they made the choice to go out and compete and get the third place.”
Decorah won both doubles semifinals. AP’s Jonah Carney/Noah Harbaugh and Grundy Center’s Kael Edwards/Michael Lange each fell in the quarterfinals. In singles, Kaidyn Purdy of AP and Evan Bingman of Grundy Center each lost in the quarterfinals. Sam Janssen of AP and Dayton Myers of Grundy Center each fell in the first round.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL competed at Columbus Catholic. In singles, Andyn White and Jerry Flores each fell in the first round. The doubles pairs of Keaton Gunderson/Jack Hindin and Nicholas Quasdorf/Noe Flores also fell in the first round.
In Pella, Iowa Falls-Alden’s Brayden Moestchen went 1-1, falling in the quarterfinals. Teammate Lane Madden bowed out in the first round. In doubles, Carson Allen/Keaton Mulford won their first match but fell in the quarterfinals, and Calvin Hutchinson/Cam Madden fell in the first round.
