Netter Ratzlaff finishes sixth
Hillsboro tied for eighth place out of 19 schools at the 3A state tennis meet, held Friday and Saturday at Wichita Collegiate.
Three Trojan tennis players qualified for state — singles player Brandon Ratzlaff and doubles players Florin Nae and Tyler Weinbrenner.
Ratzlaff's first opponent of the day was Brandon Ewertz of Conway Springs. Ratzlaff fell to Ewertz 6-0, 6-4 and next faced Cimarron's Curtis Kramer, whom he defeated 9-1.
Ratzlaff went on to defeat Jimmy McKee of Sacred Heart-Salina and Preston Moore of Belleville to advance to the fifth-place game. But that's where Ratzlaff's winning streak ended — he lost to Claflin's Jordon Hickel to take home sixth place.
In doubles, the Hillsboro duo of Nae and Weinbrenner started the day by losing to Collegiate, then winning against Ellinwood before dropping their third contest to Hesston. They finally lost one more in the ninth-place bracket to Hesston to take home 11th place.
Claflin was the top school of the bracket, taking home 42 points overall and thereby besting Collegiate, which garnered 25 points. Kevin Arnhold of Hesston won first place in the singles bracket, and the Collegiate duo of Ben Hawley and Chris Pankow took first in doubles.
