NHS doubles duo captures gold at conference tourney

Golden memories: Nevada's No. 3 doubles team, Sheel Patel (left) and Sam Creasy, proudly display their gold medals earned at Friday's conference tournament. (Submitted photo)

The Nevada Tigers tennis team had a successful outing at Friday's West Central Conference tennis tournament in Warrensburg, as a trio of Tigers earned medals.

Nevada's No. 3 doubles team, comprised of senior Sam Creasy and junior Sheel Patel notched a first-place finish, earning a gold medal, while sophomore Jace Lanham claimed a silver medal playing at No. 5 singles.

Entering the tournament as a No. 2 seed, Creasy and Patel received an opening-round bye. With their first action coming in the second-round, Creasy and Patel edged Kansas City O'Hara's Jonathan Torgerson and Josh Rogge 8-6 in the semifinals.

The Tigers tandem then knocked off Warrensburg's Kaden Powers and Joshua Terrell by an identical 8-6 score in the title match. In singles, Lanham had a similar path, receiving a No. 2 seed and opening-round bye to the semifinals where he faced Miles Birchmier of St. Pius X. Lanham won a thriller, 9-8 (7-4 tiebreaker). In the championship match, Lanham fell to Power's of Warrensburg, 8-5.

Other NHS results included: At No. 1 singles Jordan Sheehy (Nev) defeated K.C. O'Hara's Kyle Eckhart 8-1 in opening-round play. Sheehy was then toppled by Sedalia Smith-Cotton's David Cho, 8-2. At No. 2 singles, Nevada junior Matt Sommer fell in the first round to Luke Ross of St. Pius X, 8-6.

Nevada's No. 3, Nathan McCall, was defeated 8-4 by Ian Kimbrell of Archbishop O'Hara. At No. 4 in opening-round play, Patel (Nev) dispatched Smith-Cotton's Mikhail Husyev 8-4. Patel then fell in a econd-round heartbreaker to Colin Cummings 9-8 (7-1 tiebreaker).

Creasy (Nev) competing at No. 6 singles, breezed past Clinton's Elijah Holt 8-2 in opening-round play. Creasy was defeated in the second-round 8-2 by Smith-Cotton's Keron Irwin.

Doubles

In addition to Creasy and Patel's triumph at No. 3 doubles, Nevada's No. 1 tandem Sheehy and Sommer, were beat in the first-round 8-1 by O'Hara's Jack Krawczyk and Kimbrell.

In No. 2 doubles, Nevada's McCall and Lanham coasted to an 8-1 first-round victory over Smith-Cotton's Husyev and Matthew Tilley. The Nevada duo was defeated 8-5 in the second-round by Warrensburg's Aaron Beymer and Matthew Hechler.

Up next

The fourth-seeded Tigers enter the upcoming Class 1 District 12 tournament 7-9 overall, and are set to face fifth-seeded Clinton today at 3 p.m., in Warrensburg.

The winner advances to face top-seeded Warrensburg later in the day.