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 2024 chapter.
2024 State Tournament Notes
Draws
All draws can be found here
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 30-31. For more information, please visit: https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/
Live Results.
The state will be entering results as matches come off. Updated brackets throughout the tournament can be found here: Postseason HQ
2A
The Singles Bracket
Defending champion Kaden Taylor brings his undefeated record into the 2024 singles state tournament as this years top seed. Taylor and the Wolves are looking to complete the triple crown this season that eluded them last year, not just as a team, but Taylor individually as well. A really good shot to do that this year for NW. Rounding out the seeds is Waukee's Quinn Monson at no. 2, CR Prairie's Anthony Schulte at no. 3, and Micah Flaherty of Forth Dodge at no. 4. The match of the tournament may be the bottom half semi-final between Monson and Schulte. These two played in the 3rd place match with Monson coming out on top last year. Flaherty appears to have the toughest quarter of the top seeds, which includes three players who have all been ranked top 10 at some point this season, as well as Flaherty himself ranked #7. Fort Dodge had a very weak strength of schedule this spring, maybe that comes into play the first round or two. The top 3 seeds should advance with little trouble to the semis and will away to see how the most competitive quarter turns out. A number of guys can really be shooting for a 5th place finish, Luke Burkamper, Lucas Persson, Abhay Anil, Toby Schmidt and Ryan Kirkpatrick.
Seeds
Kaden Taylor, Waukee NW
Quinn Monson, Waukee
Anthony Schulte, CR Prairie
Micah Flaherty, Fort Dodge
1st Round Match to Watch:
Ryan Kirkpatrick (Muscatine). v#4 Micah Flaherty (Fort Dodge) - Starting with the toughest quarter of the draw. Flaherty is undefeated on the season, but has had little trouble most of the year with a weaker SOS. Kirkpatrick has played their usual schedule incluing the likes of Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley among others that has given him a good resume of tough opponents, nothing he isn't used to. Kirkpatrick has a big game and Flaherty does not give anyone anything. Will the Muskies offense be good enough tomorrow morning?
Singles Champion Prediction:
Kaden Taylor (Waukee NW)
The Doubles Bracket
Quite a good doubles field it has shaped up to be in 2024, led by the defending champions in Kellan Croatt and Jake Nelson of Northwest. As mentioned above, the Wolves are trying for a triple crown again here in 2024, and what better way to get that going with boasting the defending champs in singles and doubles. While the doubles field has loaded up, most likely do to Taylor being a heavy favorite for singles, turned out to be some interesting seeds that appeared in this years draw. Valley's duo of Sissel/Berg are a good doubles pair and have a ton of experience together, I do like them as the 2 seed. After that, I originally thought PV and Mason City would end up being the last two seeds. Linn-Mar was that next pair that I had on my list and just wasn't sure if their SOS was enough for them and with their loss to Prairie. Was not expecting to see the Trojans on a seed line this year, and they ended up benefiting big time with the easiest quarter of the draw. While I think NW gets back to the finals, the rest of the draw could produce a lot of close competitive matches giving many teams opportunities to make a deep run and place. Expect the top 8 spots for medals to be a battle.
Seeds
Kellan Croatt/Jake Nelson, Waukee NW
Beck Sissel/Luke Berg, Valley
Malcolm Rice/Garett Bauermeister
Samir Singh/Patrick Selby
1st Round Match to Watch:
Adekunle/Ganesh (Pleasant Valley) v Kramer/Wallrichs (Linn-Mar) - Half of the returning 2023 state doubles finalist Folu Adekunle returns to the field, this time with a new partner. They will take on the senior duo and #2 pair for the Lions of Linn-Mar, Jake Wallrichs and Jackson Kramer. A lot of experience on this court. What does the winner get? A most likely matchup with the top seed.
Kruger/Yarahmadi (Mason City) v Matera/Gehler (Bettendorf) - I couldn't just pick one match to watch this time around as there are a number of really good first round matchups, this being one of those. Mason City missed out on being a top 4 seed, and this specific duo was a top 4 finisher last year in doubles. Keep an eye on Bettendorf as Robert Matera suffered an ankle injury late in the season and had just returned in time for distrcits. 3 of the 4 players here are seniors and all will put their best fight forward.
Doubles Champions Prediction:
Kellan Croatt/Jake Nelson (Waukee NW)
1A
The Singles Bracket
The biggest headline in Iowa high school tennis here on state tournament week, defending singles champion, and overwhelming favrotie to repeat, Caden Branum of Decorah, is not the top seed. To first preface this, please know there is no knock on Jack Briggs from Pella at all. Briggs has a doubles title in his own right from last year and has been part of multiple team state finals with the Dutch, he can play. But Branum (UTR 9.33) seeded behind Briggs (UTR 7.35) is a bit crazy. The only thing I can think of is coaches felt Briggs's wins over each of the Moon brothers, top 5 ranked players all year in 1A, was better than Branum's SOS. Decorah had a better SOS however. Branum beat Mason City's Reed Kruger, 2A this season, two wins over Tate Neymeyer who's seeded 4th, win over Parker Stroh, and a win over previous top 10 ranked Benny Ramker. Briggs has a win over Ethan Moon, and then 8 game pro set wins over Easton Moon and Parker Stroh twice. Even with all this said, it doesn't matter too much at the end of the day as these two I think are bound to meet in the finals. I think the seeds will hold and all make the semi-finals. Andrew Lawrence vs Laube in the quarters could be a very tight match as Lawrence has had a great year himself. Stroh got one of the more unfortuante draws and drew Briggs first, but I got Stroh finishing top 5 to cap off his freshman campaign.
Seeds
Jack Briggs, Pella
Caden Branum, Decorah
Tanner Laube, Grundy Center
Tate Neymeyer, Aplington-Parkersburg
1st Round Match to Watch:
Tyler Grote (SBL) vs Kaden Timm (South Tama) - SBL has qualified for the team state tournament for the first time in program history. The young program is led by sophomore lefty Tyler Grote, who will get his first crack at the big boys in his young career tomorrow. Timm is a veteran player and had a crazy districts a few weeks ago, gutting out a 3rd set win in the semis and reaching the finals, but ended up in the hospital. He made a speedy and safe recovery! Sneaky good match to open up the tournament.
Singles Champion Prediction:
Caden Branum (Decorah)
The Doubles Bracket
Very competitive doubles field in 2024! Highlighted by a potentially surprising pair in North Polk's Moon Bros who enter the tournament as the top seeded pair. I think three duos have a legit shot at winning the crown this week. The Moon's, Legrand/Schmit of Xavier and Ramker/Myers of WSR. Xavier and WSR both had tougher SOSs compared to North Polk and that could pay dividends the next two days. CRX and WSR would end up meeting in the semi-finals in the bottom half should they advance and hold seed. On the top half, Wahlert's top pair of Charlie Curtiss and Roan Martineau, got the best draw of the tournament, and they didn't even win their district. While the top 3 seeds hold, I think 4th seeded Pella drops a match to Curtiss/Martineau. Another potential team to keep an eye on is Baber/Jordan of Boone. The played WSR in the regular season but only got three games in before retiring for what I would presume was for injury.
Seeds
Ethan Moon/Easton Moon, North Polk
Charlie Legrand/Jacob Schmit, Xavier
Benny Ramker/Luca Myers, WSR
Josh Roozeboom/Cameron Rowe, Pella
1st Round Match to Watch:
Myers/Van Meter (SBL) vs Jasper/Johnson (Xavier) - Mentioned before, SBL is a new program on the rise, reaching the team state tournament for the first time. They get to take on a duo from the 4-time defending team champions in Xavier. Kind of an unknown with SBL here who didn't play anybody tough all season, against a couple of the middle of the lineup players for the #3 Saints.
Doubles Champions Prediction:
Ethan Moon/Evan Moon (North Polk)
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