Members of the Mingus Union High School’s boys and girls tennis teams participated in the 2017 Arizona Interscholastic Association Division II State Championship, which began with the first and second rounds on Friday, April 21.
Despite not having qualified as a team, every school can enter a representative for both the singles and doubles tournament, played at Scottsdale Ranch Park and Tennis Center.
For the boys, junior Nick Ruggiero took on Sahuaro High School sophomore Kemuel Redlin, losing 6-0, 6-0. The doubles team of sophomores Jordan Finger and Brigham Peterson faced off with McClintock High School juniors Adam Garica and Rowen Theilmann, losing 6-4, 6-3.
On the girls side, senior Phoebe Chilton entered as the singles representative. She saw a first-round matchup against a familiar foe in senior Evelyn Marquez of Bradshaw Mountain High School, a Division II Section II rival.
Chilton won 6-2, 6-0, advancing in convincing fashion to the second round. There she beat Sahuaro High School senior Kendal Larson 6-3, 6-3. In the third round on Saturday, April 22, Chilton lost to Amphitheater High School junior Emily Lopez 6-0, 6-0.
The doubles team was comprised of juniors Talon Whiteley and Emma Williams. They won 6-0, 6-3 against St. Mary’s High School sophomores Alexis Reyes Lee and Angelina Bacon. In the second round the duo lost 6-4, 6-2 to the Cholla High Magnet School pairing of seniors Pricilla Peralta-Rodriguez and Angelika Garcia Maldonado.
Softball
After competing in the 10th annual Spring Jamboree tournament in Las Vegas from April 13 to 15, the Marauders rounded out Grand Canyon Region play with a doubleheader at Lee Williams High School on Saturday, April 22.
Mingus completed the sweep with 13-4 and 8-1 victories, ending the season with a 12-6 record in power-point games and 9-3 in the Grand Canyon Region.
Despite the Marauders’ Grand Canyon Region schedule being finished, the championship has yet to be determined because Prescott High School and Coconino High School have not completed theirs. If both teams win out, Mingus will fall to third because they split their head-to-head matchups but both will own better records in all of Conference 4A.
The team went 4-2 in Las Vegas.
