Corona’s Alex Lawson, the No. 1-ranked boys player in the state, is on track to accomplish his goal of winning the state singles championship after defending his state 5A-I doubles championship last season with long-time tennis partner Kyle Ogren. Ogren, who graduated last May, is currently playing tennis at Mesa Community College.
Lawson was scheduled to play April 27 at Phoenix Tennis Center against unranked Miguel Tolano from Tucson High School in the third round of the state individual tennis tournament. Lawson, who received a bye in the first round, easily defeated Pinnacle’s Zach Usie, 6-0, 6-0 in the second round April 16 at Gene Autry Tennis Center.
If Lawson continues to win, he will play three matches April 30 before reaching the semifinals and finals, scheduled Monday, May 2. All matches will be at Phoenix Tennis Center. It appears, after looking at the tournament seeding and brackets, that Lawson won’t meet a ranked player until the semifinals. His chances of winning the championship should be even higher since the No. 2-ranked player, Nolan Bauer of Chaparral, defaulted in the second round and is out of the tournament.
One important change to note in the AIA tennis tournament this season is that only team tennis is classified in divisions—5A-I, 5A-II, 4A-I, etc. The singles and doubles brackets include the entire state regardless of what division the player’s school team is classified in. What this means is that the first day in the singles tournament, for instance, there were128 spaces in the tournament brackets. The same number of spaces existed for doubles brackets. Of course, some single players or doubles teams did get a bye in the first round; however that still means there are more than 110 single players or doubles teams seeking a state title.
In the past, a championship trophy was given to the 5A-I singles champion, the 5A-II singles champion, the 4A-I singles champion, and so on. The same was true for the doubles. This year, a single player or doubles team is in the same pool as everyone in the state who qualified in these events for the state tournament.
What has not changed is that a tennis player can still only play in the singles section of the tournament or the doubles section.
Doubles partners Ryan Wanta and Justin Zelen are also still alive in the state tournament. They are scheduled to play the Millennium team of Cain and DeVane in the third round April 29 at Phoenix Tennis Center. Wanta and Zelen easily defeated the Kofa team of Ornelas and Rangel, 6-0, 6-3, in the first round, and picked up a win in the second with a default from Centennial.
Corona’s No. 11-seeded boys tennis team defeated No. 6 Mountain Pointe in the first round of the 5A-I tennis team state tournament April 18 with a 5-2 score but were defeated by No. 3 Hamilton in the second round April 21.
The Aztecs lost earlier to Hamilton 5-4 in the regular season so head coach Rick Wanta had anticipated a close match when they met again in the state tournament. Unfortunately, the result was a 5-1 loss.
The Aztec team, including seniors Vamsi Varra, Ryan Wanta and Justin Zelen; juniors Thaminda Edirisooriya and Alex Lawson; and sophomores Kevin McMahon and Divya Rayudu finished the regular season with a 7-7 record.
“Our record is not necessarily indicative of the talent on the team because we had the second- or third- hardest schedule in all of the 5A-I Division,” said Wanta. “Every team that beat us was a highly ranked team.”
Girls Tennis
Corona’s girls tennis team—with seniors Drew Blasco, Lauren Hacker, Yonit Upart and Katherine Li, junior Rachel McKay and sophomores Maia Castiglione, Hannah Pfotenhauer and Tien Tran—had an impressive 10-4 regular season record and repeated as champions of the City Tennis Meet before entering the 5A-I state team and individual tournaments in mid-April.
Corona’s No. 8-ranked doubles players, Castiglione and Hacker, are still playing in the 5A-I state doubles tennis tournament. After getting a bye in the first round April 15, they easily defeated the Red Mountain team of Skarda and Vert, 5-3, 6-1, in the second round, held April 16, at Gene Autry Tennis Center.
Castiglione and Hacker were scheduled to play in the third round against the unranked Millennium team of Farris and Orth, Friday, April 29 at Phoenix Tennis Center. If they win that match, they will play April 30. If they continue to win in the next two rounds, the semifinals and finals are scheduled Monday, May 2.
The CdS unranked doubles team of Blasco and Pfotenhauer made it into the second round of the state doubles tournament before losing to a Pinnacle team.
Tran and Upart were the only two Corona players who qualified to play in the singles state tournament.
Tran made it into the second round before being defeated by Xavier’s Borcher. Upart is still playing after defeating Ingenito of West Canyon in the first round and Cibola’s Chambless in the second round. Upart was scheduled to play against Rocha of Trevor Browne in the third round April 29 at Phoenix Tennis Center.
The Lady Aztecs, seeded No. 7 for the state 5A-I team tennis tournament, made it into the second round of the 5A-I state tournament before losing to No.2 Salpointe on April 21 at the Tucson Racquet Club.
Look for the complete individual and doubles state tournament results from both the boys and girls teams in the next edition.
Kyrene Middle School Conference Track Meet Results
Kyrene School District held its district-wide middle school conference track meet April 20 at Mountain Pointe High School, where several Kyrene Corridor athletes competed in the track and field events.
Aprende’s girls team came in second, Pueblo’s fifth and Kyrene’s sixth after all 12 events were scored.
Aprende’s Kelly Naumann crossed the finish line in third place in the 75 Meter Hurdles event, while MaKenna Autrey was fourth and Jalissa Smith sixth in the 100 Meter Run. Also from Aprende was Sierra Brown, who took fifth in the 1600 Meter Run.
Aprende also has two top finishers in the 400 Meter Run with Smith taking second and Jackie Martin third. In the 800 Meter Run, Aprende’s Mason Swenson was second.
Aprende’s girls relay teams put on a good showing with 4 x 100 Meter girls relay team of Angie Huff, Autrey, Toni Moore and Naumann finishing second while the 4 x 400 relay team of Martin, Swenson, Kamani, and Smith also finished second. In the 800 Meter Medley Relay, Melissa Hayhurst, Lauren Lambert, Tayana McIntosh and Brooke Yuen crossed the finish line in first place.
Aprende’s girls team was also strong in the field event, taking two of the top six places by scoring points in the Discus Throw, with Kelly Chen placing fifth and Alannah Heaton sixth.
Autrey was fourth in the long jump while Smith took first in the high jump, clearing the pole at five feet.
Pueblo’s girls team’s top-six results included Madison Barker taking third in the Shot Put with a 29’05.25 put
Pueblo’s girls’ 800 Meter Medley relay team of Kim Kim, Frazier, Sabrina Berryman and Alexandra LeRoy finished second while Pueblo’s 4 x 400 Meter Relay team of Maggie Jackson, Courtney Cromer, Barker and Caitlyn Jauregui. Jackson, Hlebak, Jauregui and Sarah McCabe took fourth in the 4 x 100 Meter relay.
Rees Young had the best finish on the KMS girls team, taking first place in the long jump with a 15 foot 7 inch jump.
Kyrene’s 800 Meter Medley relay team of Cook, Zariah Claiborne, Kylee Soto and Alicia Higley took fourth. The 4 x 100 Meter relay team of Young, Madison Stratton, Reynosa and Higley came in sixth.
The final results from the boys team had Aprende third, Pueblo fourth and Kyrene sixth at the conference track meet.
Aprende’s Diego Parra was third while Andrew Eversden was third in the 1600 Meter Run. Austin Hornbaker was fourth in the 400 Meter Run and Villatoro second in the 800 Meter Run.
Aprende’s 4 x 400 Meter relay team of Hornbaker, Eversden, Cole Young, and Villatoro finished first while its 4 x 100 relay team of Lucas Johnson, Aaron Boehm, Grant Berg and Raul Herrera finished fifth. The 800 Meter Medley relay team of Patrick Geel, Tanner Millyard, Ryan Christensen and Preston Kinney also crossed the finish line in first place.
In the field events Brix Kronborg took second and Hornbaker third in the Shot Put. Hornbaker took second in the High Jump, while Joshua Onwordi tied for third. Berg was fifth in the Long Jump.
Pueblo’s boys team’s best finish was Sam Schultz who took first in the High Jump by clearing the bar at 5 foot 2 inches followed by a second place for Dalton Thorpe in the 100 Meter Run. Thorpe also took third in the 200 Meter Run and seventh in the long jump.
Alex Blasco was second and Isaiah Taylor fifth in the 400 Meter Run; Johnathan Lopez was fourth in the 800 Meter Run.
Pueblo’s 4 x 100 Meter Relay team of Brian Berryman, Frank Matchinsky, Blasco, Thorpe finished third, the 4 x 400 team of Berryman, Lopez, Figueroa and Blasco third and the 800 Meter Medley team of Tristar Neely, Schultz, Shaojia Zhao and Tyler Stehr second.
Kyrene Middle School’s Sam Morino had a big day with a first in the shot put measuring 38’08.75″ and a ninth place finish in the discus. Thomas Maher was eighth in the shot put, while Jaqunn Gipson tied for fifth in the high jump and was ninth in long jump.
Kolten Schmal had the highest finish for Kyrene Middle School in the track events, taking fourth in the 75 Meter Hurdles.
The 4 x 100 relay team of Kameron Figuerog, Lawrence, Gipson and Cameron Centers came in sixth as did the 4 x 400 relay team of Lawrence, Morino, Daniel and Maher.
