DUNCAN – El Reno High School's boys tennis team overcame a stacked deck at the Class 5A West Region II Championships to narrowly miss a ticket to the state tourney.
The Indians faced a tough road from the start when they were sent to the Duncan regional. However, the deck was stacked even more when perennial powerhouse Bishop McGuinness was added to the eight-team field. The Irish were swapped out for Chickasha, which had sent its girls team to Duncan only a week earlier.
It was not the only swap between the girls and boys regional pairings. Shawnee, which was sent east during the girls regional action, was switched to the west for boys and sent to Duncan. That pushed Deer Creek from Duncan back to the Oklahoma City regional and Harrah to the east regional.
“I don't know why they switched,” El Reno head coach Michael Booher said. “The tennis coaches set the regional pairings, not the state, and as long as no one complains too much, they do what they want.”
Bishop McGuinness has won two of the last six boys state team championships, and combined with Duncan, have won a total of 12 individual state titles since 2000.
“All of our boys played hard, it was just a tough regional,” Booher said.
El Reno's fifth-place finish came in doubles action. The top team of seniors Justin Tate and Nathan Maynard dropped their opening-round match to Altus' Chris Cheney and Justin Harlan by scores of 2-6/0-6.
The pair rebounded to defeat Northwest Classen's Billy Prasasook and Vu Tran in straight sets, setting up a match with McGuinness' Stephen Young and Jonathan Messick to a state ticket. The Irish prevailed by scores of 6-3/6-1.
That dropped El Reno into the fifth-place match against Lawton MacArthur's Tyler Price and Gabriel Perkins – which the Indians won by default.
“They played hard against some tough competition,” Booher said.
El Reno's No.2 doubles team of Daniel Hobson and Jace Smith took sixth after injury defaulting the fifth-place match. The pair fell a match short of a state pass after losing a three-setter to Kyle Meraz and Dylan Warner of Lawton MacArthur. El Reno took the first set 6-4 before losing the next two by duplicate 6-4 scores.
“They played great,” Booher said. “They would have made it to state if they would have beaten MacArthur, but it was a tough match.”
After losing in the opening round to Altus' Connor Long and Braden Wagoner (1-3/3-6), El Reno bounced back with a straight sets win over Southeast to set up the match with the Highlanders.
In No.1 singles action, Kyler Bollinger dropped a pair of straight set matches to McGuinness' John Byrne and Southeast's Quincy Armstrong.
Due to inclement weather, which forced a six-hour rain delay, the seventh-place matches were decided by a coin flip – which Bollinger lost to Lawton MacArthur's Anthony Coby.
Freshman Aaron Gooden won the same coin flip at No.2 singles over Northwest Classen's Lun Bui. Gooden opened the tourney with a 6-0/6-0 setback to Michael Knight of Altus, before losing in straight sets to David Guerrero of Southeast.