BREMERTON — Sequim’s Kendall Hastings finished second at the West Central District 2/3 tournament held this weekend at the Kitsap Tennis Center.
Hastings beat K. Hoang of Highline 6-2, 6-3, Iris Ma of Sammamish 6-2, 6-0 and Luis Diebold of Foss to qualify for the championship match against Tareneh Khalinghi of Sammamish. Khalinghi was able to take the district title with a 6-2, 6-1 win in the finals.
Hastings will begin play in the state 2A tennis tournament Friday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle against Audrey Zdunich of RA Long.
Also in the district tournament was the Port Angeles doubles team of Cindy Liang/Gwyneth Van Blair, which won one match and lost two. Liang and Van Blair lost to Kaylee Mithun/Isabella Kang of Fife 6-0, 6-2, then came back to beat Jiali Deng and Jasmin Cruz of Lindbergh 6-2, 6-4. They lost their final match to Eiley Robertson and Illiana Brocket of North Kitsap 6-2, 6-3.
Though boys tennis is played in the fall, the state championship is also played this weekend at the Nordstrom Tennis Center, and several Olympic Peninsula players are in that tournament.
Sequim’s Garrett Little, the district tournament champion, and Port Angeles’ Reef Gelder, who finished third at district, are in the state tournament.
The Port Angeles duo of Edun Bailey and Jacob Miller is in the boys doubles’ tournament. Bailey is also in the state two-day 2A golf tournament that begins today, so he should be able to compete at state tennis.
The East Jefferson boys’ duo of Reid Martin and Stuart Dow is in the 1A tennis tournament at the Yakima Tennis Club, but Martin is also in the state 1A track and field championships this weekend as a javelin thrower (in fact, he is the district champion in the javelin), so it’s uncertain if the team will be able to compete at state tennis.
