Tennis finishes fifth at Chanute

CHANUTE -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team finished fifth out of seven schools here Friday at the Chanute Invitational.

This was a bracket-style tournament, rather than a round-robin. El Dorado was the winner with 22 points, edging out host Chanute by one point and third-place Paola by two. Iola was fourth with 19 points with Fort Scott fifth with 13.

The No. 2 doubles team of Joe Adams and Elijah Wright finished in third place. They played three Chanute entries as some of the teams did not bring No. 2 doubles teams.

Adams and Wright (17-6) defeated a Chanute "extra" team of Isaac Lewis/Kyle Hart, 8-1, in the first round. They lost to Scout Lee/Braden Frederick of the Chanute varsity, 8-6, in the semifinals. They defeated another Chanute extra team of Cam Dietsch/Kolby Ussery, 8-3, in the third-place match.

"Joe and Elijah bounced back after a shaky day at the (Labette County) Invitational with some better tennis in this tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "Overall they played some good tennis today. The loss was a close, one in a match that could have easily gone either way."

Alex Combs (10-13) finished fourth in No. 1 singles. He defeated Trey Kaston of Chanute in the first round, 8-3, was swept by Colby Works of Iola in the semifinals, 8-0, and lost to Kyle Thomas of El Dorado, 8-2, in the third-place match.

"Alex played some good tennis at times," Barr said. "Unfortunately he faced a couple of very good players in his two losses. He keeps improving and that is all we can ask for."

Jacob Bailey (3-14) was 1-2 in No. 2 singles, finishing sixth. He lost in the first round to Gage Rieker of Columbus, 8-5, but shut out Charles See of Chanute in the consolation semifinal. Brock Harvey of El Dorado won the fifth-place match, 8-5.

"Jacob also is continuing to show improvement in his play and keeps getting better each time out," Barr said.

The No. 1 doubles team of Alex Gorman and Micah Self (13-11) also finished in sixth place. Drake Gilmore/Fisher Lund of Chanute got by with an 8-6 win in the first round. Gorman and Self defeated the Labette County duo of Devin Philbrook/Nikola Ilievski, 8-3, in the consolation semis. Mason Key/Rhett Allen of Iola won the fifth-place match, 8-6.

"Alex and Micah are getting closer and closer to playing to that level of consistency that will help them compete against everyone they play," Barr said. "Both losses in this tournament were to good teams, but teams that we are getting closer to each time we play them."

The Tigers will play in the Southeast Kansas League Tournament on Thursday at Independence.