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Tiger trio getting ready for State Tennis
Fort Scott High School will send three players to the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament, which will be held at Smoky Valley High School in Lindsborg this weekend.
Senior Colton Grillot and junior Kyle Altic will be playing doubles while senior Ben Bristley will be in singles. Grillot qualified for State last season with then-senior Charlie Sercer. The pair finished in eighth place.
Grillot looks for he and Altic to fare well at State this year.
"We had a good showing last year, placing eighth," Grillot said. "I really didn't expect to place that high last year and I think we can have a good showing again this year. We're a strong doubles team."
Altic says that he doesn't feel any nerves as he goes to State for the first time.
"I'm not really feeling any nerves," he said. "We just need to keep what we're doing."
Grillot and Altic finished second in the Southeast Kansas League Tournament and fifth at Regionals. They have a 21-3 record.
Bristley was fourth at SEK and sixth at Regional. He's 17-10 this season.
Bristley noted that he and Grillot have both been in the Tiger program since they were freshmen and feels very good about the fact that they both get to go to State as seniors.
"Colton and I have have always been evenly matched," Bristley said. "We both started off our freshman year in the tennis program and I'm glad we could make it to State this year."
Bristley went into the Regional fifth-place match assured of a State berth.
"I was really excited," Bristley said of the feeling he had once he knew he had qualified. "I've been in the tennis program for a long time and I'm glad I got to go this year."
Bristley will open against one of three players -- from either Pratt, Abilene or Hiawatha -- who finished third in their Regional tournaments. Grillot and Altic will face one of three teams that finished fourth. Grillot noted that all three of them -- from Ulysses, Hesston and Baldwin -- are 19-12 on the season.
"We had a tough Regional this year, so we should be able to compete with the team we'll face first," Grillot said. "Then if we win, we'll go on to face the second seed."
State is a two-day tournament which begins Friday. Those who make it to Saturday are assured of a medal, which go to the top 10 finishers.
"I'm just planning on going out there and placing in the top 10, hopefully," Bristley said.
"I'd say top 10," Altic said when asked what he hoped to accomplish.
Play will begin Friday at 11:30 a.m, following a seeding meeting.
NOTES -- Last year at Pratt, Smoky Valley won the team title, the singles championship and the doubles crown. The singles champ, junior Quinn Dippel, is back this year with a 32-1 record. Senior Seth Nelson, half of last year's double champion team, is also back. He and partner Koltin Howard-Talbott, another senior, are 30-4....