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St. Cloud-area tennis players win matches at state tournament, Foley places fifth

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St. Cloud-area tennis players win matches at state tournament, Foley places fifth

MINNEAPOLIS – Two central Minnesota teams competed in the state tennis championships – Foley finished in fifth place in Class 1A and Becker was eliminated from the Class 2A tournament in two matches. 

Bulldog senior Zach Bengtson also made the Class 2A tournament as an individual and Foley doubles pair of senior Gavin Gross and junior Jack Erkens went 1-1 in Class 1A.  

Both Foley (16-7) and Becker (19-7) had tough in-state draws in the opening round of the team tournament, Foley losing 5-2 against Breck (10-7) on June 4 in the at Reed-Sweatt InnerCity Tennis Center and Becker going 0-17 against The Blake School (22-2) and Eden Prairie (11-9) at the Baseline Tennis Center. 

Two Falcon doubles teams were undefeated in the Class 1A team tournament: the No. 2 squad of junior Lane Stangler and senior Jack Worm and No. 3 partners Cole Rueckert and Mason Weikert – both juniors. In the loser’s bracket, Foley eliminated Montevideo (12-6) in a shutout, then lost in the consolation round to Cotter (18-2) by a score of 4-3 with all three wins coming from doubles pairs.  

Gross played individually, his only match win coming against Montevideo 6-1/6-3. In the first round, Gross wasn’t particularly competitive, but in his final team match he pushed Cotter’s Pedro Alonso to 6-4 in both sets. 

Gross competed in the Class 1A doubles tournament with Erkens on June 6. In the first round they advanced past Hibbing’s (14-6) Keaton Petrick and Isiah Hildenbrand 6-4/6-3, then lost 7-5/6-4 to Noah Ryder and Husdon Zimmerman of Schaeffer Academy (11-5). 

Ryder and Zimmerman lost a competitive third place match after being eliminated by champions Leo Benson and Maik Nguyen from St. Paul Academy and Summit School (16-6). 

Erkens played with senior Landon Harris for Foley’s team competition, the duo going 2-0 after an opening defeat to Breck. All of the individual Falcons went 1-2 , with junior Aaron VanderWeyst, junior Weston Harris and sophomore Colton Stangler joining Gross in losing to their Cotter opponents in the fourth-place match. All four showed fight in their final set, scoring multiple points with Harris and Stangler losing 6-3 and VanderWeyst falling 6-2. 

In the Class 2A individual competition, Bengtson was eliminated by state No. 3 Aaron Beduhn 6-0 and 6-1. Wayzata’s (19-0) junior finished runner-up to undefeated sophomore Tej Bhagra from Rochester Mayo (18-2). Bengtson competed unseeded in the tournament with a second-place finish in Section 5/8-2A. 

The senior also had tough matches for the Bulldogs in the team tournament. Bengston lost 6-2/6-0 against Blakes’ No. 1 Kai Chen and 6-1/6-4 against Zaden Chau of Eden Prairie. In the No. 2 matches sophomore Troy Nuest won a game in both sets against Eden Prairie’s Varin Tangeti, but lost 6-0/6-0 to his first opponent Tarun Gopalakrishnan. Becker’s last individual, sophomore Landon Peterson, lost 6-1/6-3 to Blake’s Steven Cao and 6-1 in both sets against Eden Prairie’s Milind Murthy.  

The Bulldogs’ third doubles team was its most competitive. Junior Jon Drury and sophomore Nathan Weiss finished on a 6-3/6-4 match against Eden Prairie after losing their opening competition 6-0/6-2. Becker’s No. 1 team of sophomore Sawyer Brown and junior Garrett Lane won just one game – coming in the first set against Eden Prairie. Eighth grader Brock Herdina and freshman Carter Ager went 6-0/6-2 against Blake and 6-0/6-3 against Eden Prairie.  

Contact reporter Reid Glenn at rglenn@gannett.com. 

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