Team Standings:

1. Red Oak 21
2. Glenwood 16
3. Atlantic 15
T4. Shenandoah 11
T4. Harlan 11
T6. Clarinda 2
T6. Corning 2
8. Audubon 0

Singles —

Championship Pete Walker 10 (RO) over Nate Ohms 11 (Harlan) 6-0, 6-2  (Both advance to State Tournament)

Consolation Grant Stivers 11 (Glenwood) over Matt Goracke 12 (RO) 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8)

Doubles —

Championship Mitch Leiferman 11/Derek Tjepkes 12 (Atlantic) over Grant Nikseresht 12/Dillon Stane 12 (Glenwood) 6-0, 6-4  (Both teams advance to State Tournament)

Consolation Craig White 11/Jordan Nelson 9 (Red Oak) over Jeff Armstrong 12/Adam Heslinga 12 (Shenandoah) 6-2, 6-3

Atlantic Results:

Singles —

1st Round Noah Welter 10 (A) lost to Trent Turney 11 (Shenandoah) 6-4, 7-5
1st Round Matt Cook 11 (A) lost to Scott King 11 (Glenwood) 6-0, 6-1

Doubles —

Tjepkes/Leiferman —

1st Round Leiferman/Tjepkes over Tyler Steeve 11/Jeremiah Haug 11 (Clarinda) 6-3, 6-0
2nd Round Leiferman/Tjepkes over Jacob Petsche 9/Austin Euchner 11 (Harlan) 6-2, 6-0
Semifinals Leiferman/Tjepkes over Armstrong/Heslinga (Shenandoah) 6-4, 6-2
Championship Leiferman/Tjepkes over Nikseresht/Stane (Glenwood) 6-0, 6-4

Fischer/Welter —

1st Round Tyler Fischer 10/Rob Nichols 11 (A) over Riley Jensen 11/Kolton Jensen 10 (Audubon) 6-3, 6-3
2nd Round Fischer/Nichols lost to White/Nelson (Red Oak) 6-1, 6-1

Comments —

A tremendous day for the boys — our goals were to advance out of district play as a team, and we did that; another goal was to get Mitch and Derek to State — to win the championship was icing on the cake — the doubles draw was loaded, so to win it was a great accomplishment for Mitch and Derek.  I thought going in that to advance as a team, Derek and Mitch would probably need to win it all, and we would need at least one more win somewhere, if not two, to advance — Mitch and Derek did their part, and Tyler and Rob got a big win for us as well; Noah had a chance to win, but fought hard and came up a little short against a much more experienced player from Shen; Matt played well in defeat, kind of running into a buzzsaw in King, who played lights-out for Glenwood.

Mitch/Derek got the #2 seed going in, even though I thought they deserved the top seed; however, it all played out in the end, and they got their shot at the guys voted #1 in the final; both guys played very well, especially Mitch, who served big and really grinded from the baseline and at the net; Derek was his usual steady self, and the two played really solid, smart doubles tennis all day.  They were down 4-1 in the semifinal, before reeling off 8 straight games to take control of the match.  In the final, they got off to a fast start, breaking Glenwood in the first game and really never looked back.

This is the third consecutive year that Tjepkes has qualified for State in doubles, with three different partners; Mitch makes his first appearance at State.

Atlantic now travels to Glenwood on Tuesday to take on the Rams in a preliminary Sub-State match dual; the winner advances to Sub-State at Harlan vs. the winner of the northern district, which was postponed on Thurday and will be made up on Friday.

The Singles and Doubles qualifiers will compete at the State Tournament in Waterloo May 27-28.