By Will Willems
Staff Intern
INDIANAPOLIS â??? The 10th annual John Shirley Invitational co-hosted Aug.
26 by North Central (Indianapolis) and Carmel might be the best
tennis tournament outside the state meet. The 16-team invitational, named after
the former North Central coach of 17 years, is broken into two divisions of
eight teams.
This
yearâ??s Shirley Division, the more highly regarded of the two, included the top
eight ranked teams in the state. The Buckley Division, named after another former
Panther coach, also included four ranked teams. When all this excellent tennis
had ended Saturday, sixth-ranked Carmel
had earned the tourney championship with 29 points.
The
Greyhounds edged runner-up No. 4 Center Grove (27), with host No. 2 North
Central (24) third. Top-ranked
Park Tudor tied for
fourth with fifth-ranked Floyd Central, with sixth-place defending state
champion Cathedral followed by No. 8 Homestead and third-ranked Brebeuf.
â??Itâ??s a
huge first step for us,â? said Carmel
coach Mike Bostic. â??I donâ??t think anyone would have picked us today. It shows
what our kids are made of.
â??Itâ??s a
huge boost of confidence, but in a few days we are going to see the best
again.â?
The
Greyhounds were paced by the second doubles team of Harrison Hines and Mike Fox,
who held on to beat Indianapolis Cathedralâ??s David Stauffer and Jeff Lucas 6-4,
7-5.
Even with
all the great teams in attendance, no clear state favorite emerged as all the
teams finished within 20 points of each other.
The No. 1
singles crown was won for the third straight year by North Centralâ??s Paul
Chapelle, who dominated the competition on the way to victory. Chapelle
disposed of Homesteadâ??s Cameron Huffman 6-2, 6-2 in the morningâ??s first round,
then came back in the afternoon to made quick work of Cathedralâ??s Luke
Bielawski (6-2, 7-6 (4)) and Carmelâ??s Andrew Nguyen (6-2, 6-4).
â??I had to
play very well to do it,â? Chapelle said. â??Itâ??s great to win individual titles,
but the team comes first. The goal is to win team state â??? an individual title
would just be bonus.â?
The other
singles champions were Center Groveâ??s Austin Sasone in a two-set No. 2 victory
over Park Tudorâ??s Michael Rardon (6-4, 6-4) and Park Tudorâ??s Kishan Shah at No.
3 singles with a win over Charlie Russell of Cathedral.
The No. 1
doubles team of Craig Kirchgessner and Adam Struble from Floyd Central traveled
all the way up I-65 to wrest the title from Center Groveâ??s Matt Smith and Gary Nickell
in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
The
victorious Highlander duo had outlasted Brebeufâ??s Adam Katz and Charlie Hurst
6-2, 3-6, 11-9 in the fist round to avenge a loss from the previous week, then
downed Homestead
6-2, 6-7, 7-6.
â??We were
ready for it,â? Kirchgessner said of the first match. â??We knew it was going to
be a good match.â?
Added
Struble: â??They beat us last Friday, so we wanted to come out and show them
something.â?
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