The boys tennis team from Spirit Lake-Okoboji is returning to some unfamiliar territory this spring. On Friday they competed at the Class 1A district meet in Spencer. Wes Bergquist and Brandon Stoll made an impressive run through the doubles bracket, taking down teams from Cherokee (6-0, 6-1), LeMars (6-2, 6-1), and Denison-Schleswig (6-2, 7-5) to reach the final round. There they would fall 6-2, 6-1 to Storm Lake, but in the process qualify for the state tournament in Waterloo on May 27-28. SL-O has not had a participant in the individual state tournament since 2007. The other doubles team of Tyler Bice and Joe Oldson fell in the first round to Cherokee (6-0, 6-0). In the singles competition, Jordan Richey and Brett Kraus both won their opening round matches before falling in the quarterfinals. Richey defeated Kolby Jones of Bishop Heelan (6-0, 6-3), but took the loss against Mike Ahlers of LeMars (6-0, 6-0). Kraus notched a win over Desmond Khounlo of Storm Lake (2-6, 6-0, 6-3), then fell to Spencer’s Michael Gabhart (6-0, 6-1). Ahlers and Gabhart would meet later in the finals, qualifying both for state. As a team, Spirit Lake-Okoboji tallied thirteen team points to finish third behind Storm Lake and LeMars, qualifying the team to compete in the substate tournament for the first time since 2006. The Bulldogs would eventually defeat the Indians 5-0 in LeMars on Saturday.
