Senior Margaret Reutter and sophomore Haley Cutler had their “A” game going for the Wood River High School tennis team last weekend during the prestigious Capital Invitational tournament in Boise.
Reutter and Cutler fended off some tough competition and won the No. 1 girls’ doubles championship. They became only the second Wood River team to win at the Capital meet, the mixed doubles team of Raleigh Grossbaum and Jessica Hamilton prevailing in 2011.
And it wasn’t easy.
In Saturday’s final, Reutter and Cutler faced off against Century senior Olivia Wathne and her sister Ella Wathne. Olivia Wathne is the three-time defending State 4A girls’ singles queen. But Reutter and Cutler came out strong in the first set and took a 6-4 victory.
The Wathnes claimed the second set 6-4, pushing the outcome to a third set. Fighting fatigue, the Wood River pair still came out on top 7-6 (5) in a tightly contested tiebreaker.
Earlier in the tournament, Reutter and Cutler won all three of their matches Friday. They reached the final Saturday by demonstrating mental toughness in a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over a pair from Capital High.
The Wood River players have enjoyed success on the big Boise stage, but not with each other. As a freshman Reutter teamed with her older sister Lauren to place fourth in girls’ doubles at the State 4A tournament. Cutler was a third-place mixed doubles finisher as a freshman at state last May.
At No. 2 girls’ doubles last weekend, sisters Alex and Samantha Taylor won two matches Friday and lost their third to the Idaho Falls team of Jordan and Madison Wright.
Saturday the Taylors fought and clawed their way through three tough rounds, and were the last ones to finish at their site. They faced the Wrights again in the No. 2 girls’ doubles finals and lost 6-2, 6-0.
Overall, reigning State 4A boys’ team champ Wood River (150 points) placed 15th of 32 schools in the two-day tourney won by last year’s State 5A boys’ winner Boise (247 points). Eighth-place Century (176) was the only 4A school ahead of Wood River. Impressively, 3A Parma (208) placed fifth overall.
In other strong results:
Friday in No. 1 boys’ singles, Stephen Pfeiffer trailed 6-1 but came back to win 9-7. Saturday, Pfeiffer advanced to the second round of the championship bracket and lost in three sets;
In Saturday’s main draw, No. 1 girls’ singles Lily Richards and No. 2 girls’ singles Reyna Kelly won in the first round, as did No. 2 mixed doubles Taylor Cooper-Tate Morell. Dropping their main draw first-round matches were WRHS boys’ doubles teams Cole Caminiti-Josh Morell, and Erik Wilander-Danny Graves.
Richards, Josh Morell and Margaret Reutter are the three four-year varsity players for coaches Carlos Meza and Marcia Grabow this spring.
Wood River visits the Community School Thursday, May 2 at 5 p.m. and then competes in the Great Basin Conference tournament May 8-9.
Cutthroat tennis sweeps district rivals
They are gearing up for some competitive home matches against county rival Wood River High School on Thursday, May 2 at 5 p.m. at Sun Valley Tennis Club.
Meanwhile, Cutthroat players from the Community School tennis team made short work of the two other teams in its 3A District 4-5-6 league Friday on the Sun Valley courts.
The Cutthroats dusted off Sugar-Salem of Sugar City 12-0 and beat Gooding 11-1. Results:
Comm.School 11, Gooding 1
· Boys’ singles: 1—Willis Sanchez-duPont (CS) 6-3, 6-0 over Angel Garcia (G). 2—Daniel DuFur (CS) 6-1, 6-1 over Will Bui (G). 3—George Everitt (CS) 6-0, 6-3 over Zach Beard (G).
· Girls’ singles: 1—Olivia Ott (CS) 6-1, 6-1 over Taylor Phillips (G). 2—Blair Baker (CS) 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 over Brianna Reed (G). 3—Hannah Conn (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Gabbey Jackobsen (G).
· Boys’ doubles: 1—Rico Mendez-Jesse Cardenas (G) 6-2, 6-4 over Ethan Kjesbo-Reed Roudabush (CS). 2—Henry Everitt-Roger Figge (CS) 6-0, 6-2 over Chase Ogle-Marcio Rodriguez (G).
· Girls’ doubles: 1—Erin Hennessy-Jolie Blair (CS) 6-0, 7-6 over Lindsay Nelson-Miranda Sabala (G). 2—Ella Marks-Marleigh Poulsen (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Kallie Schadwick-Myriam Ramirez (G).
· Mixed doubles: 1—Nick Wright-Hannah Dies (CS) 7-5, 6-2 over Erick Romero-Joanna Jensen (G). 2—Trenor Gould-Isabelle Caraluzzi (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Alex Leija-Liz Dohren (G).
Comm.School 12, Sugar-Salem 0
· Boys’ singles: 1—Willis Sanchez-duPont (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Caden Dodson (S-S). 2—Daniel DuFur (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Isaac Dunn (S-S). 3—George Everitt (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Teegan Shirley (S-S).
· Girls’ singles: 1—Olivia Ott (CS) 6-0, 7-5 over BaLei Wright (S-S). 2—Blair Baker (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Brindizi Hamblin (S-S). 3—Hannah Conn (CS) 6-0, 6-1 over Kaydee Wood (S-S).
· Boys’ doubles: 1—Ethan Kjesbo-Reed Roudabush (CS) 6-2, 6-3 over Matt King-Landon Weber (S-S). 2—Henry Everitt-Roger Figge (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Tony Virgin-Dalin Briggs (S-S).
· Girls’ doubles: 1—Erin Hennessy-Jolie Blair (CS) 6-0, 6-2 over Chaise Dodson-Kendra Miller (S-S). 2—Ella Marks-Marleigh Poulsen (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Bryanna Willis-Noina Charloenlertwong (S-S).
· Mixed doubles: 1—Nick Wright-Hannah Dies (CS) 6-0, 6-0 over Ben Taylor-Felicia Nelson (S-S). 2—Trenor Gould-Isabelle Caraluzzi (CS) 6-1, 6-1 over Gage Nelson-McKay Owens (S-S).