Runners Ty Sullivan & Grace McElroy of Watertown & Kaleb Foltz of Tri-State also shine

WATERTOWN — Senior Karlie Schulte and the Watertown High School girls tennis team put the finishing touches on a 15-3 dual season Thursday by sweeping Aberdeen Roncalli 9-0 in a dual at the Highland Park Courts.

It was the final home appearance for Schulte, the team's lone senior, and a good tune-up for the Eastern South Dakota Conference tournament on Monday and Tuesday at Pierre. Watertown's season will end with the state Class AA tournament Oct. 5-6 in Sioux Falls.

"It was a great day for tennis and a fun way to end for the regular season on Senior Night," said WHS head coach Ryan Zink. "Karlie Schulte is our only senior and she has meant a lot to Arrow Tennis. She still has ESD and state go go and I know she will continue to work hard to end the season on a positive note."

Ellie Zink, Leyla Meester, Faith Berg, Sophie Nichols, Cayda Weiss and Schulte each posted straight-set singles wins for the Arrows, who did the same in doubles with Zink-Meester, Berg-Nichols and Weiss-Schulte.

"We started with doubles and I was happy with the girls going for more shots at the net," said Zink. "The communication was also better. Singles also went really well."

The Arrows are the defending ESD champions and certainly hope to make a bid to repeat. The tournament is a two-day event this year with play-in and first-round singles matches scheduled for Monday. The rest of the matches will be played on Tuesday.

"I'm excited to see what the girls can do in the next two weeks," added Zink.

Watertown 9, Aberdeen Roncalli 0 — Singles: Zink def. Katherine Kretchman 6-1, 6-0; Meester def. River Haskell 6-1, 6-0; Berg def. Raley Haskell 6-1, 6-0; Nichols def. Anna Mitzell 6-3, 6-1; Weiss def. Keira Rivett 6-1, 6-4; Schulte deef. Josie Mitzel 6-1, 6-0. Doubles: Zink-Meester def. Kretchman-River Haskell 6-0, 6-1; Berg-Nichols def. Raley Haskell-Rivett 6-2, 6-2; Weiss-Schulte def. Anna-Josie Mitzel 6-1, 6-0.

Russ Strande Cross Country Invite

BROOKINGS — Watertown's Ty Sullivan and Grace McElroy each were runner-ups and Aberdeen Central won the boys division in the Russ Strande Cross Country Invitational on Thursday at the Edgebrook Golf Course.

"Saturday to Thursday race is hard turnaround but the kids responded well to it," said Watertown head coach Jenn McElroy. "We continue to drop time and up our places."

Ernest Ting of Brookings won the boys' 5,000-meter race in 16 minutes and 26.07 seconds, followed by Sullivan (16:53.42), Joseph Perkins (16:55.41) and Tate DeVries (16:58.36) of Aberdeen Central and Jack Campbell of Tea Area (16:69.97). The race featured 63 runners.

Hannah Genrich took the 55-runner girls' 5,000 in 19:06.33, followed by Grace McElroy of Watertown (19:17.33), Juna Ramey of Aberdeen Central (19:47.89), Autumn Gilhooly of Harrisburg (19:55.99) and Jaycie Babb of Tea Area (20:03.53).

"Our girls had five in the top 20, which is something we haven't seen in a really long time. They are running really well right now," said McElroy. "The boys had a couple of place winners, which is always nice to get."

Aberdeen Central won the boys division with a score of 38, followed by Brookings at 46, Watertown 74, Tea Area 98, Harrisburg 103, Brandon Valley 174 and Huron 208.

Harrisburg took the girls division with a score of 28. Watertown was second at 52, followed by Tea Area (68), Aberdeen Central (77) and Brandon Valley (151).

Watertown is scheduled to host its own invitational on Thursday at 2 p.m. at Cattail Crossing Golf Course.

Other Watertown Runners — Boys: 9. Dane Stark, 17:10.83; 22. Bayley Steiner, 18:06.14; 23. Isaiah Norton, 18:11.16; 28. Tucker Lunde, 18:24.07; 30. Gabe List, 18:45.41; 33. Ben Peterson, 18:52.28; 37. Logan Becker, 18:58.23; 51. Chase Mathews, 19:46.11. Girls: 8. Kate McElroy, 20:22.55; 9. Olivia Anderson, 20:39.24; 18. Ellery Stark, 21:47.51; 19. Jenny Bevers, 22:01.63; 31. Grace List, 23:20.61; 35. Isabella Horning, 23:41.47; 40. Lola Barrett, 23:58.61; 51. Abigail Reeves, 25:04.91.

Other Aberdeen Central Runners — Boys: 8. David VanVeen, 17:08.87; 11. Sam Schultz, 17:18.57; 12. Christian Wells, 17:21.44; 14. Carson Urlacher, 17:22.03; 17. Rylan Johnson, 17:45.25; 18. Esten Foss, 17:49.66; 19. Max Nelson, 17:50.59; 20. Patrick Severson, 17:59.95; 25. Tino Lopez, 18:17.55. Girls: 12. Morgan VanVeen, 21:12.50; 26. Khloe Cochran, 22:32.56; 29. Angie Lopez, 23:14.89; 30. Allison Brenner, 23:26.64; 32. Alyssa Novstup, Aberdeen Central, 23:24.89; 33. Isabella Vrbka, 23:26.64; 37. Liz Preszler, 23:51.10; 38. Elsa Schiferl, 23:54.50; 41. Kylee Henley, 23:59.67; 42. Anneliese Miller, 24:04.72; 43. Olivia Spjut, 24:05.83; 46. Scout Rosendahl, 24:19.09.

Complete results can be found at www.athletic.net.

Russ Strande Invite Results: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/225079/info

Clark-Willow Lake Invite Cross Country

CLARK — Kaleb Foltz of Tri-State won the boys' 5,000-meter race on Thursday in the Clark-Willow Lake Invitational cross country meet at the Clark Municipal Golf Course.

Foltz topped a field of 38 runners to win the race in a time of 17 minutes and 23.84 seconds. Dylan Gerdes of Madison (17:35.80) was second, followed by Brenton Westberry (18:54.18) and Tanner Reed (19:01.91) of Flandreau and Cooper Pommer of Clark-Willow Lake (19:23.75). Taylor Merkel of Clark-Willow Lake was eighth (19:37.69).

Faith Wiese of Flandreau won the girls' 5,000 in 19:03.66, followed by Kamryn Nesheim of Clark-Willow Lake (20:28.20) and Flandreau runners Diamond Roy (21:34.78) and Kiley Westberry (21:35.45). Hadley Gjerde was fifth (21:42.20), Cadence Bochek sixth (21:58.34), Emma Bochek eighth (22:18.85) and Alexa Schmidt 10th (22:55.66) for Clark-Willow Lake. The race included 24 runners.

Flandreau swept the team titles, winning the girls division by a 5-9 margin over Clark-Willow Lake and edging Madison 10-11 for the boys division title.

Complete results can be found at www.athletic.net.

Clark-Willow Lake Invite Results: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/231526/info

Sioux Valley Invitational Cheer

VOLGA — Perennial Class A champion Sioux Valley won its own invitational on Thursday with a 168.5 score.

The Cossacks have won all 16 state Class A competitive cheer titles in state history.

Dell Rapids finished second on Thursday with a 133.5 scores. Deubrook Area took third (121.0), Faulkton Area fourth (119.0) and Elkton-Lake Benton fifth (107.5).

Sisseton Invitational Golf

SISSETON — Tate Steffensen of Sioux Valley fired an 82 to record a three-shot victory on Thursday in the Sisseton Boys Golf Invitational.

Brevin Fliehs and Carter Simon of Groton Area tied for third with 86s, Jonathan DeBoer of Milbank and Lucas Daggett of Aberdeen Roncalli tied for fifth with 86s and a pack of golfers at 90s included Frank Barse of Tiospa Zina and Roncalli's Jesse Hernandez, Finn Anderson and Gannon May.

Roncalli edged Groton 357-358 for the team title, followed by Flandreau (360), Sioux Valley (362), Milbank (375), Dell Rapids (376), Tri-Valley (377), Aberdeen Central jv (397) and Sisseton (442).

Sisseton hosts the Region 1A tournament on Monday.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Area highlights for girls tennis, cross country and competitive cheer