Here we go, state tournament week! The boys get things kicked off in Iowa City and Waterloo starting tomorrow in day one of the individual state tournaments. Lots of great opportunities lie ahead for all qualifiers in the coming days to cement their name in Iowa HS Tennis history. Excited to continue to follow along as the season approaches its close for the 2023 chapter.
2022 State Tournament Notes
Locations
2A: Hawkeye Tennis and Rec. Center (Iowa City, IA)
1A: Byrnes Park (Waterloo, IA)
Attendance Fees
The IHSAA is charging an admission fee of $10 per day of the individual state tournament and team state tournament on May 31-June 1. For more information, please visit: https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/
Live Scoring.
For the first time ever, live scoring of all matches during the state singles and doubles tournaments will be provided! (courtesy of Iowa HS Tennis). All matches actually being played live and in real time will have their score online for anybody to see anywhere. Link to that page can be found at the Postseason HQ page, or be found here: https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/646ac371c6e046031834c6c8/live-score
Updated brackets throughout the tournament can be found here: Postseason HQ
2A
The Singles Bracket
The central Iowa three headed monster started the year ranked 1-3, and enter the singles field as the #1-#3 seeds. Centennial's Caleb Peterson earned the top seed after an undefeated season including wins over his fellow CIML foes. Kaden Taylor of Waukee NW is right behind slotting at #2 with just the loss to Peterson, and Quinn Monson of Waukee who only suffered losses to the top two earned the #3 seed. Cedar Rapids Prairies' Anthony Schulte rounds out the top 4. Taking a look at the bracket, I think it will be fairly straight forward for the seeds, with Peterson, Taylor and Monson having pretty favorable paths to the semis, while Schulte could be battling it out with Jason Strand of Marshalltown in the second round. This year will be about damage control for the top 4 and then for the rest of the field, seeing if you can pull off any sort of upset, otherwise filling those 5th-8th place finishing spots.
Seeds
Caleb Peterson, Centennial
Kaden Taylor, Waukee NW
Quinn Monson, Waukee
Anthony Schulte, CR Prairie
1st Round Match to Watch:
Micah Flaherty (Fort Dodge) v Jatin Kodavatiganti (Pleasant Valley) - A pair of sophomores are set to square off in the round of 16. Flaherty who is the bright spot for Fort Dodge, has had a great year for the Dodgers and had been in the top ten rankings at one point. Kodavatiganti is another one with a great season this year who has helped PV to a #3 team ranking over the course of the season. Big opportunity for a first round win here.
Finals Prediction:
The Doubles Bracket
Quite a good doubles field it has shaped up to be in 2023. Waukee NW's Croatt & Nelson enter the tournament as the top seed, followed by PV, Mason City and Valley as the remaining seeds. This is a very interesting draw for me, as just a first look at it, offers that the bottom half is kind of loaded compared to the top half. #4 seed Valley looks to have a very favorable draw to advance to day two in the winners bracket and have a shot at the Wolves. Moving to the bottom half, just first seeing Mason City, Marshalltown, IC West and PV all have solid duos who could all run into each other in round two. Keep and eye on PV and Mason City who are the #2 and #3 seeds that I think could be on upset alert in round two. Enjoy the tournament, especially the bottom half of this bracket.
Seeds
Kellan Croatt/Jake Nelson, Waukee NW
Folu Adekunle/Aaron Ingram, Pleasant Valley
Reed Kruger/Justin Yarahmadi, Mason City
Beck Sissel/Luke Berg, Valley
1st Round Match to Watch:
Brady Frye/Jimmy Wanek (Dowling) v Patrick Selby/Junze Sun (IC West) - One of the more evenly balanced first round matchups this year. Dowing has put on a good year after the departure of two-time state singles champion Daniel Lu, and Frye & Wanek have been a big part of that. Opposing them is Selby and Sun who have now gotten their first seasons as main players in the Trojan lineup.
Finals Prediction:
#1 Kellan Croatt/Jake Nelson v Samir Singh/Shivy Mannengi
1A
The Singles Bracket
I am calling for the 2022 singles semi-final rematch to be the 2023 title match. That would be Caden Branum vs Ethan Moon. The two undisputed best players in 1A this year I am penciling in to go head to head. Branum returns this season as the top seed after being narrowly edged by Brady Horstmann of Xavier last year in the finals in what turned out to be an all time classic. Branum would get the presumably third best player in the field in the semis in the younger Easton Moon. Big brother Ethan should have a pretty smooth sail to the finals in his half, but hey crazy things can happen in the state tournament right? The rest of the field, see what you can do and go get those place finishing spots!
Seeds
Caden Branum, Decorah
Ethan Moon, North Polk
Charlie Legrand, Xavier
Cody Overland, Boone
1st Round Match to Watch:
Easton Moon (North Polk) v #4 Cody Overland (Boone) - Absolutely brutal first round for Overland being a seed and drawing the younger Moon. Winner here most likely will make their way to the semis and push their luck against presumably Branum.
Finals Prediction:
The Doubles Bracket
Is this the year Pella breaks through for a doubles championship? Two years to the championship match has led to two years of runner-up finishes (nothing to slouch about at all). The Dutch with Jack Briggs and Josh Roozeboom are in prime position to break through the wall this year and win it all. Wahlert, Spencer and WSR round out the remaining three seeds in this years field. In all honesty, I do not know a ton about the doubles draw this year. I think there will be some very competitive matches and that it seems a bit more open compared to singles but I think it may run through the Pella duo this time around.
Seeds
Jack Briggs/Josh Roozeboom, Pella
Charlie Curtiss/Roan Martineau, Wahlert
Owen Kierscht/Riley DeWitt, Spencer
Benny Ramker/Luca Myers, WSR
1st Round Match to Watch:
Cameron Rowe/Cashen Thompson v #2 Charlie Curtiss/Roan Martineau - A particularly interesting first round matchup here at the bottom of the draw. Rowe/Thompson have a lot of state tournament experience especially on the team side over the last two years, and get a crack at the talented Curtiss/Martineau duo from Dubuque. I think the winner of this has a legit shot at making the finals.
Finals Prediction:
Comments