Lake City tennis enjoys late-season success

All high school teams in North Idaho had to deal with the poor weather this spring.

But the Lake City High tennis team had to overcome a little bit more.

Illnesses.

A concussion.

Players missing matches for academic reasons.

All of which disrupted continuity.

That’s why Timberwolves boys coach Bob Brunn, and girls coach Roger Keilig, were delighted to see Lake City win the overall team title at last week’s 5A District 1-2 tennis tournament in Lewiston.

The T-Wolves also won the boys title.

Last year, Lake City shared the district boys title with Lewiston.

As for the overall title ...

“I can’t remember the last overall title we won,” said Brunn, a longtime Timberwolves coach.

All told, Lake City qualified seven boys and five girls to state this Friday and Saturday in Boise.

“We haven’t qualified that many kids in years,” Brunn said.

Lake City produced two district champions.

Gabe Gates and Leon Fleck won in boys doubles, beating teammates Paul Wineinger and Daniel Olvera. Both teams were undefeated in league matches, Brunn said. “I’m so proud of our boys doubles teams,” Brunn said, “how they worked hard and made each other better.”

Chloe Teets and Schreyer Jones won in girls doubles, beating the top-seeded team from Coeur d’Alene in the finals.

“They had a mission,” Brunn said, “and improved their game, and were focused to beat the Coeur d’Alene team that had beaten them in two previous matches.”

Brunn said he entered Jacob Janzen in boys singles at the last minute, and Janzen made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to teammate (and eventual runner-up) Jack DuCoeur. Janzen was able to bounce back and finish fourth and qualify for state (the top four finishers advance to state).

And then there was illness that cropped up at districts.

Breanna Torres came down with tonsilitis, and she and her partner Nick Brown had to forfeit their third/fourth place match to Coeur d’Alene. Kiki Cates fell ill during the tourney, and defaulted her third/fourth place match in girls singles to teammate Zannah Castenada.

At least both of them still qualified for state.

Lake City’s No. 2 boys singles player lost early at districts, then had to withdraw due to illness, and was unable to qualify for state.

“We’re just tickled pink about all these guys qualifying for state. Every match this season, we had two, three, four kids missing,” Brunn said. “We had to overcome a lot of adversity to become district champions.”