The Philomath High School boys and girls tennis teams qualified three singles players for state based on results of the Special District 2 Tournament Thursday and Friday at Salem Tennis & Swim Club.
Senior Bailey Bell, junior Adele Beckstead and senior Andrew Leonard all punched their tickets to next week’s 4A/3A/2A/1A Championships to be held May 23-25 at Oregon State University.
Bell fell short of winning the district singles title for a fourth straight year by falling to Marist Catholic freshman Whitney Hedden in the championship match, 6-3, 6-4. Bell advanced into the singles finale with 6-0, 6-0 wins over Junction City’s Simran Basi in the second round, Marist Catholic’s Gina Schroffner in the quarterfinals and Stayton’s Laina Atiyeh in the semifinals.
Beckstead posted wins of 6-0, 6-0 over Junction City’s Heidi Sanchez in the second round and followed with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Cascade’s Karson Shank in the quarters. That matched her up with Hedden in the semifinals, a 6-0, 6-0 loss. Beckstead regrouped for the third-place match, however, and took care of Stayton’s Atiyeh, 6-0, 6-1.
Leonard will be the lone representative for the boys at state this year with his performance in the singles competition. He defeated Cascade’s Yarell Alcanter, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round and then defeated Marist Catholic’s Sean Freepons in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. In the semis, he lost to Marist’s Alexander Ricketts, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to drop into the third-place match. There, he downed Marist’s Sam McLoughlin, 6-3, 6-4.
In other singles results for the girls, Megan Reese and Elise Reese had both advanced out of Monday’s preliminary matches but saw their tournaments come to an end in the second round Thursday with losses to Stayton opponents.
For the boys, Sawyer Ainsworth downed Cascade’s Andrew Suelzle in the second round, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 but in the quarterfinals ran into Marist’s McLoughlin, 6-0, 6-0. Jackson Rice played Marist’s Ricketts tough in the first set of a second-round match but ended up with a 7-6, 6-0 loss. Johnny Pickett downed Stayton’s Michael Goettsch in the second round, 6-4, 6-4, before being eliminated in the quarters by Marist’s EJ Roedl, 6-0, 6-0.
The top story out of the doubles matches was the comeback performance by Daniella Carlisle and Nadia Durski to win the consolation bracket. Carlisle and Durski stumbled in the first round earlier in the week but refocused for a strong finish. The pair defeated a Junction City pair before meeting another Philomath duo in the consolation semis — Maggie King and Clara Neville. Carlisle and Durski pulled out an 8-5 win and in the consolation finals, defeated Molalla’s Olivia Ehleringer and Macy Jones, 6-1, 6-3.
Lorelei Schell and Lucie Oster lost in the second round to a Stayton pair in a match stretched to three sets, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. King and Neville won their first consolation match over a Cascade pair before the loss to Carlisle and Durski. Lucy King and Logan Cook lost in the second round to a Marist Catholic team, 6-0, 6-0.
For the boys in doubles, Lane Schell and Gradin Fairbanks lost in the second round to opponents from Molalla, 7-6, 6-3. Jackson Holroyd and Osvaldo Garcia-Bazan lost in the second round as well with a loss to Marist opponents, 6-2, 6-0. Ethan Aynes and Owen Thomas and Nick Purcell and Ahren Harris both exited in the consolation bracket.
