Boys tennis competes in two junior varsity meets

On Monday, April 5 and Thursday, April 8, the junior varsity boys tennis teams competed. The first meet took place in Garden City, and the second took place in Liberal.

The first meet included sophomore Tony Arial, sophomore Cade Becker, sophomore Alex Li, freshman Will Linenberger, freshman Carson Riat and freshman Connor Stanton. The teams who participated were Cimarron, Colby, Dodge City, Garden City, Garden City Extra, Goodland, Great Bend, Hays and Liberal.

Stanton and Riat participated in the No. 1 doubles and did not win a match. They ended in eighth.

No. 2 doubles featured Becker and Arial, who beat Colby but lost to the rest of their competitors. They ended up earning fourth in the bracket.

No. 1 singles were by Linenberger, who won against Colby but lost the rest of his matches against Great Bend and Goodland. Linenberger finished in fourth place in the No. 1 singles bracket.

No. 2 singles were played by Li, who got a bye in the first round, but did not end up winning any games.

“[Becker and Arial] played some difficult teams, and then Alex got a bye the very first match,” assistant coach Karli Beck said. “This put him into the bracket. Carson and Connor played well together, and all their matches were really close. Sadly, they did not pull out a win.”

Hays got fifth for the entire meet. Garden City, Goodland and Great Bend finished first, second and third respectively.

The second meet included junior Ryan Schuckman, junior Jonathan Tate, sophomore Logan Chance, sophomore Jack Scoby, freshman Xavier Catura and freshman Logan Schmidt. This meet included a mixture of varsity and JV players but was a designated JV meet.

The No. 1 doubles with Scoby and Tate ended with last place in their bracket. They were beat by Scott City (0-6), Dodge City (5-6), Colby (1-6) and Liberal (6-2). They lost each game, ending 0-4.

The No. 2 team of doubles, Chance and Schmidt, ended with second place. They lost one match against Scott City (0-6), but won the rest against Colby (6-1), Liberal (6-2) and Garden City (6-5).

“Logan Chance and Logan Schmidt went four and one,” head coach Kayla Brown said. “They played really well together and had some good matches but seem to play pretty tough. You are never going to be made when bringing home some medals.”

The No. 1 singles were played by Schuckman. Schuckman won against Dodge City (6-1) and Garden City (6-4) and got a bye against Colby. He then lost to Scott City (5-6) and Liberal (5-6).

Catura beat Garden City (6-2), Colby (6-2) and Scott City (6-3), but lost to Dodge City (4-6) and Liberal (5-6) in the No. 2 singles. He ended with second place in his bracket.

Hays ended in fourth within the entire meet at Liberal.

“Last Thursday went really well,” Brown said. “Singles players played well, and both of them went three and two. Ryan got third mainly because of some tough tiebreakers.