ORDER GAME PHOTOS

Written by: Sean Kane, IdahoSports.com broadcaster and the head tennis coach at Century High School

After a cold and difficult spring in Idaho, tennis heated up in Boise during the state tournaments this past weekend. Here is a recap of all of the team/individual winners.

CLASS 5A

Preseason favorite Boise took home the girls team championship, led by Tessa Staley, who won the girls singles title over Avery Hopkey of Timberline 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. A week earlier, Staley lost the district title to Hopkey by a score of 6-0, 6-0.

Boise also took home the girls doubles title as Katie Turcke/Caroline Turcke edged out Journee Hartman/Ashley Preece of Thunder Ridge 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

The Boise girls were not done there as Sasha Marsh/Luke Neely took home the mixed doubles crown over Taylor Parsley/Indiana Redd of Rocky Mountain 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.

The Boise girls team scored 62 points while 2nd place Timberline was 30 points behind at 32.

5A boys was a closer race as Rocky Mountain emerged as state champions.

Carson O’Hara/ Dylan Maude of Rocky lost to Shane Garner/Evan Walther of Eagle in the boys doubles championship 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Hudson Lee of Rocky took 4th place in boys singles losing to Ross Dought of Capital 6-2, 6-4.

These results paired with the 2nd place finish of Rocky’s mixed team gave them the boys state championship.

Tyler Dalos of Centennial was the singles runner up last year and would not be denied this year, as he won the championship over Dylan Gomez from Lewiston 6-2, 6-4.

CLASS 4A

As stated in the tennis preview this year, “In five out of the past six years, the team who wins girls singles wins the team title.” That trend continued this year as Bishop Kelly won girls singles and the girls team title by a large margin.

Miranda Austin of Bishop Kelly, the returning singles champion, only lost 5 games en route to back to back state championships. Austin won 6-0, 6-0 over teammate Addison Seehawer in an all Bishop Kelly final.

In girls doubles, Berklee Olsen/Nicole Tran of Hillcrest edged out Katerine Wachtell/Stella Emerson of Bishop Kelly 7-5, 6-4. Those results and some wins from Bishop Kelly’s mixed doubles team gave them an overwhelming amount of points to three-peat on the girls side.

On the boys side, many teams were in the hunt late Saturday afternoon. Despite not winning a championship match, Wood River was crowned the boys team champions. It became a numbers game as Wood River took 14 players to state out of their district.

Boys doubles played an important part as Dawson Belnap/Jamison Lemon of Bonneville won the title over Jake Simon/Gus Sabina of Wood River 6-2, 6-3.

In boys singles, Noah Nielson of Ridgevue, the runner up last year, won over Daniel McGee of Century, the only freshman in the draw, 6-2, 6-0.

Lynnsean Young of Moscow beat Ben Boocabella of Wood River 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to capture 3rd but the 4th place finish by Boocabella helped boost Wood River’s team score.

Mixed doubles was won by Middleton’s Lilly Summer/Jordan Malcom over Caroline Mecham/Jayden Bergquist of Vallivue 6-2, 6-3. Summer played last year with Ridgivue and took 3rd in mixed doubles.

It was a tight race for boys team placement this year with a different school winning each of the five championships.

CLASS 3A

In a tight race in girls 3A, the teams 1-3 were only separated by 6 points. Fruitland was able to come out on top over Parma by 2 points. A huge reason why Fruitland won was Grace Huff/Audrey Saba doubles champion win over Brooklyn Mann/Hailey Sitts of Parma 7-6, 6-1.

Girls singles saw an all Weiser final as Emma Tolman beat Kristy Bake 6-3, 6-1. Alejandra Galan of Payette won 3rd place in singles over Chanlar O’Neil of Fruitland which contributed to the Fruitland girls taking home the blue trophy this year.

The boys race was not as close and Parma boys took home the team title. Parma was led by Hayden Ankenbauer as he won the singles title over Oskar Hepworth of Coeur d’Alene Charter 6-2, 6-3.

In the boys doubles championship, the Parma duo of Bronson Beus/Braden Hancock won over Huntyr McClellan/Charlie Woods of Weiser 6-4, 6-2. Parma was not done there; they also won the mixed championship, sealing it up for the boys.

The mixed championship featured Karli Hancock/ Evan Weber of Parma beating Gretel Huss/Campbell Spoor of Sun Valley 6-3, 6-3.