Double trouble was the theme of the day as five of the best tennis players from the South Sound were crowned state champions.
Two pairs – Olympia’s John Stormans and Hunter Wood (Class 4A) and Washington’s Josh Rasmus and Daniel Yu (2A) – repeated as state doubles champions Saturday.
And one standout singles player, Charles Wright’s Daniel Ham, defended his title in the Class 1A-2B-1B ranks.
The Bears’ duo swept through the 4A championships for a second consecutive year, and repeated as the state’s top doubles team with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Union High’s Mark Bright and Connor Horne at the Columbia Basin Racquet Club in Richland.
Stormans and Wood won the first five games of the opening set, and were never challenged.
“We finished one-and-a-half hours before (in the 4A semifinals), watched them play and picked up some things,” Stormans said. “We wanted to stay aggressive and put first serves in, but also stay under control and take over the net. We wanted to take them out of the match early.”
Rasmus and Yu were just as sharp at the 2A tournament in Seattle. They beat Interlake’s Joe Motto and Eric Radoi, 6-1, 6-1, in the championship match.
“Our guys really raised their level of play,” Washington coach Earle McWright said. “They were focused, clean, and their (level of) play was high.”
Then there was Ham, who faced Overlake’s Trym Torvund in a rematch of last year’s finals. The result was the same – the Tarriers’ senior won, 6-2, 6-4, at the Yakima Tennis Club.
As Ham leaves for Lewis & Clark College, twin brothers Philip and Ted Grenley will be caretakers of the Charles Wright program.
The ninth graders cruised through the 1A/2B/1B draw, defeating Cashmere’s Nathan Sites and Adam Ross, 6-3, 6-2, in the finals.
“They just turned 15 a week ago,” Tarrriers coach Reini Vanderheyd said. “Basically they come from a tennis family … and I told them at the start of the season, ‘You guys have a legitimate chance of getting a (NCAA) Division I scholarship if you continue to work.’ And I would stick by that statement today, obviously.”
The Tarriers also won their third boys team title in a row – and fifth in the past six seasons.
Federal Way’s Mitch Stewart capped an undefeated sophomore season by beating Skyview’s Kent Andreasen, 6-2, 6-3, for his first Class 4A state boys singles championship in Richland.
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