In the words of Hilary Clinton in 2016, "I'm just chillin' in Cedar Rapids 😎"...if you haven't seen the Snapchat video of Hilary saying this quirky phrase on the campaign trail, I'd highly recommend you look it up. Like Hilary on that day, the Class 2A state qualifiers will be "chillin in Cedar Rapids"on May 24-25 at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center. This year's doubles and singles tournaments are filled with great competitors from across the state including a handful of past individual champions, six freshmen, and a number of place winners who came extremely close to grabbing gold in last year's state tournament. Thanks to districts being the most balanced they have been in a long time, we should be looking at at an unusually deep pool of competitors this year. Let's take a look at the highlights of the tournament and of each bracket.
4 Individual State Champions
Tim Ellis, Ames - 2018 State Singles Champion
Rami Scheetz, Ty Sherman, CR Wash - 2018 State Doubles Champions
Jack Wenzel, IC West - 2017 State Doubles Champion
This is the first tournament in at least a decade, if not longer, in which all of the previous year's individual state champions all return to compete again. Ames' Tim Ellis returns with partner Nate Withers after winning the 2018 singes draw and both Ty Sherman and Rami Scheetz of CR Washington also return after winning the 2018 doubles draw. Sherman will compete in the doubles draw with partner, Grayson Zylstra while Scheetz is competing in singles for the second time in his high school career as the favorite. In addition to these 2018 state champions, 2017 doubles champion, Jack Wenzel of Iowa City West is also competing in the singles draw. All four of these players pose a serious threat to advance to Saturday's semifinals regardless of whether they are seeded or not and go on to win the title. Remember, Jack and partner, Cole Schneider were unseeded when they won the title, so both Wenzel or Sherman winning their brackets is also a legitimate possibility!
On another note, you might remember there is a new rule that allows the previous year's state finalist/champion singles player or doubles team to be seeded even if they lose their district final. This rule will not apply this year to any of the players listed above (see rule change here).
The Singles Bracket
Returning 2018 Place Winners
Rami Sheetz, CR Washington - Doubles, 1st Place
Luke VanDonslear, Linn-Mar - Doubles, 2nd Place
Sam Shin, IC West -2018 Singles, 3rd Place
Justin Sehlin, Pleasant Valley - 2018 Singles, 4th Place
Will Blevins, Ankeny Centennial - 2018 Singles, 5th Place
Just because there are a number of past champions in the draw doesn't mean one of the competitors from 2018 can't go for gold. There are a lot of good returning players in the singles draw including Luke VanDonslear of Linn-Mar who finished 2nd in doubles last year with partner Ben Hediger, Sam Shin of Iowa City West who placed 3rd in singles, and Justin Sehlin of Pleasant Valley who placed 4th in singles. After Scheetz who is undefeated, VanDonslear, Shin and Sehlin have had tough matches this Spring with Shin beating VanDonslear, VanDonslear going 1-1 against Sehlin, and Sehlin beating Shin. I should also mention Will Blevins lest we not forget the highest finishing freshman in last year's singles draw with a 5th place finish. Blevins has shown he is an excellent player by beating talented Daniel Lu of Dowling twice this season and also playing Rami Scheetz tightly in a loss, 7-5, 6-4 in substate. All of these players mentioned along with Wenzel are my top picks to advance to the semifinals and finals and compose one of the best collection of singles competitors by sheer volume in a number of years. Freshman First-Timers
Parker Sprague, CR Kennedy 9
Daniel Lu, Dowling 9
Brady Adams, Pleasant Valley 9
Sam Brown, Roosevelt 9
This should be a fun group of newcomers to the tournament with three of four playing #1 for their teams. Parker Sprague has stepped up into #1 singles nicely for CR Kennedy and has gone 13-7 on the year. He has been a great contributor for the Cougars. Daniel Lu of Dowling has also done well this year for his team and is a really nice sleeper pick in the draw to pull an upset against a seeded player and is an outside possibility to win it all...if he doesn't win it this year, I wouldn't be surprised if he is a future champion. After Lu, fans should also be on the lookout for Brady Adams who is one of two Pleasant Valley freshmen at the state tournament and who has been a consistent winner for the Spartans, and Sam Brown who as a freshman, has been the top player for the Roosevelt Roughriders. The Doubles Bracket Qualifiers Doubles Championship Draw Doubles Consolation Draw Returning 2018 Place Winners
Ty Sherman (1st)/Grayson Zylstra, CR Washington
Tim Ellis (Singles- 1st)/Nate Withers, Ames
Jozef Porubcin (3rd)/Yash Singh (3rd), Bettendorf
Roy Jensen (4th)/Neil Sura, Valley
Sasha Chackalakal (Singles- 7th)/Eli Young (7th), IC West
Noah Burmeister/Will Ecklund (6th), Waukee
Ryan Lofgren (8th)/Samson Densmore, Ankeny Centennial
Wow... just want to reiterate that there is a lot of depth in the field this year! Champion, Ty Sherman of Wash is back as I already mentioned with Grayson Zylstra who also qualified in 2018 doubles, the top returning Bettendorf team of Jozef Porubcin and Yash Singh is back after finishing 3rd last year, Roy Jensen returns after placing 3rd in 2018, with a new partner, Neil Sura who is no stranger to the tournament himself, and singles champion, Tim Ellis is in the doubles draw with partner, Nate Withers who also qualified last year. This field has a ton of teams who you could be seeing in the semis and finals. My favorite team in the tournament hasn't been mentioned yet and that would be Waukee's Noah Burmeister and Will Ecklund. Ecklund finished 6th last year in doubles and returns with Burmeister who made the singles tournament the past two years. They have gone undefeated on the year beating the likes of Ames, Bettendorf, Centennial, PV (Sehlin with Dolphin), and Centennial (Lofgren with Blevins). The way they have been winning is somewhat comical as each of these wins as well as their match against Mason City was decided by a super tiebreaker. At some point you have to wonder if they were intentionally going three sets to keep things interesting... Other returning place winning teams include IC West's Sasha Chackalakal who placed 7th in singles and Eli Young who placed 7th in doubles, and Ankeny Centennial's Ryan Lofgren who placed 8th in doubles and is joined by Samson Densmore. Now that we have discussed who is returning, who are some of my favorites to win it all in addition to Waukee? Be forewarned, I'm about to list A LOT of teams as I think there is quite a bit of parity and even the undefeated Waukee team has shown vulnerability by going three sets so often! Ames is a strong team with some solid wins this year and Bettendorf has wins over Centennial, Valley, and PV. Valley won against Ames by a 6-3, 6-2 score and against CR Wash, but were the only team above who played Waukee and lost in straight sets by a head scratching 6-1, 6-0 margin. I'm not sure how to interpret that score as this Valley team has had some good wins. CR Washington's Ty Sherman and Grayson Zylstra is another interesting team with five super tiebreak losses against Valley, Ames, Centennial, IC West's Sam Shin and Jack Wenzel, and Linn-Mar's VanDonslear and Jackson Eells. Their success in super tiebreaks has been the exact opposite of Waukee but perhaps their luck could change in the state tournament. Lastly, if you are looking for a team to surprise everyone, look no further than IC West's Sasha Chackalakal and Eli Young who are just as capable as any of the #1 doubles teams listed above. While they did play at #2 doubles all season, I think they might actually be a stronger team than some of the pairings listed above and are one of my top picks to win it all.
Freshmen First-Timers
Luca Chackalakal, IC West 9
Jake Dolphin, Pleasant Valley 9
To my surprise, there are only half as many freshmen in the doubles draw compared to the singles draw which is a surprise given there are twice as many total players in the doubles draw! Both of our newcomers have had a great year thus far. Luca Chackalakal has joined the #1 Iowa City West Trojans and only had one loss at #3 doubles with partner Mukundan Kasturirangan in the district final against his West teammates. Jake Dolphin is another rookie contributor for a 2A power in #2 Pleasant Valley! In singles, Dolphin has only lost one close match to Jack Wenzel of IC West while in doubles, he and partner Nathan Wong have competed closely with one of the best doubles teams, Yash Singh and Jozef Porubcin of Bettendorf, and done well on the year. He will definitely be a player to watch for years to come. I don't have Dolphin and Wong on my list of projected seeds, but I do think they have a legitimate case to be considered for the #4 seed and I could see them knocking off a seeded team. Both of these freshmen and their partners should be teams you keep an eye on as they have enough talent to pull an upset.
See Previous 2A Coverage:
Did I miss any 2018 place winners or miss any info? Please let me know of any missing place winners or corrections needed by commenting below or sending an email to iowahstennis@gmail.com. I would love to hear back with any suggestions for content as well or your own thoughts, too. Best of luck to all the competitors on Friday and Saturday!
Peace,
2ARedwood
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