Carsyn Weich, Matteah Graves win singles titles as Mitchell girls tennis posts runner-up ESD finish
Sep. 26—PIERRE — Carsyn Weich and Matteah Graves each brought home first-place hardware from the Eastern South Dakota Conference tennis tournament, where the Mitchell High School girls tennis team claimed second place overall on Tuesday at Griffin Park.
Weich, a junior, won the Flight 3 singles title, defeating Aberdeen Central's Laney Gonsor 10-1 in the championship match. At Flight 6 singles, Graves defeated Watertown's Karlie Schulte for the title. For the tournament, Weich handled her opponents by a total score of 30-4, while Graves held a 30-11 advantage over the two days.
The Kernels had a top-two placewinner at five of the six singles flights, with Delaney Degen, Megan Mastel and Katie Morgan finishing as the runner-up at Flight 1, Flight 2 and Flight 4, respectively. At Flight 5, Elly Clement recovered from a quarterfinal loss to win the consolation championship for fifth place.
In the doubles competition, the MHS duo of Morgan and Graves took second in Flight 3 as the Kernels' top doubles placement. Degen and Mastel took fourth at Flight 1 doubles, while Weich and Clement were also fourth at Flight 2 doubles.
In the team standings, Aberdeen Central edged out Mitchell 292.5 to 278 for the top spot, as Watertown slotted in third with 241.5 points.
Leading Aberdeen to the team title, Livia Douglas and Reese Comstock won Flight 4 and Flight 5 singles, respectively, and also won doubles titles. Douglas paired with Gonsor (Flight 3 singles runner-up) to win Flight 2 doubles, and Comstock teamed with Olivia Geier to take Flight 3 doubles. Julia Knie (sixth in Flight 1 singles) and Avery Tennant (fourth in Flight 2 singles) also combined to post a third-place finish at Flight 1 doubles for the Golden Eagles.
Paced by Flight 2 singles champion Leyla Meester, Watertown slotted in third in the team standings with 241.5 points. Rounding out the team scores were Brandon Valley (175), Yankton (172) — of note, the Gazelles boasted Flight 1 singles winner Nora Krajewski — Huron (54.5), Harrisburg (41), Pierre (35) and Brookings (0).
Mitchell has one dual remaining on its schedule ahead of next week's state tournament, a meeting with Sioux Falls Roosevelt at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, at Hitchcock Park.
