Great Bend Post
A third-place finish sounds pretty good. It sounds even better when the field includes eight teams from seven schools. The Great Bend High School tennis team scored 43 points for third place at the Dodge City Invitational Thursday. Dodge City and Liberal scored 53 points to tie for first.
No. 1 and 2 singles and doubles teams were put into one bracket. Brendyn Schroeder advanced all the way to the finals in the singles bracket. He opened with an 8-6 win against Dodge City, then handled Meade 8-1. He lost an 8-7 (2) battle to Dodge City's top player in the finals. Aaron Ramirez opened with an 8-1 loss to Liberal in the bracket. He blanked Meade 8-0, lost to Cimarron 8-2, then defeated Cimarron's other player 8-6 to secure 11th place.
The two Panther doubles teams had to go head to head in a fight for fifth place. Cameron Harbaugh and Kaden Deines entered as the No. 2 doubles team, opening with an 8-5 win against Meade before an 8-3 loss against Dodge City. Jordan Manning and Jacob Parks won their first match against Dodge City 8-6, but lost to Meade's top team 8-4 in round two. Harbaugh and Deines defeated Manning and Parks 8-2 in the consolation bracket. Harbaugh and Deines lost an 8-7 (3) battle to Liberal in the fifth-place match.
The Panthers head back west to Garden City for action on Saturday.