Central's Mailes earns all-state tennis honor in singles

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Central's Alex Mailes could not have asked for more in his first experience at the Missouri boys tennis state championships.

The Tiger sophomore, the only player not a junior or senior in the field of 16 in the Class 2 singles, won three of his five matches at the Cooper Tennis Complex and returned home with an all-state medal.

"This probably exceeded my expectations," said Mailes, who transferred to Central from Lamar High School, which did not have a high school tennis team.

Mailes was familiar with many of the players at the state meet, having played in the Missouri Valley circuit.

"This tournament is a little different than a Valley tournament," Mailes said. "You see some of the best kids in the state here, but others that are not as solid. There is a mixture."

Notre Dame players in Class 1 made school history with the first boys victory at the state tournament.

Senior Mason Seesing and junior Brendan Boswell defeated Joseph Scott and John Burnett of Thomas Jefferson 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round Friday, but their reward was a second-round matchup against defending Class 1 state champions, Bailey Merkel and Derek Bell of Westminster Christian Academy.

Merkel clinched his fourth state doubles medal, and Bell, who will play tennis next year at Florida Southern, won 6-1, 6-1. Merkel and Bell went on to repeat as state champions.

"It was great to win that first-round match and become the first boys team from Notre Dame to win a match at state," Seesing said. "That was our first goal."

Mailes had a friendlier draw, but admitted that he did not play his best in the first day of the tournament despite a pair of wins.

Mailes opened with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory over Andrew Lanson of Parkway Central, then lost in the quarterfinals to Trevor Allen of Chaminade 6-2, 6-1.

He assured himself of a second day at state with an 8-3 win in the consolation quarterfinals against David Clausen of Jefferson City.

Two of the premier Class 2 players in St. Louis were Mailes' competition Saturday in the final day of the tournament.

Mailes got off to a great start in the consolation semifinals against four-time state medalist Alex Pozo of CBC. Mailes had a 5-2 advantage in the first set but dropped five straight games in a 7-5 loss. He then fell 6-4 in a competitive second set.

He then took advantage of MSHSAA's first-year addition of a seventh-place match.

That was the best news of all for Mailes, who played one of his best matches of the tournament in defeating Arashi Cogan, a senior from Parkway South who moved from Japan this year and had a 16-2 regular-season record. Mailes won decisively in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

"It is so nice to go home after a victory," Mailes said. "That does not happen in most tournaments. I really wasn't too pleased with the way I played yesterday, but today I was used to the competition and felt I played much better. The serve was a lot stronger, but then I felt that everything was a little better today."

Central coach Seth Benton was pleased with the effort of his No. 1 player.

"He has played a lot of tennis, but not a state tournament like this," Benton said. "He had one rough match against a solid player [Allen], but other than that he played well."

Tough competition

Seesing and Boswell also put up a battle before departing. They won a game in both sets against the defending state champions.

"We were a little nervous coming into the match playing against the champions," Boswell said. "But that feeling went away after the first game. We wanted to give them some competition, and I felt that we played some good points and some good games. It is fun playing against guys like them."

Seesing and Boswell fell two games short of making it to the second day.

They lost in the consolation quarterfinals to Cody Zeigler and James Eubanks of Grain Valley 8-6, in a match that had its format altered because of two rain delays Friday. An eight-game pro set was used in the consolation bracket, while a 10-point pro-set was used in place of a third set in the main draw.

The Bulldogs also received a tough draw for senior Ben Wedemeier, who was the first Notre Dame player to qualify in singles. Wedemeier's first-round opponent was Michael Peters of John Burroughs, who went on to win the Class 1 singles title. Peters also had played on Bombers teams that finished second and third the last two years, and he finished second in doubles the last two years.

Peters defeated Wedemeier 6-0, 6-0, his first step in a 5-0 march to the title.

"My last match was against him a week ago in the team tournament, and the result was the same," Wedemeier said. "I had one of the toughest draws but tried to do my best. A lot of these kids have been playing tennis for 10 years, and that is not me."

Wedemeier also had a tough draw in the first round of consolations, falling 8-1 to talented Barstow freshman Fletcher Scott, who had seven match points before falling in his first-round match against Joe McAllister of MICDS.