Ankeny junior Dylan Victor is headed to the boys’ state tennis tournament later this month.
Victor qualified with a second-place finish in singles at a Class 2A district tournament on Wednesday at Norwalk. He became the Hawks’ first state qualifier since Griffin Laib in 2017.
“I had a little bit of confidence based on the schools we were playing,” said Victor. “But I wasn’t really sure. In order to make it, I had to play my very best. We had never played any of those teams, so we weren’t sure how good they would be.”
Victor punched his ticket to state with a 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-1 victory over second-seeded Chris Wailes of Council Bluffs Lincoln in the semifinals.
“The match lasted three hours,” said Ankeny coach Ron Miller.
After dropping the second set, Victor said he began to play more aggressively in the third set.
“I also took advantage of the fact that my opponent was slowing down and seemed like he was giving up at the end,” Victor said. “I told myself that I’m absolutely not going to lose this match.”
Ankeny’s Garrett Weichers placed fourth in singles after losing to top-seeded Abhay Anil of Iowa City High in the semifinals. He then dropped a 7-6 (4), 6-4 decision to Wailes in the third-place match.
Victor lost to Anil in the finals, but still advanced to the state tournament that is slated for May 21-22 at Iowa City.
“After a long match, Dylan was out of gas and couldn’t put up the same Herculean effort against the very good Iowa City High player,” Miller said.
Both of Ankeny’s doubles teams won their first-round matches before losing in the quarterfinals. Will Bright and Jack Kehoe of Des Moines Roosevelt eventually defeated Adrian Bush and Braylon Stockwell of Norwalk to capture the doubles crown.
Ankeny Centennial competed in a district tournament at Mason City. The Jaguars got a fourth-place finish from the doubles team of Brayden Wellendorf and Nick Hiney, but had no state qualifiers for the first time since 2017.
Micah Flaherty of Fort Dodge beat Ben Smalley of Cedar Falls to win the singles title. The Mason City duo of Reed Kruger and Justin Yarahmadi defeated teammates Seth VandenBerg and Sander Tompkins in the doubles final.
The Jaguars will host Des Moines East in the opening round of a Class 2A substate team tournament on Friday. The winner will play at Sioux City North in the semifinals on Saturday.
Ankeny will face Indianola in the first round on Saturday at Cedar Rapids Washington. The winner will then play the host Warriors, who are ranked seventh, in the semifinals.
Here are the match-by-match results from both district tournaments:
At Norwalk
Singles
Dylan Victor received a bye; beat Michael Rothchild (Indianola), 6-1, 6-4; beat Chris Wailes (C.B. Lincoln), 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-1; lost to Abhay Anil (I.C. High), 6-0, 6-0.
Garrett Weichers received a bye; beat Drew Lents (Norwalk), 6-4, 6-4; lost to Abhay Anil (I.C. High), 6-0, 6-0; lost to Chris Wailes (C.B. Lincoln), 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Doubles
Cale Josten-Brody Hoefle beat Eli Chadwick-Justus Woell (Indianola), 6-3, 7-5; lost to Emmett Bottorff-Brendan Lestina (I.C. High), 6-3, 6-3.
Grady Schlosser-Treyton Riesberg beat Cooper Schaa-Atticus Walker (C.B. Lincoln), 6-3, 6-0; lost to Adrian Bush-Braylon Stockwell (Norwalk), 6-2, 6-1.
At Mason City
Singles
Jack Halverson beat Mason Reints (Waterloo West), 6-1, 6-1; lost to Luke Berger (Cedar Falls), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Luke Valerio-Garsow lost to Brendan Fitzhugh (Dallas Center-Grimes), 6-1, 6-1.
Doubles
Brayden Wellendorf-Nick Hiney received a bye; beat Bobby Dellit-Kainen Benedict (Waterloo West), 6-0, 6-0; lost to Seth VandenBerg-Sander Tompkins (Mason City), 6-2, 6-0; lost to Connor Heuthorst-Benjamin Young (Waterloo West), 6-4, 6-0.
Holden Smith-Andrew Law beat Tate Balkenende-Aidan Recker (Fort Dodge), 6-0, 6-0; lost to Connor Heuthorst-Benjamin Young (Waterloo West), 6-0, 6-2.