Area Athletes Bring Home State Tennis Medals
Six of the seven area athletes from nckssports.com that made it to the 3-2-1A State Tennis Tournament at Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka brought home medals this weekend. In singles, Katherine Weiss of Sacred Heart took home the silver with a second place finish and Ashlyn Knight of Beloit finished in 10th place. Felis De La Cruz of Ellsworth also qualified for State, but went 0-2 on Friday to finish her season.In doubles, Gracie Riner and Leavie Riner of Osborne finished in 6th place at state, while Ellsworth's Inari Rippert and Calli Sheradin took home 10th place medals.
In the Singles bracket, Weiss had a first round bye and then beat fellow NCAA opponent Knight of Beloit in straight sets to advance to the quarters. She picked up a straight set win over de Carvalho of Wichita Collegiate to move to the semis where she went on to beat Holt of Larned. In the state championship match, Weiss fought hard, but fell short in three sets to Emma Mantovani of Wichita Collegiate, who won her third individual state title in her career. Weiss finished the season at 21-6.
Knight finished the weekend 4-3 and the season 18-10. She opened with a three-set tiebreak win over Pearce of Kingman in the first round before losing to Weiss of Sacred Heart. On the backside of the bracket, she picked up a 9-2 win over Koester of Conway Springs, then beat Brown of Sterling to move to the consolation quarters. In that round, she fell to Kramer of Marysville, but bounced back with a win over Russom of Phillipsburg to make the 9th place match. Knight ended the tournament with a loss to Rauchholz of Smoky Valley for 10th place.
The Riner sisters of Osborne had a first round bye and followed that with a three-set win over Winkler and Sprague of Marysville. In the quarterfinals, they lost in two sets to Albin and Kramer of Hesston, moving to the back side of the bracket. A 9-3 win over Rippert and Sheradin of Ellsworth put them into the consolation semis, where they won 9-1 over Latta and Vering of Marysville. In the 5th place match, they fell to Gaskill and Adams of Smoky Valley to finish in 6th place. They finished the year with a 19-4 record.
Rippert and Sheradin had a first round bye, then lost to Rowland and Wilson of Sterling in straight sets. On the back side of the bracket, they beat Laufenberg and Milburn of Ashland, then picked up a win over Armstrong and Metro of Central Plains before the loss to the Riners. From there, they won over Heline and Norberg of Smoky Valley to get to the 9th place match where they fell to May and Meyer of Conway Springs to finish 10th.
Full results for 3-2-1A State Tennis are at this link: 3-2-1A State Tennis @ Topeka