Ankeny junior Garrett Weichers is headed to the boys’ state tennis tournament for the second year in a row.
After qualifying in doubles with former teammate Dylan Victor last year, the top-seeded Weichers earned a runner-up finish in singles in a Class 2A district tournament on Saturday at Iowa City West. He will return to Iowa City for the state tournament on May 27-28.
“It was nice to get a good seed, but at the end of the day, you still have to go out there and win,” said Weichers. “There was no easy player in my path, and I really had to battle in my first two (matches). I was able to control my nerves and fight my way to state.”
After receiving a bye, Weichers posted a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Matthew Dockery-Jackson of Iowa City West in the quarterfinals. He then punched his ticket to state by defeating fourth-seeded Benjamin Young of Waterloo West, 7-5, 6-0, in the semifinals.
Weichers was hoping to add the district singles crown to the doubles title that he won with Victor a year ago, but it wasn’t meant to be. He dropped a 6-4, 6-0 decision in the final to sophomore Prabhas Gupta of Iowa City West, the No. 2 seed.
“I played my best tennis in the first set of the final, but given the heat and tough matches before, I think I ran out of gas toward the end,” Weichers said. “But overall, I couldn’t imagine a better moment than winning the state qualifying match point in front of my teammates and family supporting me. Last year it was doubles, and now I’m excited to have made it in singles as well.”
Ankeny’s Treyton Riesberg also competed in singles on Saturday. He lost in the opening round.
In doubles, the Hawks got first-round wins from both of their teams, including the duo of Perez Perez and Carter Garcia. They rallied from a one-set deficit to beat a Waterloo West squad, closing it out with a 17-15 victory in a marathon third-set super-tiebreaker.
Perez and Garcia then lost in the quarterfinals, and so did teammates Grady Schlosser and Michael Black. Schlosser and Black won the opening set against the fourth-seeded team from Cedar Rapids Kennedy, but the Cougars battled back to win a second-set tiebreaker and the ensuing super-tiebreaker.
Iowa City West went on to sweep the top two places in doubles.
Meanwhile, Ankeny Centennial competed in a district tournament at Mason City, where the Jaguars ran into some tough opponents from Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids Washington.
Owen George provided Centennial’s lone win of the day with a first-round victory in singles. He posted a 6-0, 6-3 triumph over Easton Minkoff of Fort Dodge.
Both Ankeny and Centennial will be back in action on Wednesday for Class 2A substate team play. The Hawks will play at Waukee Northwest in the semifinal round, while the Jaguars will play at Dowling Catholic.
Here are the match-by-match results from both of Saturday’s district tournaments:
At Iowa City West
Singles
Weichers (A) received a bye; beat Dockery-Jackson (ICW), 6-1, 6-1; beat Young (WW), 7-5, 6-0; lost to Gupta (ICW), 6-4, 6-0.
Riesberg (A) lost to Klein (CRK), 6-3, 6-0.
Doubles
Schlosser-Black (A) beat Salazar-Ahmed (DME), 6-0, 6-0; lost to Murray-Poggenklass (CRK), 2-6, 7-6 (2), 1-0 (8).
Perez-Garcia (A) beat Niedert-Ritter (WW), 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (15); lost to Bloomquist-Trovas (CRK), 6-1, 6-1.
At Mason City
Singles
George (AC) beat Minkoff (FD), 6-0, 6-3; lost to Berger (CF), 6-4, 7-6 (1).
Braun (AC) lost to Sparboe (CRW), 6-1, 7-5.
Doubles
R. Dickinson-Goff (AC) lost to Hardman-Wyckoff (CF), 6-0, 7-5.
Brazeau-Kolars (AC) lost to Slessor-Messenger (CRW), 6-2, 6-0.