Fort Scott tennis wins Pittsburg tourney

PITTSBURG -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team took the title at the Pittsburg Invitational held here Thursday. The Tigers beat host Pittsburg by one point and third-place Iola by two. Labette County finished fourth with Columbus bringing up the rear.

All four of Fort Scott's entries finished in second place in their divisions with 3-1 record. Against each team, the Tigers fared no worse than 2-2.

Ben Bristley (5-6 this season) played No. 1 singles. He beat Labette County's Joe Garrett 8-1, Pittsburg's Mike Griffin 8-4 and Columbus' Blake MacKenson 8-3. He lost to Iola's Kent Toland, 8-2.

Kai Simmons-Mims (4-1) shifted to No. 2 singles. He defeated Conner Traxson of LCHS 8-0, Jacob Cloninger of Pittsburg in a tie-breaker 8-7 (7-4) and Columbus' Yo Lee 8-2. His loss was to Iola's Michael Middleton, 8-4.

"Both singles players gave us a good effort in this tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "Ben's only loss came against Toland who is playing very well and will probably be one of the better players in the state this season. Ben went through a tough stretch against Pittsburg, but came back and regrouped and pulled away for the win. Ben has worked hard on his game, he has some things he still needs to improve on in order to raise his game to the next level, but he is making progress.

"Kai had a pretty good tournament. Against Pittsburg and Iola he struggled a bit with his consistency and shot selection, but was able to come back in the Pittsburg match and force it to a tiebreaker and then win the breaker for a big win for us team-wise."

Colton Grillot and Charlie Sercer (7-4 as a pair) played No. 1 doubles. They beat Ryan Robinson/Tyler Julich of LCHS 8-1, Chase Vaughn/Alec Peterson of Iola 8-3 and Cody Spainhoward/Braydon Peterson of Columbus 8-1. Their loss was to Pittsburg's Josh Reed and Clay Southern in a tie-breaker, 8-7 (7-2).

"Colton and Charlie had a good tournament," Barr said. "They are continuing to improve their doubles play and get stronger as a team. They were pretty dominant in their wins, and their only loss was to a good Pittsburg team in a match that could have easily gone either way. They stayed aggressive today and kept the pressure on their opponents consistently."

Kyle Kelly and Bryce Daly (4-2) posted two shutouts in No. 2 doubles. Those were over Jaiden Winter/Eric Swanwick of Labette County and Garret Catron/Jordan Strickler of Iola. They also beat Nick Holman/Thomas Niegisch of Columbus 8-2. Pittsburg's Ryan Hall/Jack Wimmer posted an 8-6 win.

"Kyle and Bryce had a good tournament as well," Barr said. "These two sophomores are going to develop into a very good doubles team for us in the next few years. They struggled a bit with Pittsburg's pace, but they hung in and gave them a good match, and were in total control in their other three matches."

Tiger tennis will be going to Parsons on consecutive days next week and three times in all. The junior varsity team will be at the Parsons JV Tournament Monday. The varsity goes there for the Labette County Tournament on Tuesday and back again on Friday for the Parsons Invitational.