By Dan Messerschmidt
CCN Sports Director

BUCYRUS — As the weather has gone so far this spring, Bucyrus tennis coach John Supon couldn’t have expected better conditions — a little cool and overcast with a light breeze — than he had for Saturday’s fifth edition of the Jim Grandy Tennis Invitational.

“This year, the weather was a lot better than it’s been in the past,” Supon said. “So, it didn’t affect the tennis this year.”

Defending champion Mansfield St. Peter’s was the favorite coming in and the Spartans didn’t disappoint. Luke Henrich, Harrison Hecker and Charles Selser swept first, second and third singles to score 12 points which was enough for St. Peter’s to retain its title for the second straight year.

“Their singles players are very talented, so I knew they were favored to get 12 points, three first-place finishers with four points apiece,” Supon said. “It was just a matter of whether the depth of River Valley, Upper Sandusky and Marion Harding would come through. St. Pete them off by a couple of points.”

Henrich defeated Zach Grimes of Upper Sandusky 8-0 in the first round, bested Willard’s Levi Hill 8-2 and dropped Patrick Ravi of River Valley in the final, 8-2

Hecker blanked Jeremiah Skelton of Bucyrus and Dedie Adissem of Marion Harding 8-0 each before winning second singles 8-4 over Upper Sandusky’s Levi Malone.

Selser too had shutouts in the first two rounds, defeating Matt Fultz of Bucyrus and Justin Blackburn of Upper Sandusky 8-0 and the got by Marion Harding’s Thomas Butler, 8-5, in the final.

“Everything panned out,” Supon said. “I think the teams and players that were supposed to win, won. So, I’m very satisfied that we had a true tournament.”

River Valley finished second with 10 points, Upper Sandusky was third with nine and Marion Harding finished with eight. But the Spartans’ three main competitors split the remaining points up too evenly for any of them to catch them.

Galion’s first doubles team of Papenhausen and Harris defeated Trafzer and Branstetter 8-6 in the final to score the only four points for the Tigers.

The duo of Meutzel and Atkinson of Marion Harding knocked off Ramos and Bower of Upper Sandusky 8-2 to take the second doubles championship.

Bucyrus’ only two points came when Kyle Hamm defeated Levi Hill 8-1 to take third place in first singles.

“Everything was even, the players with the talent won like it should happen,” Supon said. “There was a lot of good tennis played today.”

No team got blanked. Following the top four, Galion and Willard tied with four points, Bucyrus had two and Tiffin Calvert had one.

Supon saw it as valuable experience for his young team.

“It was very good experience for them,” Supon said. “I was a little disappointed as I think they are too. But we’ll take this as a learning experience, come back next week and get better.

“Sectionals are in three weeks,” he added. “The kids got used to seeing other competition and all-day events. We’ll talk about this on Monday.”

The tournament was named for Jim Grandy, long-time Bucyrus educator who revived the Redmen tennis program in the late 1960s.

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