AJ Jackson’s strong showing plus more great play from the doubles teams allowed Knoxville’s boys’ tennis team to take second at the district tennis meet yesterday. Jackson won in straight sets in each match, but had to go to a late tiebreaker in the second set to defeat Adam VanErsvelde of Grinnell for the district title. Ani Tangellapalli of Pella was fourth overall; falling to the aforementioned Tiger in straight sets, and to another Grinnell player, John Trettin, in the third-place match. The Panther doubles team of Braden DeLong and Blake McClung finished in third place in their bracket. Both of Pella’s tandems won in the first round but fell in the quarterfinals. Knoxville scored 14 points total, while Pella had 12 to finish third as a team. Full results are included below. Knoxville and Pella will square off in a preliminary substate match on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. to determine who goes to the state meet.
