LHS boys earn sixth at State: Plank finishes third at Flight #1

The Lennox High School boys’ tennis team traveled to Rapid City on May 17th -19th for the Class A State tournament. This was a two-day event where each player competed in their corresponding flight in singles and doubles. Lennox earned sixth place as a team with Eli Plank taking third individually and Riley Nelson capturing fourth. 

“I’m really happy on how we competed and played throughout the whole tournament, and it was exciting to see us perform at a high level at the right time,” said LHS head coach Kevin Plank. “We ended up in 6th place, which was ahead of four teams that had beaten us in the regular season.”   

In doubles Flight #1, Eli Plank and Wyatt Holland came in as the #5 seed, which gave them a first-round bye, but then matched up against a strong #4 seed from St. Thomas More in the quarter finals. The match was competitive and went back and forth early, but STM proved to be too strong and took the win 10-5. Plank and Holland worked their way through Spearfish, 8-2, and Aberdeen Roncalli, 10-7, to earn the 5th place podium spot.   

At Flight #2 Duncan Johnson and Chase Lundquist came in as the #8 seed and took down the #9 seed from Milbank in the first round. However, they dropped their next match to the eventual state champions from Sioux Falls Christian. This put Johnson and Lundquist up against Huron to play for 5th place, but Huron took the win to end their run for a podium spot. 

At Flight #3 Riley Nelson and Cam Smith came in as the #6 seed and took care of Aberdeen Ronacalli in the first round but then dropped their next match to a strong Huron team.  

Lennox then took down Vermillion, which gave them a match-up vs Rapid City Christian for a 5th place finish, but the Comets were too much to overcome and took the win 10-4.  

In singles action, Plank came in as the #4 seed, which gave him a first-round bye. In the quarter finals, he took down Vermillion 10-2, but couldn’t come away with a win in the semi-finals against last year’s runner-up from Rapid City Christian.  

The loss put Plank in a position to play the #4 seed from Milbank, in which he won 10-4 to take home a 3rd place finish. Plank was also named to the All-Tournament team for his outstanding play. 

Holland came in as the #11 seed at Flight #2 and played a competitive first-round match vs Huron, but came up just short with a score of 8-10.  Holland then took down Spearfish 8-6, which put him in the consolation finals vs Roncalli. This match went back and forth and could have gone either way, but Roncalli pulled away at the end to take the win 10-6.   

At Flight #3, Johnson came in as the #10 seed and was matched up against the #7 seed from Roncalli.  Johnson played smart and consistently throughout the match and had chances to pull out the win, but dropped the match 10-9(7-4) in the end to move him to the consolation side. Johnson then took down Milbank 8-4 and then Spearfish 10-3 to earn the consolation champion.  

At Flight #4 singles Lundquist had to bow out due to illness, so Easton Timmermans subbed into his spot.  Timmermans went 1-2 and made it to the consolation finals with a win against Milbank before dropping his last match to Vermillion.  

At Flight #5 Nelson earned the #4 seed, which gave him a first-round bye and then paired him up with the #5 seed from STM in the quarterfinals.  Nelson used his senior experience and outlasted him to take the win 10-6.  This put Nelson in a matchup with the top seed from Sioux Falls Christian in the semifinals.  Nelson played some of his best tennis of the season and competed hard, but came away with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat.  This put him in a position to play Rapid City Christian for 3rd or 4th place, but Christian played consistently and smart to take the win 10-5, which gave Nelson 4th place on the podium.  

At Flight #6, Smith came in as the #8 seed, which put him in a first-round match-up vs the #8 seed from Spearfish.  Smith came out ready to play and earned a solid win 10-2, to put him in the quarterfinals vs the #1 seed from Sioux Falls Christian.  Smitch continued his strong play, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the eventual champion and dropped the match 10-4. Smith was then matched up vs Roncalli for a chance to earn a 5th-place podium finish, but Roncalli played too consistently and won the match 10-2.