CEC falls in singles, doubles tournaments

Cloquet-Esko-Carlton players gave a good accounting for themselves at the Section 7AA individual tennis tournament, leaving a young team poised to grow for the future.

Both the doubles teams won a match before falling in their second section match but everyone played well, according to Coach Steve Rickstrom. The matches were played May 26 in

Duluth.

In doubles, the eighth-seeded team of John Scheuer and Ryan Lind defeated the ninth seeds, Central’s Ethan Moyers and Kyle Stupca, by 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. They then lost to the top seeds, Duluth East’s Kevin Seiler and Greg Peckman,) 6-1, 6-1.

“They struggled a bit,” Rickstrom said. “I’d like to think their match against the Central kids should have been a straight set win, but they got it figured out in the third set, which was more like what I was expecting from the beginning. Then they played a No. 1 seed; they haven’t lost all year to anyone local. They were just up against a monster there.”

The second doubles team of Tanner Webster and Ryan Kedrowski, seeded 10th, defeated another Central team, seventh seeds Aaron Stinson and Caleb Reder, by 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. And they were very competitive in their match against second seeds Charlie Roy and Gus Fedje-Johnston of Grand Rapids. Match scores were 6-4, 6-3.

“They were our stars for the day,” Rickstrom said. “They upset the seven seed and almost upset the two seeds. They had the Grand Rapids kids on the ropes in the first set, but the other team was always one shot better. But they weren’t much better.”

In singles, fifth-seed Sean Kedrowski had a first-round bye before losing to fourth-seed Bauer LeSavage of East 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

“Bauer is a great player,” Rickstrom said. “But Sean really dismantled him in the first set. Then he got the tables turned on him. He made a couple of unforced errors in the third set, but Sean lost to Bauer 6-0, 6-3 earlier in the year and really put in a performance. He played an excellent first set.”

Number 10 seed Luke Heine lost his match to seventh- seed Cole Shafer of

Hibbing 6-1, 6-0.

“Luke went out and battled and was up against a better player,” Rickstrom said. “He didn’t have a lot of singles experience but he played hard. He just got beat.”

Rickstrom was pleased with the team’s progress.

“We came in as fairly low seeds and that was a direct reflection on the season,” he said. “We didn’t win a lot of team matches and you get seeded on that. Still, it was a nice end to the season. We played well in the team portion even though we lost to Central, and we only graduate one senior (Ryan Kedrowski) out of that group.”

With 17 of the team’s 26 members seeing varsity action this year, Rickstrom is hoping that his promising younger players stick with the program instead of choosing baseball.

“Only one has to make that decision this year,” Rickstrom said. “We have some room for the future to become a more competitive team. This group of kids has a chance to come through here and win some matches. We had more kids than ever play varsity this year, and we’ve got a solid 13 or 14 kids who can compete now at the varsity level. I’m pleased at our season.”

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