Wind, strong field knock EHS girls tennis around
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Monday, September 18, 2006
High winds did little to help the Emporia High girls tennis team Saturday when it played host to its home invitational, as the Spartans finished sixth in the six team-field with just five points.
With wind gusts of up to 50 mph, the best finish the Spartans could muster were two fourth-place showings from the No. 1 doubles team of Rachael Bachman and Emilia Chiroy and the No. 2 doubles team of McKenzie Cinelli and Sarah Watkins.
With each team playing five matches in the round-robin tournament, Bachman and Chiroy opened play with an 8-6 win over the team from Maize. The team from Olathe East handed Bachman and Chiroy an 8-6 loss in the second match, before the duo came back to beat the Hutchinson team by yet another score of 8-6.
However, Bachman and Chiroy lost back-to-back matches to McPherson (8-4) and Salina Central (8-3) to close out the tournament.
Cinelli and Watkins opened the tournament with an 8-5 loss to Maize before rattling off two wins over Olathe East (8-6) and Hutchinson (8-1). Cinelli and Watkins nearly broke through in the fourth match against McPherson but fell in a tiebreaker 8-7(7-3). Salina Central finished the tournament with an 8-3 victory over Cinelli and Watkins.
In singles action, EHS No. 1 Hallie Kretsinger finished fifth, with her lone victory coming over Kathy House of McPherson in the fourth match.
No. 2 singles player Jennifer Newell came in sixth after losing all five of her matches, the closest being an 8-3 decision to Christie Clark of McPherson.
Salina Central won the team title with 17 points.
Spartan harriers take on strong field in Missouri
The Emporia High cross country team traveled to Joplin, Mo., Saturday to take on the field at the Missouri Southern Stampede.
The Spartan girls finished seventh out of 30 teams, led by junior Michaela Reynolds’ second-place finish in a time of 18 minutes, 37.2 seconds.
Reynolds battled with Eudora’s Brittney Graff for the lead throughout the entire race before Graff edged ahead over the last mile to win in a time of 18:31.3. The is the third consecutive meet Reynolds has finished second.
Following Reynolds was Jenna Stanbrough in 33rd (20:20.5), Layne Moore in 49th (20:46.1) and Heather Coe in 50th (20:49.2). Rounding out the field for the Emporia High girls was Kelsey Camien (86, 21:25.9), Abby Lake (148, 22:39) and Tanya Morales (212, 23:54).
Olathe East won the girls title with 139 points, while EHS finished with 210 points.
On the boys side, Asher Delmott continued to lead to way for the Spartans, as the junior finished the 5-kilometer course in a time of 16:50.9 to come in 25th overall. Mike Robinson (17:26.2) and Ryan Parks (17:26.7) were 59th and 60th, respectively, while Tyler Anliker (70, 17:36.5), Jacob Davies (94, 18:03.4), Andrew Wayman (101, 18:11.6) and Lance Sadler (114, 18:24.1) completed the field for the Spartans.
Josh Mathis of Potosi (Mo.) High School won the individual title in a time of 15:10.5 to help Potosi take home the team title with 37 points, 125 points ahead of second-place Blue Springs (Mo.) High School. The Emporia High boys finished 11th with 293 points.
“The competition was outstanding and should prepare us well for the upcoming Rim Rock Invitational and state meet at the end of the season,” EHS coach Mark Stanbrough said. “Both teams competed well against top teams from Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.”
The next action for the Spartans is this Saturday, as EHS heads back out on the road, this time to St. Louis for the Hancock Invitational.