Disappointing fourth-place for MSAE boys at Ottumwa Invite

The Ottumwa Invite served the Maharishi School boys? tennis team with a little bit of humility Saturday putting the Pioneers in fourth place out of five teams.

?Strong medicine for us today ? we hope to improve a lot before the district tournament on Thursday,? said MSAE head coach Lawrence Eyre. ?Keokuk is the host and they almost won today?s event so they will be the favorite at districts.?

MSAE was shorthanded from the beginning and didn?t enter a player into the No. 2 singles field. Thomas Weiss played No. 1 singles and, after rolling over Davis County?s Tucker Henderson (7-5, 6-0) and Keokuk?s Zeke Gatton (6-3, 6-0), Weiss lost his championship match to CJ Ray of Ottumwa. Ray won by a convicing 6-0, 6-2 score.

At No. 1 doubles, Joseph Gelfand and Derek Thatcher received a tough draw in the first round of the unseeded event and took on two top players from an undefeated Oskaloosa team ? Gui Ochoa and Dustin Rhoades. Ochoa, a foreign exchange student from Brazil, and Rhoades, fourth-place at last year?s state singles tournament, disposed of Gelfand and Thatcher 6-0, 6-1.

Jay Stewart and Brenton Schwartz teamed up for a 6-1, 6-3 doubles victory over an Ottumwa JV duo before losing to eventual champions Emery Songer and Neil Patel of Ottumwa 6-1, 5-7, 5-7 in the semifinals.

While the fourth-place finish wasn?t what the Pioneers may have hoped for, that result should be taken with a grain of salt because of the fact that all three losses on the day came to eventual champions.

As Eyre stated, MSAE now looks to the district tournament beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday in Keokuk.

For complete story, read the Monday, May 11, 2009 Fairfield Ledger.