Tennis Balls and Bogey’s

Otis Mazurkiewicz, Staff Writer

The Manhattan High Boys Tennis team notched an 8-7 win at the Salina South Invitational last Thursday, despite a few rough rounds. 

Eight teams competed at the invitational, and Manhattan tied with McPherson for second place, both scoring 23 points.

Junior Drake Karr placed first (3-0) in the #1 Singles team, while sophomore Advith Natarajan placed second (2-1) in the #2 Singles team. Senior Jackson Byerly and junior Michael Hwang both won ninth place (2-1) in the #1 Doubles team. Junior Landon Ott and sophomore Jack Spiegel placed fourth (1-0) in the #2 Doubles team. 

Spiegel thought that despite the fierce competition, the invitational went pretty well. He thought it was impressive how Manhattan pulled away with a tie for second place. Spiegel’s highlight of the meet was bonding with his team.

“This was one of our first Varsity tournaments where we all went together. We had a lot of fun,” Spiegel said.

As Spiegel describes, there was plenty of competition at the invitational. He was nervous at the start of the meet, but was confident that Manhattan would be fine. Spiegel believes that the most challenging part of the meet was combating tiredness.

“In tennis you’re standing up basically the whole time, doing so many matches and scoring so many points,” Spiegel said. “It’s hard to fight through it, and by the end of it your legs are shaking.” His favorite part of this season has been being with the team. 

Hwang also thought that Manhattan did well at the invitational. He described the meet as good practice for rankings. He played alongside senior Jackson Byerly in his rounds. This meet provided Hwang with ways to better his current communication and serving skills.

“Personally, this was a good meet to see where I needed to improve. It was a good invitational because there were different styles of opponents,” Hwang said.

He found it difficult for himself, as well as the team, to stay motivated when they were losing.

“I think the most challenging part of the meet was when we were losing,” Hwang said.

 “We had to have the motivation to keep going and to not give up on the game in general.” 

Hwang’s favorite part of this season has been being in the tennis community. He thinks that the tennis community is an important and positive part of tennis.

“The highlight of yesterday’s meet was when it was over, we went to Bogey’s,” Hwang said. 

Spiegel and Hwang are both looking forward to how the rest of the boys tennis season will go. Over the weekend, the team traveled to Junction City to participate in the JC Tennis Invitational. The team will travel to Kansas City on Tuesday to the KC Tennis Invitational. 

“I just want to say, good job to all my teammates,” Hwang said.