Jonathan Roman is headed back to State with a different partner. Chris Reimer is headed back for a different game.
Next week’s Class 5A State tennis tournament in Topeka will be a new spin on a familiar trip for both members of Emporia High’s No. 1 doubles team. Reimer and Roman qualified for State during Thursday’s Regional at EHS, finishing in fourth place in the 16-team doubles tournament. With the top four finishers in both the singles and doubles brackets qualifying for State, Reimer/Roman sealed their spot with their quarterfinal 6-4, 7-5 victory over Chris Arpin and Kyle Fox of Salina South.
Despite both players showing visible frustration during some unforced errors in that quarterfinal match, especially early, the third-seeded Reimer/Roman duo played well enough to win, bolstered by some powerful finishes by Roman at the net and Reimer’s grit in staying with some difficult shots toward the back.
“When (we were) hitting with the wind, we needed to be more aggressive,” Reimer said. “We were trying to make them make mistakes instead of us trying to hit our shots. So pretty much the key was going out and playing like we should play, instead of being timid — which, we started playing like we should the second set, halfway through.”
Reimer and Roman won their first round match easily over the 14th-seeded team, Seaman’s Justin Arredondo and Josh Neiman, by scores of 6-2, 6-0. They went on to lose in the semifinals to Salina Central’s Craig Knox and Will Exline, 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, then dropped the third-place match to Michael Etheridge and Chris Lund, another Central duo. Reimer/Roman won the first set 7-6, then lost the next two 6-2 and 6-3.
Reimer went to State last year as a singles player, finishing seventh, while Roman went there last year as a doubles entrant with Brandon Heavener, earning an eighth-place finish. Roman said he’s meshed pretty well with his new partner.
“He’s a little more single-minded than I am, so sometimes he tries to play more singles and hit it out, instead of getting to the net,” Roman said. “Because in doubles, if you have one back, one up, and the other two have two up, then it makes it harder.
“But we’ve adapted. We’ve both gotten better, and we’ve learned each other’s weaknesses, and we’re talking more. In the beginning, we didn’t talk at all, and now we’re talking a lot more, and (being) way more aggressive.”
Saul Trujillo and Austin Heavener competed in singles action for EHS in Thursday’s Regional. Trujillo won his first match against Highland Park’s Nick Campfield, 6-2, 6-0, before a loss to Spencer Brass of Salina Central, 6-0, 6-0, ended his season. Heavener dropped his opening match to Salina South’s Zach Lantz, 6-0, 6-1. Hayden Hanson and Zach Windsor competed in doubles action, losing their first match to Salina South’s Adam Robl and Chris Garcia, 6-3, 6-3.
Emporia earned six team points to finish sixth out of seven teams at the Regional. Salina Central won the team title with 12 points. The Regional singles title went to Seaman’s Steven Fletcher; Topeka West’s team of Andrew Davids and Garrett Gunn took the doubles crown.
The Class 5A state tennis meet will be held next Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16, at Topeka’s Kossover Tennis Center.