Three Hamilton County tennis players will compete this weekend in the IHSAA boys tennis individual state finals at Park Tudor.
In singles, Fishers senior Reese Knoderer will play Bloomington North senior Nicholas Shirley in a quarter-final match at 2 p.m. Friday. The other quarter-final also features two seniors: Westview’s Isaiah Hotstetler takes on Southmont’s Adam Cox. Both are undefeated for the season.
The quarter-final winners advance to the Saturday morning semi-finals, which begin at 10 a.m. The Knoderer-Shirley winner takes on Culver Academies junior Tyler Li, while the Hotstetler-Cox winner plays Harrison senior Aaron Gu, who is also unbeaten and committed to the U.S. Naval Academy.
In doubles, the Carmel team of junior Braedon McIntyre and sophomore Michael Bao plays the Evansville North duo of junior Gabe Wilke and senior William Cusic in a Friday quarter-final match. McIntyre and Bao are perfect for the season at 17-0.
The winner of that match plays North Central’s junior team of Akshay Guttikonda and Owen Larrimer in the Saturday morning semi-finals. The Panthers team received a bye and the top seed after North Central won the team championship last weekend.
The other two quarter-finals will see Jasper’s team of sophomore Eli Flick and senior Noah Schue play Park Tudor juniors Oliver Seifert and Michael Fryburg, then Columbus North juniors Anvay Atram and Amrit Kar take on the South Bend St. Joseph duo of sophomore Jake Westberry and freshman Luke Blumentritt. Those two quarter-final winners will play each other in the Saturday morning semi-finals.
Both the singles and doubles championship matches begin at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Regional Winners
Knoderer and the McIntyre-Bao team advanced to state after winning the Kokomo regional last Saturday.
Knoderer won both of his matches in straight sets, beating West Lafayette senior Arun Raman 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-finals and senior Charles Behrman 7-5, 6-4 in the championship. McIntyre and Bao only dropped one game in their matches, defeating the Eastern Hancock team of senior Bryce Wennen and sophomore Myles Wennen 6-1, 6-0 in the semi-finals and Winchester seniors Andrew Loyd and Charles Sauser 6-0, 6-0 in the championship.