NEW PALESTINE — There’s a new Hancock County boys tennis team champion.
In fact, there are two.
In the final match of the day, Mt. Vernon’s No. 1 doubles team of Robbie Moore and Bryndan Wylie outlasted New Palestine’s Max Havel and Eli Sloan to pick up two points in the consolation round.
It was exactly what the Marauders needed to earn a share of the Hancock County Boys Tennis Tournament championship, with Greenfield-Central, held at New Palestine Junior High School Saturday.
The Cougars and Marauders finished with 21 points each. Eastern Hancock had 10. Defending champion New Palestine scored eight points.
It was Mt. Vernon’s third team title in the last four years.
For Greenfield-Central, it was its first championship since 2005, when current head coach Michael Turpin was a player in the program.
“It feels like we’ve gone from zero to hero,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “We don’t mind sharing it. Our No. 1 doubles team was down 0-5 in that first set (of the consolation match) and were able to come back and win it. I told everybody you can’t win it in the first round, but you can lose it. We got three first-round wins and two wins in the championship (round). I told our guys the third-place matches were huge.
“I’m super happy. For us to get a share of it, we’re still champions and it still counts.”
Both Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central had two individual champions.
The Marauders won the title at No. 1 singles with Adam Koon defeating Eastern Hancock’s Zeke Dixon 6-0, 6-1. Mt. Vernon also won at No. 2 doubles with Matthew Jones and Max Orelup earning a 6-2, 6-3 win over New Palestine’s Will Hahn and Joey McPike.
Greenfield-Central’s No. 2 singles player Chris Long defeated Mt. Vernon’s Manny Downs in a third-set super tie-breaker 4-6, 6-1, 10-6. At No. 3 singles, Matthew Hyre defeated New Palestine’s Brady Torzewski 6-0, 6-0.
“It feels bigger now (to me) than then, because I wasn’t on the varsity squad (as a player in 2005),” Turpin said. “But, in general, knowing it had been that long, and we were able to close it out and get over that hump we’ve been trying to get over for quite a while, it feels good to achieve that.”
Hyre, the Cougars lone senior, lost just two games all day in winning the title at No. 3.
“It feels really good. It feels good to be happy and have this kind of team bonding experience,” Hyre said. “We haven’t had that. It’s good to be this close as a team.”
“With Matt being (our only) senior, I wanted to win it for him one last time,” Long added.
In the other individual tournament championship match, No. 1 doubles, the brother team of Eastern Hancock’s Bryce Wennen and Myles Wennen defeated Greenfield-Central’s Caden Robertson and Lucas Sitzman 6-2, 6-4.
The Wennens earned Eastern Hancock its first individual tournament title since Austin Lee and Ceegan Flood won the No. 2 doubles championship during the 2010-11 school year. They are the first Royals tandem to win a county title at No. 1 doubles since 1995-96 when Bob Baer and John Coleman were victorious.
“It means a lot. I want to thank God for letting me be able to play and thank my brother for being out there with me,” Bryce Wennen said. “Winning the first county title with my brother, especially beating those (bigger) county schools, it’s amazing.”
Bryce, a senior, has played in four county tournaments, but had not won a title. Myles, a sophomore, played last year with another partner. It is the first season the two have played together. They’re unbeaten, 11-0.
“I know it meant a lot (to Bryce),” Myles said. “I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else.”
The No. 1 doubles match was the final championship match to be completed. The outcome put emphasis on the No. 1 doubles consolation to see if Greenfield-Central would be outright champs or share with Mt. Vernon.
It went to a super tie-breaker with the Mt. Vernon team winning it 10-6 to get a share of the team title.
It was a tight battle after the first round of matches. Of the 10 contests, Greenfield-Central and Mt. Vernon won three each. Eastern Hancock and New Palestine each had two. Both G-C and MV had two consolation round wins. New Palestine also had a consolation victory.
