As stated multiple times this year and season, 2023 marks the first time that the boys districts will not impact team play moving forward in the postseason! Districts as of this year, solely is responsible for determining the state singles and doubles tournament fields where the champion and runner-ups of each district advance. The district assignments looked pretty solid all around from what I could see. Enjoy the weekend and rest up for what is about to be a busy Monday of boys high school tennis! Let the postseason begin.
Class 1A Tidbits
Host: Boone
A pretty wide open site over at Boone where a lot of opportunities are in front of a lot of players. The host Boone themselves, headlines this site as the only ranked team here, and this is a great chance for the Toreadors to show they are one of the great teams in the state and get multiple entries to the individual state tournament. After that, I think it's anyones game.
Host: Columbus
Assuming the Moon brothers from North Polk go singles, there is not really any point for anyone else to try and go singles if their goal is to make state. Ethan and Easton Moon rank #2 and #3 in the state respectively by the Iowa HS Tennis Individual Rankings entering postseason play. Roan Martineau of Wahlert could maybe challenge the younger Moon if in the same half, but he has had an up and down season himself. This could make the doubles bracket incredibly exciting with the likes of Wahlert, Marion, & Central DeWitt all at this site. A lot of potential for Columbus to have a very competitive field next week.
Host: Decorah
Home of the #3 ranked Vikings and top ranked player Caden Branum, Decorah is set to host a district regional once again. Three top ten ranked players will enter the field in #1 Branum & #8 Daniel Skrade of Decorah, as well as #9 Tate Neymeyer of Aplington-Parkersburg. Branum I am pretty confident will be back in the singles field to see if he can reverse his fortune from last year and capture the title after a crazy championship match. I feel like Skrade and Neymeyer will both go singles, just have a feeling. After that, Decorah's depth and Waverly-Shell Rock should compete for those doubles state tournament berths.
Host: Denison-Schleswig
A bit of an unknown district for me. The Monarchs who play host to this site have kind of been limping to the finish line to round out the regular season. A team who was top 5 most of the season in the state now may not finish in the rankings heading into postseason with losses to Lewis Central and Kuemper over the last week. Carson Seuntjens however, is someone to watch out for in a quest for a state berth. Besides that, I do not really have much knowledge of the rest of the teams and players. Get after it everyone at Denison!
Host: Fairfield & Maharishi
A couple of top ten teams headline the Fairfield site in #2 Xavier and #9 Davenport Assumption. Xavier has been quite the story this year where a lot of people (including myself) kind of wrote them off at the beginning of the season with how many people they lost to graduation, but the Saints haven't really missed a beat. A favorable region for Xavier provides a chance to get all their entries to state. I am not sure who could provide a lot of resistance, but Assumption would be the next team in line to make things interesting.
Host: Kuemper Catholic
The #4 Spencer Tigers lead the way at this regional on Monday. Not the most exciting site that we will have in 1A on Monday, this is a chance for Spencer to send multiple entries to state, and for nearly every other team to have a good shot at sending an entry to state as well. Anybody's guess is as good as mine here.
Host: Pella
The Dutch have been ranked #1 all year, have had two players ranked in the top ten in Jack Briggs and Josh Roozeboom nearly all season as well. This is a really interesting situation. With the thinking by most people around the state of Caden Branum and the Moon brothers going singles this year, is there really any incentive to put the best guys into the singles draw this year? Those 3 are head and shoulders above everyone else for the most part. Pella has had very good success in doubles in the past number of years and I expect that to be the same again. While I think Pella should get all their entries into state, I believe the singles draw will have their work cut out for them with their best pairs doing for doubles.
Host: Red Oak
This one is short and sweet...I have no idea on anything, team, or anybody here. Good luck to all teams and players at Red Oak!
Class 2A Tidbits
Host: Ames
Pencil in and basically punch his ticket to state singles, for who will be the new #1 ranked player in 2A boys this weekend. Caleb Peterson of Ankeny Centennial should fly through this draw. He took out #1 Taylor, and #3 Quinn Monson this week to cap off a person season himself. Joining him I think will be Micah Flaherty of Fort Dodge who in my opinion is the second best player in this region. With a lot of the "big boys", 3-4 guys who are the favorites for the singles state crown, this could be quite the field in doubles with Dowling and Roosevelt also competing here.
Host: Bettendorf
Over on the far east side, this should be the PV and Bettendorf show. While PV dominated and won 8/9 brackets at the MAC Tournament, districts is a whole entire new beast considering who goes singles or doubles. Folu Adelkune of the Spartans is the best player in this field and I would expect him to be going singles. After that, there should be a good fight to get the other state entries, especially on the doubles side. Other than these two, Muscatine may have a couple of players who can try to pull of an upset.
Host: Cedar Falls
Cedar Falls is where the most eyes should be this Monday! Mason City, CR Wash, and Cedar Falls will be going toe-to-toe to get their entrants to the state tournament in what should be the MOST competitive site in the state. Bring on Reed Kruger, the Burkamper brothers, Param Sampat and others to battle it out. I won't even try to make predictions here and just enjoy seeing the results come in.
Host: IC Liberty
On the contrary to the Cedar Fall site, this should be one of the more boring regions next week. #2 IC West should view this as a huge miss if they do not get all of their entries to the state tournament. The only thing I will say here is I am curious to what entries the Trojans go with as defending state doubles champions Jaydin Shin and Samir Singh have not been partners once this season. They won last year when they were paired together for the first time at districts in 2022, maybe that happens again?
Host: Marshalltown
#5 ranked player in 2A Jason Strand of the Bobcats has something to prove. His brother Kevin had a nice state singles tournament last year and the younger Jason is ready to show what he can do. Despite being a very strong top of the state players that will be going singles, I still think Strand appears in the singles field himself. In addition to him, Marshalltown should be looking to get as many entries as they can, if not all, to Iowa City.
Host: CR Prairie
Prairie will be home to possibly the second most exciting region if not as exciting as Cedar Falls. #4 ranked Anthony Schulte is the clear runaway favorite to win the singles draw, but everything after him is lined up to be very good competition. Top 5 Linn-Mar has a deep squad who should be competing for state tournament berths. Keep an eye on IC City Abhay Anil as well as North Scott's Lucas Persson who are nice players that have tough roads ahead of them to keep their seasons alive.
Host: Sioux City North
Nothing to say here as Waukee NW should get everyone to state, and it would be a disaster for them if they dont.
Host: Valley
My pick to be the third most competitive site on Monday. Top 3 ranked Quinn Monson from Waukee should walk through his draw for the most part and give himself a chance to get back to the state singles semi-finals and maybe beyond. Valley boasts the best team here at their home site and I expect them to get a couple of entries heading over east to Iowa City at the end of the month. Chris Wailes of CBAL would be a guy to look out for a little bit, with the right draw and having an 'on' day, you never know if he can avoid Monson in his half.
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