Knoxville swept the South Central Conference tennis tournaments on May 12 in its first year in the conference, as the Clarke boys finished third and the Clarke girls took fourth.
Clarke’s boys team scored 17 points to finish behind Knoxville (23) and Centerville (19).
Clarke’s No. 1 doubles team of Ali Aly and Reed Morris marched to the SCC doubles championship.
Ali and Morris won their first match by a 10-1 score, before defeating Centerville’s team of Spencer Varner and Daniel Berja, 10-7 in the semifinals. Ali and Morris then cruised 10-2 over Centerville’s Devon Glosser and Stevie Cochran in the finals.
In singles play, senior Reed Kale won 6-4 over sophomore Billy Otto in the fifth-place match.
On the girls side, Knoxville scored 19 points to win, followed by Centerville’s 16 points and Davis County’s 13. Clarke scored 11 points in fourth place.
Clarke’s No. 1 doubles team of Sydnee Redman and Dania Echeveste finished runner-up, losing a 10-4 match to Knoxville’s Taylor Carter and Avery Neer in the finals.
Redman and Echeveste won 10-1 in the quarterfinals and 10-6 in the semifinals.
Freshman Sydney Sickels won her first round match 10-4 over Chariton’s Alexis Mullins before losing 10-5 in the quarterfinals.
Sickels then won three matches in the consolation bracket to finish fifth, winning 8-6, 9-7 and 8-5.
Districts
In boys district action on May 14, Clarke finished fifth with 10 points. Glenwood won with 14 points, followed by Creston/O-M and Council Bluffs St. Albert tying with 12.
Kale and Otto each won their first round matches in singles play, with Kale topping Southwest Valley’s Quinton Scott 6-4, 6-1 before falling 6-1, 6-1 to eventual runner-up Ryan Kucera of Creston/O-M.
Otto won 6-0, 6-3 over Shenandoah’s Devon Ashenfelter, before falling 7-5, 6-4 to Glenwood’s Zach Kirkpatrick.
In doubles play, the team of Aly and Morris finished third. Aly and Morris won 6-3, 6-2 in the first round and cruised to a 6-0, 6-4 win in the quarterfinals, before falling 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Aly and Morris won 10-3 in the third-place match.
Regionals
In girls regional action on Saturday, Clarke fell to Norwalk 5-1, ending its season with a record of 6-4.
Clarke’s lone win came at No. 1 singles, where Redman won 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) over Liz Nimmo.
Echeveste had a close match at No. 2 singles, where she won the first set 7-5 before falling 6-3, 10-5 in the final two sets. Lexy Carson also had a close match at No. 6 singles, winning 6-1 in the first set, before dropping the final two sets 7-6 (8-6) and 11-9.