The Carmel and Hamilton Southeastern boys tennis teams successfully defended their sectional championships on Thursday.
Over at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center, the No. 1-ranked and five-time defending state champion Greyhounds beat No. 19 Guerin Catholic to claim its 12th consecutive sectional title. It’s also the 35th overall championship in the Carmel program’s history.
The Greyhounds currently lead the final-round match 4-0. The No. 1 singles match between Carmel’s Broc Fletcher and Guerin Catholic’s Max Fuller was suspended in the third set due to darkness. Fletcher leads 2-6, 6-1, 5-3, with the current game at deuce. The match will resume at 5:15 p.m. today at Carmel.
All of the other matches were decided in straight sets. The Greyhounds advance to the Kokomo regional, where they will play the winner of the Logansport sectional in Tuesday’s semi-finals. Logansport plays Twin Lakes at 4:45 p.m. to determine that sectional’s winner.
CARMEL 4, GUERIN CATHOLIC 0
No. 1 singles: Broc Fletcher (C) leads Max Fuller (GC) 2-6, 6-1, 5-3 (to be completed)
No. 2 singles: Eli Mercer def. Jason Kolb 6-0, 6-0
No. 3 singles: Rocky Li def. John Tiplick 6-1, 6-0
No. 1 doubles: Srisanth Malpeddi and Jack Jentz def. Ty Harrington and Zach Thieme 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 doubles: Adrien Qi and Braedon McIntyre def. Alejandro Torres and Sean Loub 6-1, 6-2
Over at Fishers, No. 3-ranked Hamilton Southeastern beat No. 30 Noblesville 4-1 to win its third consecutive sectional title.
The Royals got victories at Nos. 2 and 3 singles and swept both doubles matches, thus clinching Southeastern’s 12th sectional championship in program history.
“I thought we played well,” said HSE coach Kirk Webber. “Noblesville’s a good team. As a coach, you’re always afraid you’re going to have a letdown after a match like yesterday, but our guys did a nice job coming out here.”
Webber said a key to the win was good starts in each of the match wins, with all of them quickly taking the first set. The coach said his team “took care of business, stayed focused and played well.”
The Millers’ win came at No. 1 singles, with Noah Bushong winning 6-1, 6-3. The victory qualifies Bushong for the individual tournament for the second consecutive year. Bushong will play the individual sectional at North Central next week.
Southeastern will also head to North Central on Tuesday for the team regional. The Royals will take on the host and No. 5-ranked Panthers in the semi-finals, which begin at 4:30 p.m. North Central won its sectional Thursday by beating Bishop Chatard.
HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN 4, NOBLESVILLE 1
No. 1 singles: Noah Bushong (N) def. Rohan Golla (HSE) 6-3, 6-1
No. 2 singles: Paul Schneider (HSE) def. Michael Krukover (N) 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 singles: Abhi Chaddha (HSE) def. Ethan Feliciano (N) 6-1, 6-0
No. 1 doubles: Aiden De Witt and Andrew Spirrison (HSE) def. Rory Bushong and Sean Vitales (N) 6-2, 6-0
No. 2 doubles: Nolan Houseman and Davila Rodrigo (HSE) def. Caden David and Camden David (N) 6-1, 6-0