Walker, Nelson advance to state tournament
RED OAK — A couple of familiar faces will once again make the trip to Waterloo for the state tennis tournament in a couple of weeks.
Red Oak’s Pete Walker and Jordan Nelson will both advance to the state tournament, competing as singles, after finishing 1-2 in the district meet Thursday in Red Oak.
Walker defeated his teammate 6-0 and 6-1 to clinch the district tournament title.
“I have one more thing to do and that’s win it,” Walker said. That’s all there is.”
Both Walker and Nelson picked up easy wins in the first round and quarterfinals Walker defeated Ryan Niccoli of Shenandoah 6-0 and 6-0 and Nick Podhasky of Atlantic 6-0 and 6-0 in his first couple of rounds.
Nelson defeated Drew Carlson of St. Albert 6-0 and 6-0 and defeated Jacob Brooks of Clarinda 6-1 and 6-0.
Walker maintained his shutout streak in the semifinals when he defeated Travis Miller of St. Albert 6-0 and 6-0. Nelson defeated Jacob Holmes of Shenandoah in the semifinals 6-4 and 6-4.
Red Oak won’t be sending a doubles team to state this season. Geoff Sellers and Austin Streicher reached the quarterfinals, but lost to the eventual district champions, Tyler Fischer and Noah Welter of Atlantic, 6-3 and 6-4.
The other doubles team, Hayden Berry and Tanner Johnson, lost in the first round to Jake Arneson and Adam Wieser, also of Atlantic, 6-1 and 6-2.
Atlantic won the district tournament title with a team score of 25 points. Red Oak came in second with 17 points, while Shenandoah was third with 10 points.
This season marks the third straight appearance for both Walker and Nelson at the state tournament. It will be Nelson’s first appearance competing in singles.The last two seasons, Nelson has advanced to state playing doubles along with Craig White.
“It feels good. It’s always nice to accomplish a goal like that,” Nelson said.
Last season, both Walker and Nelson were able to place in the top eight. Walker finished fourth at state last season in singles.
Nelson along with White were able to finish seventh last year when they defeated the team of Johnson and Lapthorn of Pella.
“It’s actually quite a bit different with doubles. You always have someone there. With me it was Craig, who you can talk to when things get rough out there. With singles, you’re out on an island and it’s quite a bit different,” Nelson said.
Walker will be joining state stalwarts like Alex Bernt of Waterloo Columbus and Aaron Chalstrom of St. Edmond. Bernt defeated Walker in the third place match last season.
“Every time I go up there, it makes me want to work harder,” Walker said.
The other district champions competing include Grinnell’s Will Hamilton, Wahlert’s Brandon Schneider, Maharishi’s Sam Sticklels, Boone’s Chad Moklestad and Spirit Lake’s Brandon Stoll.
The runner-ups that will compete in the state tournament along with Nelson are Sam Jones of Clear Lake, Ryan Hageman of Decorah, Michael Schemm of Pella, Tom Runde of Wahlert, Govi Punj of Fairfield, Ryan Vincent of Ballard and Brett Walker of Cherokee.
The tournament began indoors at the Montgomery County Family YMCA after rain drenched the outdoor courts. Red Oak needed special permission to begin the tournament indoors.
Because of Thursday’s rain, five 1A district meets and six 2A meets were forced to postpone the tournament until Friday.
Because Red Oak finished second, they competed the next day at home against Shenandoah in a preliminary substate match. The Tigers were able to win 5-0. They’ll advance on to play this Saturday morning in Norwalk. Red Oak will face Ballard in the semifinals. Should they win, they would play later that day against the winner of Atlantic and Creston-Orient Macksburg.
Hawkeye 10 Tournament
The Red Oak boys tennis team once again won the Hawkeye Ten Tennis tournament, which took place last Monday at Harlan.
The Tigers finished with a team score of 27 points, beating Lewis Central, Creston and Atlantic.
Red Oak won a singles championship, as well as doubles. Geoff Sellers won the No. 2 singles championship when he defeated Blake Huber of Lewis Central 6-0 and 6-4.
The other title was in doubles when Pete Walker and Hayden Berry won the No. 1 doubles title when they defeated Colby Taylor and Bryce McIlravy of Creston 6-1 and 6-2.
In No. 1 singles, Jordan Nelson lost to Lewis Central’s Caleb Shudak in the championship match 6-1 and 6-2.
The team of Tanner Johnson and Austin Streicher took fifth in the No. 2 doubles when they defeated Weston Morgan and Ryan Higginbotham of Lewis Central 8-5.