Southeastern’s Rich & Osswald, Carmel’s Bao & Mu competing in individual state tournament this weekend
The REPORTER
Two Hamilton County doubles teams are preparing for the IHSAA individual state tennis tournament, which takes place this weekend at Park Tudor.
The tournament features nine singles players and seven doubles teams competing for state championships. Due to the number of singles contestants, there will be one first-round match played at 10 a.m. Friday. Quarterfinals in both singles and doubles then begin at 2 p.m. Friday.
The Hamilton Southeastern team of senior Tyler Rich and junior Landon Osswald will play the Western duo of juniors Aidan Mawbey and Kaleb York. Another quarterfinal features the Carmel team of senior Michael Bao and sophomore Grant Mu taking on Bloomington South juniors Connor Couch and Joshua Sang.
The winners of those two matches will face off in the semifinals, which begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Park Tudor. In the other semifinal, Jasper seniors Caleb Schnarr and Eli Flick will play the winner of a Friday quarterfinal match between Brownsburg sophomores Ethan Coughill and Skyler Rose, and the Peru team of senior Gavin Eldridge and junior Jackson Bowell.
Semifinal winners will play in the state championship match, which begins at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Regional results
The two county teams qualified for the state finals after winning individual regional titles last Saturday.
Osswald and Rich played at the nearby Fishers regional and won both of their matches in straight sets. The Southeastern team beat the Shelbyville duo of sophomore Wyatt Armstrong and junior Aiden Smith 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals. Osswald and Rich then beat Brownstown Central seniors Lane Steward and Pierson Wheeler 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match; the BC team was unbeaten coming into the final.
The Royals team is 20-7 for the season.
Carmel’s Bao and Mu headed all the way up to La Porte for their regional try and won both matches easily. The Greyhounds took care of the Lowell team of senior Cooper Benton and sophomore Dylan Bisacchi 6-0, 6-0 in the semis, then beat Seeger sophomores James Cooksey and Macyn Hughes 6-2, 6-1 in the championship.
“They played well,” said Carmel coach Dan Brunette. “A lot of confidence. In the team tournament, they had faced very formidable teams from Zionsville, Guerin Catholic and Brebeuf (Jesuit). The regular season schedule we play also bodes well for them, because they face the toughest competition in the state.”
Bao and Mu are 16-3 for the season.
Westfield junior Parker Paramoure competed in the Kokomo singles regional last Saturday, falling in the semifinals to East Noble junior Ettore Bona 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Paramoure finished his season 19-6.