Indy wins 10th straight SEK tennis crown; Tigers sixth

PARSONS -- To no one's surprise, Independence won its 10th consecutive Southeast Kansas League tennis championship here Thursday as the Bulldogs took the crown at the SEK Tournament.

Fort Scott finished sixth in the field, The highest finish on the day was posted by Kyle Altic in No. 2 singles, as he took fourth place with a 2-2 record for the day.

"Kyle just keeps getting better all the time," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "He had two very nice wins against and lost to quality opponents.

Altic (11-5 on the season) defeated Iola's Michael Middleton in the first round of play, 8-3. In the second round, Independence's Mason Posch posted a 6-1, 6-4 win. Altic came back to shut out Coffeyville's Brad Eastman in the first-to-8 consolation semifinal. Parsons' Payton Hays won the third-place match, 6-1, 6-1.

Next-best was the No. 1 doubles team of Colton Grillott and Charlie Sercer (15-8). They shut out Pittsburg's Clay Southern/Josh Reed in the opening round. They lost to Indy's Wes Goodrich/Anthony Davis, 6-4, 6-1, in the next round.

In consolation, Grillott and Sercer fell to Coffeyville's Zach Mitchell/Taylor Eastman, 8-5. Then they defeated Southern and Reed in a rematch, 8-5, in the fifth-place match,

"Colton and Charlie kind of had a strange day," Barr said. "They came out and shut out Pittsburg and they played very solid. The next match, we played Indy close. Then we didn't play well against Coffeyville and played OK versus Pittsburg in the final."

Dustin Willard and Dillon Peel (7-5) placed sixth in No. 2 doubles. They lost to Josh Mitchell and Quinton Hershey in the first round, 8-2. They came back to shut out Garrett Catron and Zeph Larney of Iola but lost their final two matches, to Pittsburg's Ryan Hall/Jack Wimmer and Parsons' Alex Jack/Ryan Jacquinet, by 8-1 scores.

"They played OK at times but they struggled with their consistency," Barr said. "They didn't play at the level we expected"

Ben Bristley was 2-2 on the day but finished seventh as he was placed in an odd position in the bracket. Barr said that there was a discussion in the seeding meeting on how to seed Bristley, a Pittsburg player and a player from Labette County.

Bristley had beaten the LCHS player 8-1 in two meetings. Yet, somehow, the coaches decided to place the LCHS player highest in the bracket. Then, since Bristley had lost to the Pittsburg player twice before, He was seeded lower. Instead of being at least the sixth seed, Bristley was seeded eighth and had to face Blake Mackenson of Columbus in a play-in match, which he won 8-0.

Because he had to play in, Bristley then had to face Iola's Kent Toland -- one of the best players in Kansas Class 4A this season. Toland, who would go on to win the No. 1 singles title and is undefeated this season according to the Iola Register, took that match by an 8-1 score.

Bristley lost in consolation to Max Manley of Coffeyville, 8-4. He won the seventh-place match of Pittsburg's Michael Griffin, 8-4.

Bristley handled the situation maturely, according to Barr.

"Ben had a good tournament," Barr said. "He got kind of a raw deal with the seeding. But he handled it well. He knew that if he had beaten the Pittsburg player earlier in the season, the seeding question wouldn't have come up. He won the matches he needed to win."

Toland broke a run of four straight years of Independence players winning the No. 1 singles title. But the Bulldogs still won their 21st title in the last 22 seasons (They tied in 1989, 1994 and 2002) and 28th overall since team titles began to be awarded in 1952.

Chanute finished second in team standings with Parsons in third.

All the SEK teams except Pittsburg, which is a Class 5A school, will return here Friday for the Class 4A Regional Tournament. They will be joined by Ottawa and Paola in the two-day tourney.