AKRON - It took a while, but late Tuesday night, the Three Rivers Conference wrapped up its boys individual tennis tournament.
Originally slated to be played Sept. 13 at Whitko High School, rainfall caused the tournament to be postponed, eventually taking place last night at Tippecanoe Valley High School.Regardless of the location, the event belonged to the Wabash Apaches.
Once the finals round was reached, Wabash had a representative on all five courts, winning all of them outside of No. 2 singles.
The Apaches' one slip up came at the hands of Manchester's Scott Spaulding, who defeated Wabash's Justin Middleton 6-2, 6-4. Spaulding reached the finals by getting past Whitko's Kurt Boggs in the opening round, 6-2, 5-7, 10-3.
"I had beaten (Middleton) and (Boggs) earlier this year," Spaulding said. "So I figured I could win, considering (Middleton) was the No. 1 seed."
As if a Tuesday tournament was strange enough, the night was made a little longer when Valley's timed lights system left everyone in the dark at 9 p.m.
"It's odd having the lights go out, then have to stop and start, because I jut had a three-break before my final match," Spaulding said. "But I got lucky enough to be able to beat him."
The tournament began at 4:30 p.m., and didn't end until the No. 1 singles final between Whitko's Dan Aldea and Wabash's Frank Granger ended at 10 p.m.
"It was different," Aldea said of the tournament. "From playing a tournament on Saturday, then coming here on a school night and having a match yesterday. Now we have a match again (Wednesday)."
In that match today, Aldea will be facing Granger again, the third time they've faced each other. In their first match, Granger beat Aldea 6-0, 6-4, but the Wildcat fared better Tuesday, losing in three sets, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 10-1.
Aldea entered the tournament as a No. 3 seed, which meant he had to get past Manchester's No. 2 seed Kyle Lahman in the first round. He did that with a 6-4, 6-3 win, avenging a loss to Lahman earlier this season.
"I'm exhausted," Aldea said. "I had a two-hour match against (Lahman). The first time I played him, I lost 6-2, 6-0. It took a hard match to beat him, then I got to (Granger) and it was a lot harder."
By the time Aldea reached the third set of his finals match, he appeared to be drained, losing some zip on his shots, but Whitko coach Erik Hisner could see why he may have been a little gassed.
"We had a tournament Saturday, where everyone played three matches," he said. "Then we come back four days later and do the same thing. It's kind of tough."
Whitko's No. 1 doubles team of Seth Mowrey and Alex Winger also reached the finals, but fell 6-4, 6-3 to Wabash's Ryan Richman and Zach Sailors.
Whitko is at Wabash today at 4:30 p.m., while Manchester comes back to Valley for a 4:30 p.m. match Thursday.
TRC CHAMPIONSHIP
No. 1 Singles
First Round - Max Hsu (Rochester) def. Isaac French (Valley) 6-2, 6-1; Dan Aldea (Whitko) def. Kyle Lahman 6-4, 6-3; Semifinal - Frank Granger (Wabash) def. Hsu 6-0, 6-4; Final - Granger def. Aldea 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 10-1
No. 2 Singles
First Round - Ryan Bohr (Rochester) def. Tyler Peterson (Valley) 6-4, 6-3; Scott Spaulding (Manchester) def. Kurt Boggs (Whitko) 6-2, 5-7, 10-3; Semifinal - Justin Middleton (Wabash) def. Bohr 6-4, 6-3; Final - Spaulding def. Middleton 6-2, 6-4
