The Pella boys tennis team was dominant wire-to-wire in defeating North Polk 11-0 Tuesday night to kick off the spring season.
It had been 671 days since placing second at state in 2019, and the Dutch picked up right where they left off, with strong performances up and down the lineup according to Head Coach Josiah Brandt. Pella Senior Jack Edwards picked up a win at #1 singles against a high quality opponent in Freshman Ethan Moon, while Brandt says Dutch Freshman Jack Briggs had a nice debut at #6 singles, beating his opponent 10-0. Both Edwards and Briggs picked up victories in doubles as well, with the former pairing with fellow senior Vaughn Thompson at #1 singles and Briggs partnering with senior Adam Schreur.
Making their varsity debut as seniors, Connor Gauley and Andrew Wogen sealed the sweep with a 10-4 victory. In their first ever match, freshman Joshua Roozeboom and Cameron Rowe had a solid performance at #4 doubles winning 10-4.
Pella returns to action next Monday at home against Ballard.
Varsity Singles:
Jack Edwards (P) def. Ethan Moon 10-6
Vaughn Thompson (P) def. Gabe Laizure 10-3
Caleb Briggs (P) def. Isaac Larson 10-4
Lucas Heap (P) def. Nathan Gall 10-3
Adam Schreur (P) def. Carson Cupp 10-4
Jack Briggs (P) def. Chance Bockenstad 10-0
Varsity Doubles:
Edwards / Thompson (P) def. Moon / Larson 10-3
C. Briggs / Heap (P) def. Laizure / Gall 10-3
Schreur / J. Briggs (P) def. Cupp / Bockenstad 10-3
Joshua Roozeboom / Cameron Rowe (P) def. Ben Ewing / Easton White 10-4
Connor Gauley / Andrew Wogen (P) def. Gabe Bayse / Rey Dengel 10-4
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Pella Girls Track Team Navigates 4A Field at Waukee Invitational
The Pella Girls Track and Field team opened the 2021 spring season in a field with the largest schools in Iowa at the Waukee Invitational. The Lady Dutch placed 8th in team scores based on results from relays out of 13 teams, all of which were Class 4A opponents.
Top Pella Finishers at Waukee:
800 Sprint Medley Relay: 5th place (1:59.09) – Delanie Reyonlds, Roselande Vanderhoff, Calla Kerndt, Jacie Trine
100 Meter Dash: Emily McMartin 6th place (12.97)
Distance Medley Relay: 6th place (4:52.25) – Abby Warner, Thea Wisse, Mia Warner, Abby Cutler
4×200 Relay: 5th place (1:53.43) – Kerndt, Vanderhoff, Reynolds, McMartin
4×100 Relay: 3rd place (52.54) – Reynolds, Vanderhoff, A. Warner, McMartin
From Head Coach Dak Rasmussen:
“We were the smallest school at the meet tonight (the only 3A school), so we knew we’d have a challenge going into the meet. We also have a lot of young runners so our pups got to see what it was like to run with the big dogs tonight. Fortunately, it’s supposed to be easy for young dogs to learn new tricks, so hopefully our kids will step up to the challenge. Now that the girls have experienced a meet we can see what we need to work on and build on the encouraging things we saw. The early part of our schedule is not easy and will show us where we need to be, but we then shift to meets with schools more our size to show us how far we’ve come.”