Jared Helmstadter is a super hero in his other life. (Wendy McCormick photos)
Wolf netters (l to r) Lilan Sekigawa, Grey Rische, Jimmy Myers and Nick Blalock enjoy some quality time with their #1 fan.
Connor McCormick pulled out the day’s toughest match at #2 singles. His win officially claimed the league title for the Wolves.
We are the champs … of taking photos.
Clear some space on the gym wall, cause there’s a new title banner going up.
Following in the footsteps of their feminine counterparts, who ruled the 1A Olympic League in the spring, the Coupeville High School boys’ tennis team ascended the mountain top Wednesday.
Thrashing visiting Chimacum 6-0, the Wolves (5-3 overall) capped a 4-0 run through league play, replacing last year’s champ, Klahowya, atop the heap.
Now, all eyes turn to CHS administration, who are hopefully on the phone, getting their order in.
The title banner, which will join ones raised last school year by the girls’ basketball and girls’ tennis programs, will be the first one hoisted by a Wolf boys’ team in any sport since 2002.
Now, of course, there is the small matter of the netters having won a string of titles during that time, when they were competing in two and three-team leagues.
Those titles were won and should be honored on the CHS gym wall, but have never been. But that’s an argument for another day.
Wednesday, it was all about a new group of players putting the punctuation mark on their title, and they did so with ease.
Playing in front of a spartan crowd (take away family members, a girlfriend or three and a small contingent of the media and the number of people witnessing history was ridiculously low), the Wolves drilled Chimacum.
Coupeville rolled to straight sets wins in all of its matches, with the exception of third singles.
That match, once it finally made it to an open court, was a brawl between Nick Etzell and Emmett Erickson, the lone Port Townsend player to travel and play with Chimacum.
Erickson took the first set 7-5, but Etzell, slapping away with conviction, had turned things around and was about to serve for the second set up 5-4 when the ferry beckoned.
The match went into the record books as a draw, once the idea of leaving Erickson behind to finish up the match, then find his own way home, was voted down … barely.
Officially, the point which captured the day’s win, and the title, for Coupeville, came from #2 singles player Connor McCormick.
The smooth-hitting, never-ruffled senior dug down deep to pull out his win, barely beating #4 doubles duo Lilan Sekigawa and Jimmy Myers off the court.
Even though they started their match later, Sekigawa and Myers turned the power show on and almost caught their teammate, who was deep into a war of attrition.
Complete results:
Varsity:
1st singles — Sebastian Davis beat Jonny Rogers 6-1, 6-2
2nd singles — Connor McCormick beat Chris Sevilla 7-5, 7-6(7-1)
3rd singles — Nick Etzell drew with Emmett Erickson 5-7, 5-4
1st doubles — Joseph Wedekind/John McClarin beat Sean Miller/Zac Smith 6-0, 6-1
2nd doubles — Joey Lippo/William Nelson beat Ryle Gapitulan/Nate Miller 6-1, 6-4
3rd doubles — Grey Rische/Jared Helmstadter beat Connor Cottier/Cayden Sevilla 6-2, 6-1
4th doubles — Jimmy Myers/Lilan Sekigawa beat Jack Meissner/Tibersio Brennan 6-1, 6-0
JV:
5th doubles — Nile Lockwood/Garrett Compton trailed Gapitulan/N. Miller 4-3 (ferry)
6th doubles — Nick Blalock/Aiden Crimmins lost to S. Miller/Smith 6-1
Coupeville Sports 