WIAA DIV. 2/ALL-GNC BOYS TENNIS - Balciar aims for sectional upset; team 3rd at WIAA, GNC meets

WIAA DIV. 2/ALL-GNC BOYS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders won a match at six of seven flights, but only one advanced to sectional play out of Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 Altoona boys tennis subsectional, held at Eau Claire’s Menard Tennis Center.

Senior Brayden Balciar needed to win just one match in flight-one singles to move on. He did that with a 6–0, 6-1 win over Sullivan King of Black River Falls. Back at the Menard Center today, Thursday, for the WIAA Division 2 Eau Claire Regis sectional, Balciar (9-6) is one win away from qualifying for next week’s individual state tournament.

That win won’t be easy to get. In his quarterfinal match this morning, Balciar is matched up with West Salem’s Kyle Hehli, a junior who is 24-1, the defending sectional champion and finished fifth in the state singles tournament last year.

Quarterfinal winners in the flight-one bracket automatically qualify for state and will basically be playing for state seeding after that. The Balciar/Hehli winner will face either Blake Anderson of Amery (76) or Ryan Hays of Altoona (14-5) in the semifinals. The other side of the bracket has Anderson Fortney of La Crosse Aquinas (20-1) facing Tony Wesner of Eau Claire Regis (10-7) in one quarterfinal and Gavin Almlie of Osceola (18-2) meeting Lakeland’s Dominic Gironella (18-7) in the other.

Balciar has beaten Wesner this year and is 0-1 against Almlie and 0-2 against Gironella, though he had success against Gironella last year.

Medford had high hopes of getting its number-two singles standout, Conner Klingbeil, through as well Tuesday. As the second seed in the flight bracket, Klingbeil through his first match 6-2, 6-0 over Ashland’s Ben Snyder. But thirdseeded Eli Smith of Eau Claire Regis (13-5) pulled off the minor upset in the semifinal round where winners qualify for sectional play. Smith won the match 7-5, 6-3, ending Klingbeil’s fine season at 13-2 as a singles player.

Klingbeil was third in the sectional last year in flight three.

Cale Schulz’s strong end to the season at number-three singles ended with a 1-1 day. Schulz, the fourth seed in the flight, survived a close one with Sander King of Black River Falls in his first match by a score of 6-1, 5-7, 10-5, but then he ran into top-seeded Mika Rempp of Lakeland, who beat him for the third time this season 6-1, 6-3.

Schulz, a junior, finished 7-6 in flight three and 7-7 overall in singles play.

In flight four, senior Jude Stark also opened as the fourth seed and pulled off a tiebreaker win over fifth-seeded August Callender of Lakeland 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in the first round. That put him up against topseeded Connor Gower, a freshman from Altoona, who swept Stark 6-0, 6-0.

Stark finished 4-7 in the flight and 6-10 overall in singles play.

Medford’s number-two doubles team of senior Caleb Egle and sophomore Keagan Gehrke took its first match 6-1, 6-2 over Ashland’s Toryn McFarlane and Benj McPherson. But again, as the fourth seed, that set up a round-two match with the top seed. In this case, that was Altoona’s Daylen Parks and Lucas Pederson, who swept Egle and Gehrke 6-0, 6-0. Egle and Gehrke were 3-7 together this season.

In flight three, freshman Blaine Searles and Christian Preuss won their first postseason match 7-5, 6-1 over Daryll Jacox and Zander Krosinski of Black River Falls. Top-seeded Isaiah Yi and Brandon Spies of Altoona then swept Searles and Preuss 6-0, 6-0. The Raider duo went 5-4 together.

In the number-one doubles spot, junior Mason Reimann and sophomore Parker Hill lost their only match to third-seeded Tegan Bennett and Jaxton Semrow of Altoona 6-3, 6-0.

Medford tied Lakeland for third in the subsectional team standings with 12 points. Altoona edged Regis 24-22 as those teams will compete with the top teams from the Aquinas subsectional, La Crosse Logan (18) and Aquinas (16) for the sectional’s team state berth. The Division 2 state team meet is June 8 in Madison.

Black River Falls and Stevens Point Pacelli scored two points each in the Altoona meet, while Antigo and Ashland were scoreless.

The WIAA Division 2 individual state tournament starts May 30 in Madison.

GNC tournament

Klingbeil won a championship for the second straight season and Medford won awards at four other flights during Friday’s Great Northern Conference tournament held at Rhinelander.

Postponed a day due to the threat of poor weather on Thursday, the six GNC squads played on a perfect day for tennis with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s.

Klingbeil, the flight-three singles champion last May, won the flight-two title on Friday. Going in as the number-one seed in the bracket after doing undefeated in league dual meets, Klingbeil blew past Antigo’s Michael Hagerty in the semifinal round 6-1, 6-1 and then won an epic championship match over Lakeland’s Jack Stepec. Stepec took the first set 6-1, but Klingbeil regrouped, winning set two 6-4. The two played a 10-point match tiebreaker to settle the match and Klingbeil won that 12-10.

This was the second time Klingbeil and Stepec went to three sets this season. In the GNC opener April 9, Klingbeil also was victorious 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Schulz continued his strong finish to the regular season at number-three singles with a second-place finish and a spot on the All-GNC second team. An honorable mentionee in doubles last spring, Schulz knocked off third-seeded Payton McCue of Rhinelander in the semifinals 7-5, 6-1. Schulz had just beaten McCue in a three-set match nine days earlier.

In the final, the second-seeded Schulz ran into Rempp, who won 6-2, 6-2, equaling the score the two played to on April 9.

The much-anticipated number-one singles bracket found the third-seeded Balciar falling to eventual runner-up Gironella 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals. Balciar rebounded and took the third-place match over fourth-seeded Nolan Bunnell of Antigo in another match that went the disbreezed tance 4-6, 6-2, 10-3.

Top-seeded John Currie of Rhinelander won the championship 7-6 (5), 6-2 over Gironella.

Balciar was last year’s runner-up in the flight.

Medford earned two more third-place wins in doubles competition.

In flight two, Egle and Gehrke claimed their first-ever All-GNC honors. After a 6-1, 6-4 semifinal loss to Lakeland’s Carson Tegland and Angus Callender, Egle and Gehrke rallied from a 6-2 first-set loss to defeat Ashland’s Ryan O’Bey and Aidan Ellet-Cardinal 6-2, 10-7 in the thirdplace match. Egle and Gehrke had lost in three sets to the Lakeland team back on April 9. Tegland and Callender were beaten by Rhinelander’s Dawson Pontell and Michael Schiek 6-1, 6-3 in the final.

In flight three, Searles and Preuss lost to the second-seeded team from Rhinelander, Aidan Ostermann and Karter Massey, in the semifinals 6-3, 6-2, but they came back in the third-place match and defeated Ashland’s Steven Snedker and McPherson 6-2, 6-0. Ostermann and Massey went on to upset Lakeland’s topseeded team of Sawyer Brown and Tyler Wallace 6-3, 6-2 in the championship.

At number-one doubles, Medford’s fifth-seeded team of Reimann and Hill nearly extended their opening match to a third-set tiebreaker, but they were beaten by Lakeland’s fourth-seeded Gage Bowe and Yaroslav Myshchyshyn 6-0, 7-6 (7) in their opening match.

At number-four singles, the fifth-seeded Stark did go to a 10-point tiebreaker to decide his opening match with fourthseeded Michael Preboski of Antigo. Stark won the first set 6-4, but Preboski came back with 6-2, 10-6 wins to advance.

As expected, Rhinelander won the tournament with 36 points, followed by Lakeland (29), Medford (19), Ashland (12), Antigo (7) and Stevens Point Pacelli (2). Rhinelander won the overall conference championship with 94 total points, followed by Lakeland (81), Medford (59), Ashland (44), Antigo (25) and Pacelli (8).

Cale Schulz goes for the kill as he plays near the net in flight-three singles competition during Friday’s GNC tournament. BOB MAINHARDT/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS

Caleb Egle Hon. Mention

Keagan Gehrke Hon. Mention

Blaine Searles Hon. Mention

Christian Preuss Hon. Mention

Medford senior Conner Klingbeil swings through a return shot during his run to the GNC’s flight-two singles championship Friday at Rhinelander. BOB MAINHARDT/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS