WINFIELD – The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference held its annual flighted tennis tournament on Friday and Saturday and the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes came away with several Top 3 finishes in the event.
The KCAC Flighted Tournament sets up individuals to play a bracket style within their individual flights at 1 through 6 singles, and 1 through 3 doubles.
At No. 1 singles, Bryce Ware (SO/Amarillo, Texas) claimed third place as he opened beating Antonio Paredes of Sterling 8-2, then lost to Jose Catala Ortiz from Oklahoma Wesleyan 9-7. In the third place match he defeated Bethel’s Milan Bucek 8-2.
Alex Sherer (SO/Rossville, Kan.) claimed second place in the No. 2 singles flight. He opened with a 8-2 win over Zeke Mumford of Bethany, and beat Rodrigo Sanchez of Bethel 8-6 in the semifinals before losing to Daniel Marcano from McPherson 3-6, 6-3, 10-4 in the championship match.
At No. 3 singles Jacob Phelps (FR/Lawton, Okla.) went 1-1, losing to Tomas Quercio of Bethel in the quarterfinals, then defeating Clement Dardanie of Oklahoma Wesleyan in a consolation match.
At No. 4 singles, Garrison Wright (SO/Maize, Kan.) opened with a win over Damian Rosas of Bethel 9-8 in a tiebreaker, then beat McPherson’s Trey Murphy 9-7 in the semifinals. Wright would drop the championship match to JP Fort from Tabor in a three-set match 7-6, 0-6, 10-5.
Adam Hanson (FR/Edmond, Okla.) opened No. 5 singles action with a quarterfinal win over Milosh Stamatov of Evangel 8-1, but then lost to Santiago Mann of Southwestern 8-3 in the semifinal. He would claim third place in the flight, beating Richard Hoyte of Oklahoma Wesleyan 8-4.
Collin Phelps (FR/Salina, Kan.) won his quarterfinal match over Jordan Twenter of Bethel 9-7, but lost to Elvis Ghomsi of Tabor in the semifinal. Phelps would claim third place in the bracket, beating Even Senger from Oklahoma Wesleyan 9-8 in a tiebreak.
In doubles, the Coyotes had more medalists.
At No. 1, the team of Sherer and Ware opened with a 8-0 win over Antonio Paredes and Estaban Rocha of Sterling, and then beat Jose Catala Ortiz and Dardanie of Oklahoma Wesleyan 8-6 to reach the final. The duo would lose to Michael Beltran and Martin Millos of McPherson 8-5 in the final, claiming second place.
In No. 2 doubles, Craft and Wright dropped their first match to Federico Poi and Logan Engela of Southwestern 8-5. The duo then cam back and beat Hunter Lee and Zack Hash of Sterling 8-0, and Rodrigo Sanchez and Damian Rosas of Bethel 9-8.
No. 3 doubles saw Jacob Phelps and Adam Hanson open with an 8-0 win over Jaden Fox and James Menard of Bethel. They then lost a tight match with Santiago Marin and Vicente Tricio of Southwestern 9-7 in the semifinal before coming back to claim third place with an 8-4 win over Hoyte and Preston Callahan of Oklahoma Wesleyan.
The Coyotes will wrap up the fall schedule next weekend in the ITA Central Regional held at Maize South High School in Maize. The tournament is hosted by KWU, and was originally scheduled to be played at the new tennis facility in Salina, but it is not yet ready for competition.
