Central men compete at conference individual tennis meet

WAUKEE — In its only competition of the fall season, the Central College men’s tennis team had three medalists at the American Rivers Conference Individual Championships Saturday.

The 2020 version of the conference individual tournament featured a new format as each player was only allowed to play in either the singles bracket or doubles bracket, but not both. Additionally, only eight of the nine league schools competed as Coe College did not participate due to COVID-19 concerns.

In the A-Flight of both singles and doubles, the six-competitor field played a round-robin schedule instead of the normal bracket-style competition. David Boschma (senior, Olathe, Kan., Northwest HS) went 2-3 in singles and finished tied for third. The doubles tandem of Brad DiLeo (junior, Iowa City, West HS) and went 2-3, tying for third place.

“To be a senior like William and David are, everybody knows who they are,” coach Ryun Ferrell said. “They played tough and they played well. Brad and William are one of the more formidable doubles teams in our league and people are out to get them.”

The B-Flight doubles finals match was an all-Central affair. Ethan St. John (senior, Crystal Lake, Ill., Central HS) and Tanner Finken (junior, Carroll) topped Caleb Hamerlinck (sophomore, Huxley, Ballard HS) and Nick Scott (freshman, Fort Benton, Mont, Great Falls Central Catholic HS) 8-2 for the crown.

St. John and Finken started slow with an 8-6 win over Aaron Prince and Caleb Vasconez of Simpson College before taking an 8-1 victory over Sean Gelski and Riley Collins of Loras College in the semifinals.

“Those two have gotten better match-by-match since they started playing together last year,” Ferrell said. Ethan is one of our smartest doubles players and Tanner is one of our most physically gifted athletes. They are a good pairing.”

Hamerlinck and Scott won a trio of matches in their first competition together, knocking two of the top-three seeded teams in the process. They started with an 8-6 win over Danny Kramer and Aaron Mumm of Buena Vista in the first round. They took down No. 2 seed Zach Heyerhoff and Nate Kolz of Wartburg in the quarterfinals and ousted the No. 3 seed Connor Pivincka and Thomas Kampmeier of Loras 8-3 in the semifinals.

“Caleb spent a lot of time in the weight room and came back a different player this year,” Ferrell said. “Nick is probably the second best athlete on the team and he’s showing us that he wants to play and can do some damage out there.”

The runner-up in the B-Flight singles bracket, Trey Melvin (sophomore, Lawrence, Kan., Free State HS) went 3-1 on the day. He started with an 8-0 win over Simpson’s Ethan Humble and an 8-2 triumph over Wartburg Luke Smith. He then downed Eian Coad of Loras, the No. 3 seed, 8-4 (7-4) in the semifinals before losing the title 8-7 (9-7) to Luther’s top-seeded Aaron McGough.

“Trey is the man,” coach Ferrell said. “He’s improved day-by-day and I’m so proud of him and what he’s been able to accomplish in his short time. He’s going to make a big impact this season.”

In the C-Flight singles bracket, Nash Christian (sophomore, Whitewater, Wis., Fort Atkinson HS) placed fourth with a 2-2 mark. He won pair of 8-4 matches over the University of Dubuque’s Zach Norman and Buena Vista’s Kris Mintle.