Republic’s tennis squad beat the rain, and beat just about everything else their opponents threw at them on the court Friday, dominating their home tournament to capture the championship. Republic won three of the four brackets, and finished second in the fourth.
After playing at #2 singles for most of the year, Dylan Mackey stepped up to the #1 singles flight and finished as the runner-up. Along the way, Mackey beat the #2 ranked player from Greenwood and the #1 ranked player from Carl Junction before losing a competitive match to Gustavo Garcia, the top player from Neosho, 8-5.
Brett Carpenter, who joined the varsity squad midway through the season, continued to excel. He won the #2 singles bracket, winning all his matches easily. He didn’t lose more than four games in any of his matches.
Case Birlew and Hunter Creek won the top doubles championship. They beat a tough Greenwood team 8-3 in the finals to win the bracket.
Logan Elder and Austin Massey, paired up only a couple weeks ago, won the #2 doubles bracket. After a rough start (they lost three of their first four games to Clever), they recovered to advance with a 6-4 win in the opener, then knocked off teams from Forsyth and Neosho.
Overall, Republic won 11 of 12 matches on the day.
Overall team results (lowest score wins):
- Republic- 5 pts
- Neosho- 11 pts
- Greenwood-17 pts
- Forsyth- 18 pts
- Carl Junction- 19 pts
- Carthage- 22 pts
- Clever- 23 pts
- Webb City- 28 pts
The tournament victory came a day after Republic lost a tough match against Ozark as part of a dual double-header. After beating Neosho 8-1, Republic fell to Ozark 5-4. In that dual, Republic lost two singles matches in tiebreakers, and those two losses made the difference.
Republic vs Ozark (Dual)
Varsity singles
Case Birlew d. Jordan Gamgemi 8-4
Dylan Mackey d. Tate Mahnken 8-6
Hunter Creek v. Cade Chrastina 8-9 (5-7)
Brett Carpenter v. Brock Meyer 8-9 (5-7)
Austin Massey d. Trace Sederwall 8-1
Logan Elder d. Noah Burgess 8-6
Varsity Doubles
Birlew/Creek v. Gangemi/Chrastina 7-9
Mackey/Carpenter v. Mahnken/Burgess 4-8
Massey/Logan v. Meyers/Sederwall 6-8
Republic vs Neosho (Dual)
Varsity Singles
Case Birlew v. Gustavo Garcia 2-8
Dylan Mackey d. Van Cope 8-3
Hunter Creek d. Dylan Thompson 8-1
Brett Carpenter d. Ian Cooley 8-5
Austin Massey d. Spencer Vansickle 8-1
Logan Elder d. Christian Bynum 8-2
Varsity Doubles
Birlew/Creek d. Garcia/Thompson 8-3
Mackey/Carpenter d. Cope/Bynum 8-4
Massey/Elder d. Cooley/Vansickle 9-7
Republic JV d. Neosho JV 5-0
