newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Hutchison Hawks made some high school tennis history on Monday evening.

The Hawks became the only Interior school other than Lathrop to beat West Valley by pulling out a 4-3 win in dramatic fashion at The Alaska Club.

“We have several kids who understood the significance of what happened tonight,” Hutchison coach Joe Sullivan said. “The seniors were beside themselves. They are a very proud group and this was very rewarding for them.”

Hutchison has indeed come a long way from the program’s first team four years ago when there was only one player.

The Hawks have shown steady improvement since that time and finally pulled out a win against one of the top two schools (West Valley and Lathrop) in the region.

“West Valley has a very deep team and can put a number of different lineups up against you,” Sullivan said. “Tonight we happened to match up against them very well and we got ’em.”

The final match of the day — boys doubles — turned out to be the event that decided the winner.

With the team score tied 3-3, Hutchison’s Dan Powers and Mike Walker, both seniors, pulled out a 6-4, 6-5 win over Logan Little and Andrew Bishop.

Another key match was the boys No. 2 singles, where Hutchison freshman Nick Raugust rallied to claim a 5-6, 6-4, 9-7 victory over Joe Sample.

“We really had to dig down and claw in those matches,” Sullivan said. “We had to come from behind in both of those matches, so that was really neat.”

Hutchison’s other two points came in the No. 1 boys and No. 1 girls singles matches. Chris Poole downed Ken Sample, 6-1, 6-5, in the boys match and Kelsey Peterson defeated Caitlin Deutsch 6-3, 6-3 in the girls match.

West Valley’s points came from wins in the girls No. 2 singles match, girls doubles and mixed doubles.

Loni Ellsworth defeated Kayla Robertson, 6-1, 6-4 in the singles competition. Aurora Roth and Teresa Larry teamed up for a 6-4, 6-4 doubles win over Allie Parra and Miranda Jenkins. The mixed doubles match went to Lee Edwards and Jenna Powers, with a 6-0, 6-0 triumph over Colby Kelsey and Rachel McDougall.

Monroe wins

The Monroe Rams and Eielson Ravens split the four matches that were played on Monday night, giving Monroe a 5-2 win based on three forfeits. Monroe’s wins came in boys No. 2 singles, where Dan Bunten notched a 6-5, 6-2 win over Thomas Baldwin, and in mixed doubles, with Cassie Ringstad and Jim Winfree earning a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Taylor Jacobs and Krystal Madison. Amber Harger won the No. 1 girls singles match for Eielson with a 6-5, 6-2 triumph over Eilish Saunders. Amanda Williams posted a 6-1, 6-1 win over Meg Jones to score a point for the Ravens in the No. 2 girls singles event.

Monroe football

Chris Stepovich and James Duncan each scored a pair of touchdowns to help the Monroe Catholic Rams post a 32-0 Greatland Conference high school football victory last Saturday at the Seward Seahawks. The Rams jumped out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter and were never threatened after that. Monroe added six points in the second and six more in the third to complete the scoring. Stepovich scored on a pair of 23-yard touchdown passes from Alex Nelson in the first quarter. Those scores were sandwiched around Nolan Burcell’s 43-yard interception return for a touchdown. Duncan scored his first touchdown in the second quarter on a 3-yard run and added another score on a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Isaiah Weeks was Monroe’s leading rusher with 154 yards on 19 carries. Duncan had 58 yards on 15 totes. Nelson finished the day completing four of 10 passes for 57 yards.