Othello dominates doubles at district tournament
SELAH, Wash. — The Othello boys and girls doubles teams rebounded from a pair of runner-up finishes at the Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) sub-district tournaments May 18 to claim district titles over the weekend.
The Othello boys doubles team of Sam Harris and Taylor Petersen rectified a loss to Selah’s Kevin Bertelsen and Devin Teske at last week’s CWAC North sub-district meet in Ephrata in Saturday’s final.
Harris and Petersen managed to jump on Bertelsen and Teske early and the Huskies cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory on their way to the district championship.
With the CWAC title under their belts, Harris and Petersen advanced to the state tournament and will take on Sehome junior William Giller and senior Micah Koenig in the first round at the state tournament in the Nordstrom Tennis Center at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Othello continued to dominate doubles competition when Jadee Roylance and Jessy Schmidt overcame an early first-set loss (6-4) to rebound and knock off East Valley’s Jamie Miller and Kayla Davis to claim Othello’s second district doubles championship of the weekend.
Roylance and Schmidt will meet seniors Abby Ferrier and Justine White of W.F. West High School of Chehalis in the first round of the girls 2A state tournament at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Othello wasn’t the only school from the Columbia Basin to qualify athletes for the 2A state championships at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Ephrata’s Tyler Van Heusden earned a trip to the state tournament with a fourth-place finish at the district tournament.
Van Heusden rebounded from a first-round loss to Rogi Fajardo to battle his way through the consolation bracket and into the consolation final.
Van Heusden met Fajardo again Saturday, this time for the district’s third-fourth seed heading into state. Fajardo cruised past Van Heusden 6-2, 6-1, sending the Ephrata junior to the No. 4 seed.
Van Heusden will meet fellow junior Dustin McConnell of Clarkston in the first round at state.
The Quincy Jackrabbits doubles team of seniors Bonnie Knodell and Colleen Knodell overcame a first-round loss to Miller and Davis of East Valley to cruise to three straight wins to wrap up the No. 3 seed heading into the state tournament. Knodell and Knodell cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Prosser’s Karmina Markus and Haily Larson for third place.
Knodell and Knodell will meet fellow seniors Andrea d’Aquino and Anne d’Aquino of Squalicum in the first round.
The 2A state tennis tournament begins Friday afternoon at the Nordstom Tennis Center and concludes Saturday.
South Central Athletic Conference District Tennis Tournament
BENTON CITY — The Royal Knights girls tennis team will send senior Emily Hoelscher to the 1A state tennis tournament Friday at the Yakima Tennis Center in Yakima, Wash.
Hoelscher rolled through the South Central Athletic Conference district tournament over the weekend before falling to Italia Mengarelli of Granger 6-3, 6-2 for the district’s third-fourth seed to the state tournament.
Despite falling to Mengarelli in straight sets, Hoelscher still managed to become Royal’s lone state participant.
Hoelscher grabbed the district’s final state tournament berth and will face Overlake freshman Lana Robins in the first round Friday afternoon.
Royal’s Ben Singer was unable to qualify for the 1A boys state tournament following a 6-1, 7-6 (0) loss to senior Angel DeLeon of LaSalle High School.