The dream season of one Mount Si boys’ tennis player will continue after a memorable performance at last week’s Kingco Tournament.
Senior Leonard Gebhardt made it all the way to the tournament title match, before ending up in second place.
Gebhardt opened his tournament play as the number two seed, earning him a first-round bye and a second-round match with Liberty’s Sho Kato. Gebhardt dominated that match, winning it 6-1, 6-1, advancing him to a semifinal against number three seed Dragos Puscalau of Sammamish. It looked as if Gebhardt would be in for a difficult challenge, but something happened on the way to the finals – the match ended up not happening.
Puscalau defaulted, handing the match to Gebhardt before a single point was scored. This sent the Wildcat senior to the final match, against Mercer Island’s Jordan Smith. Gebhardt’s run came up short, as he fell 6-0, 6-2 to Smith, handing the Islander the league title. Still, Gebhardt earned a berth to districts, which are next spring, and he looks like a contender for a state berth.
Everyone else in the Mount Si contingent was quickly eliminated. In singles action, Garrett Rohan won one game in his two matches as he fell to both Benny Tran of Sammamish and Gabe Monfried of Bellevue. Rohan fell to Tran 6-0, 6-0, then lost to Monfried 6-1, 6-0.
In doubles, Dane Aldrich and Tyler Ostby were in for the Wildcats, as they fell to Liberty’s Chris Weik and Ryan Maio in the first tound 6-3, 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker). After winning in their first loser-out match 6-2, 6-4 over Sammamish’s Kevin Hao and Dillon Moore, the Mount Si tandem got Weik and Maio again, and it was the Liberty pair who prevailed again, this a 6-1, 6-3 result knocking the Wildcat pair out.
Mike Grant and Tyler Mrachek had a decent showing in doubles; the Wildcat twosome took care of Liberty’s Daniel Craig and Nam Nguyen 6-1, 6-2 in round one, then were blanked 6-0, 6-0 by Zach Kosanke and Colin Dresser of Bellevue. Juanita’s Danny Zens and True Vue took care of the Mount Si pair in the loser-out match 6-3. 6-1.
