Sheboygan North’s Ross punches ticket to sectionals

APPLETON – Sheboygan North’s Morgan Ross won his lone match and was the only Sheboygan area player to advance out of Tuesday’s WIAA Division 1 sub-sectional at the Fox Cities Racquet Club.

Ross, who is seeking his fourth trip to the state meet and second in singles, was barely tested in a 6-0, 6-1 win over Sheboygan South’s Colton Wicklund. Ross will need to win one match at Thursday’s sectional meet to qualify for state.

Ross wasn’t the only Golden Raiders’ flight to win a match on Tuesday, though.

Avinash Murthy posted a 7-5, 6-3 win over Manitowoc Lincoln’s Mason Gollata at No. 3 singles, but was upended by Matt Tentler of Fond du Lac 6-3, 6-4 in the second match of the day.

At No. 4 singles, Lij Thao breezed past Oshkosh West’s Matt Jorgensen, 6-1, 6-0, but was knocked out of the tournament in his second match, a loss to top-seeded Evan Kubiak of Neenah.

The North No. 2 doubles pairing of Will Hapeman and James Rohde won a marathon 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 match over Ismael Jaffri and Arjun Sharma of Oshkosh West in the first round. The three-set win might have taken a toll on the pairing as they battled the top-seeded Neenah tandem of Bill Breining and Grant Mauthe in the second round but lost, 6-4, 6-0.

The Golden Raiders’ No. 3 pairing of Tim Gotwald and Max Harms also won a long, three-set match in its first round, beating Manitowoc Lincoln’s Sean Englebrecht and Steven Manis 7-5, 4-6, 7-6. Gotwald and Harms lost to Neenah’s top-seeded duo of Carter Brown and Kyle Kappes, 6-2, 6-0, in the second round.

Fond du Lac edged Neenah, 22-20, for the top score at the sub-sectional, while Sheboygan North finished fourth, two points behind Oshkosh North. Sheboygan North was the only one of the seven teams that didn’t score a point on the day.

Division 2

Plymouth sub-sectional: The host-Panthers advanced four flights to sectionals, including both the No. 1 singles and doubles.

Matt Primozic won his match at No. 1 singles to move on, while the No. 1 doubles pairing of Gabe and Gavin Binversie also posted a victory in their match to advance.

Also moving on for the Panthers was No. 3 singles player Ryan Gallagher and the No. 3 doubles team of Ben Pierce and Connor McManus.

Plymouth is tied with Ripon for third place in the team standings in its sub-sectional, two points behind Kewaskum. Grafton was the top scorer in the group with 24 points.

Notre Dame sub-sectional: Howards Grove and Kohler both had strong showings at the sub-sectional tournament advancing four and two flights, while finishing second and third, respectively.

The Tigers qualified their top doubles flights for sectionals as the No. 1 pairing of Andrew Reinemann and Zach Fritz and the No. 2 tandem of Trent Benninghaus and Brad Olson each advanced.

Also moving on for Howards Grove were Travis Stanczyk and Eric Reinemann at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively.

All but Andrew Reinemann and Fritz had to win two matches on Tuesday to advance.

Kohler qualified both of its No. 1 flights to sectionals.

Casey Johnson won his match at No. 1 singles, while the Blue Bombers’ top pairing of Noah Fink and Archie Brohn also posted a win in its lone match to advance.

Sheboygan Falls’ No. 3 doubles team of Ben Krueger and Ben LeBlanc were the lone sectional qualifiers for the Falcons, posting a pair of wins to advance.

Host Green Bay Notre Dame scored the most points in the sub-sectional with 24, followed by Howards Grove (16), Kohler (14) and Sheboygan Falls (10).