The first day of competition at the Iowa Boys State Tennis Championships in Waterloo ended with a flury of success for three area standouts. The Spirit Lake-Okoboji doubles tandem of Wes Bergquist and Brandon Stoll made their way to the consolation semifinals in Class 1A in their second trip to the state meet. The duo opened with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Ben Albright and John Eide of Ft. Dodge St. Edmonds. In the second round, Bergquist/Stoll was matched up against the second-seeded pair of Brandon Schneider and Tom Runde from Dubuque Wahlert, and suffered a 6-4, 6-2 setback. The loss dropped the senior-junior combination into the consolation bracket, where they defeated Ballard’s Peter Rietgraf and Ryan Vincent in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-2, 4-6, 1 (5). Bergquist and Stoll will continue Saturday against the tandem of Jordan Nelson and Craig White of Red Oak.
In the Class 1A singles competition, Spencer’s Michael Gabhart, a two-time qualifier, opened play against Jimmy Huiskamp of Davenport Assumption. The junior pushed the match to a third set, however, came up short in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 loss. Gabhart then won back-to-back matches in the consolation bracket to advance to semifinals. The first victory came by a 6-1, 7-6(3) margin over Nate Ohms of Harlan, which was followed by a win by forfeit against Noah Schmall from Cedar Rapids Xavier. Next up, Gabhart plays Saturday against Sam Arsanjani of Fairfield Maharishi.
