Fort Scott tennis sending 3 to State tourney

INDEPENDENCE, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team will be sending three team members to the Class 4A State Tournament as the Tigers qualified one singles and one doubles entry from the Independence Class 4A Regional Tournament, which concluded Friday.

Senior Ben Bristley (17-10) is the singles qualifier after finishing sixth here. Senior Colton Grillott will be returning to State but with a different partner, junior Kyle Altic.

The Tigers finished fourth as a team behind Winfield, Southeast Kansas League champion Independence and SEK runner-up Parsons. Winfield finished third in the combined Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League Division III-IV Tournament, which included defending Class 3-2-1A champion Wichita Collegiate. Winfield itself placed third in Class 5A last year.

"I was really proud of the effort that our players gave in this tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "This would have been a very tough tournament just with the SEK schools, but when you bring in a team as strong as Winfield it made it a very tough tournament, but our players did a nice job."

Grillott and Altic are 21-3 this season. After beating Connor Traxson and Joshua Mathes of Labette County, 6-2, 6-0, in the first round on Thursday, they lost to John Paul Hurley and Parker Robertson of Parsons, 5-7, 6-2 (10-8).

In Regional and State tournaments, a third set is not played when a match is tied 2-2. Instead, a 10-point super tie-breaker is used, which is the score in parenthesis.

Grillott and Altic then had to come back Friday to face teammates Kyle Kelly and Bryce Daly in consolation. This is another exception in post-season play: All players are in one bracket instead of a No. 1 and No. 2 bracket.

Kelly and Daly (12-4) defeated Brett Perez and Jefferson Holmes of Chanute, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, and lost to Tanner Brock and Joe Albright of Winfield, 6-1, 6-2, on Thursday

"Kyle Kelly & Bryce opened with a nice win over Chanute, then faced the top-seeded Winfield team," Barr noted. "They played some good points against Winfield but were just up against a very good team."

That put them into Friday's match against Grillott and Altic. The winner was of advancing to State. The loser would see their season end.

"This wasn't something either of our teams wanted to do, but it was just the way things turned out," Barr said. "(Kelly and Daly) have had an excellent season and although it was a tough way to end the year, it takes nothing away from what they have done."

Grillott and Altic won the match, 6-2, 6-0. They went on to beat Quinton Hershey and Josh Mitchell of Coffeyville, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in the fifth-place match.

"Colton and Kyle played some good tennis at times in this tournament, but it was not one of their best tournaments," Barr said. "They opened with a solid win, but really struggled in the Parsons match. Parsons played pretty well, but we struggled serving in this match and had several opportunities to close out games and the match and just weren't able to make it happen.

"They came back strong on Friday, unfortunately against their teammates, and played some good solid tennis to qualify for next week's State Tournament. In the final match against Coffeyville, we opened up playing very good tennis. In the second set we got out to an early lead, but then Coffeyville played well and came up with some big points when they needed them. We made some errors and struggled again on serve and the second set became a real battle. Colton and Kyle settled in and played some solid tennis in the tiebreaker to go ahead."

Bristley was seeded seventh and started with a 6-0, 6-1 sweep of Iola's Garrett Catron. He lost to Payton Hayes of Parsons, 6-0, 6-0, to conclude Thursday's action.

Friday, Bristley defeated Ian Cheshire of Chanute, 6-2, 2-6 (10-7), assuring himself of a State berth. Winfield's Chad Olney won the fifth-place match, 6-0, 6-0.

"We felt like this was a good draw for Ben and gave him the opportunity to advance if he played well." Barr said. "He opened with a solid win, but the lost against the eventual champion from Parsons. He came back (Friday) morning to win a very close, hard-fought match against Cheshire, who had beaten him in the third-place match last week at the SEK Tournament. It was a shame either player had to lose the match. Both players played very hard and gave it all they had in the match.

"In the fifth-place match, Ben didn't have much left in the tank and just couldn't ever get anything going against the Winfield player. Ben has done a great job for us during his high school career and it is great seeing him get to end his career with a trip to the State Tournament."

Dillon Peel (19-4) wasn't seeded despite his record and had to start with a play-in match, in which he defeated Corey Weaver of Paola, 6-2, 6-0. But in the first round of the bracket, he fell to Skylar Stay of Independence, 6-0, 6-0.

"Dillon was disappointed in not being seeded," Barr said. "But even with his good record, there were just too many good players in the singles draw. He played a very good match in his first round, but had the misfortune of running into a very good player in the next round in Stacy, who went on to finish third in the tournament. Dillon ended the season with an excellent record and should be very proud of the work he did this season."

The top six singles players and doubles teams advanced to State. Joining Olney and Bristley at State in singles play will be Hayes, won won the tournament with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 win over Indy's Nick Romans in the finals, and Stacy, who finished third after his opponent in the third-place match had to default due to injury.

Brock and Albright went on to win the doubles title over Gavin Webster and Tyler Posch of Independence, 6-1, 6-1. Tucker Hoover and Sam Camp of Winfield took third, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, over Hurley and Robertson. They will join Grillott/Altic and Hershey/ Mitchell at State.

The Class 4A State Tennis Tournament will be hosted by defending champion Smoky Valley High School next weekend at Lindsborg