Page 14 — Thursday, August 24, 2023 — The Hastings Banner
Saxon team nets first doubles win over Ionia
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A short-handed Hastings squad filled four
flights, two singles and two doubles, during
its first home dual of the season Monday
afternoon against Ionia.
The Saxon first doubles team of seniors
Keegan Lindsey and Lang Haines picked up
the team’s lone point in a 6-2, 6-3 win over
the Bulldog duo of Jude Gregory and Ryan
Lee in Ionia’s 7-1 victory.
It was the first doubles match of the season
for Lindsey, who spent his junior season in
the second singles spot for the Saxons. Haines
has been a staple of the Saxon doubles line-
up for most of his first three high school
seasons, but is happy to be back to 100 per-
cent after missing out on the chance to play
during much of his junior campaign.
“I love tennis. It is really fun,” Haines said.
The two fared well Monday. Haines felt the
duo served well, and he was happy to see
Lindsey playing so well at the net – even if
their Bulldog opponents were able to beat him
down the line once or twice as he tried to
poach a few volleys in the middle of the court.
“He was playing amazing net, he was
poaching shots, and he was winning it and
killing it at the net too. He was playing way
better tennis than me today – easily,” Haines
said of Lindsey. “He was having a lot of fun
too. We both were.”Haines was pleased with the way he served
Monday and where he found himself on the
court. He has been working not to get stuck in
no-man’s land, an area in the back third of the
court that is tough to defend that he has found
himself in a little too often in the past.
That first doubles team had a 3-2 lead in
the second set and then surged to win the
final three games of the match.
“One of the big things we talked about, is
closing the gaps,” Hastings head coach Krista
Schueller said. “[Lindsey] is used to just run-
ning around his singles court. Here he has
Lang, so learning where you are and where
your partner is so you can close down your
gaps is important.”Haines played with fellow senior Evan
Porter in the first doubles spot Saturday to
open the season at Three Rivers and that was
something that duo really needed to work on.
Schueller thinks Haines and Lindsey will
be able to string together some victories this
season if she can keep the duo together.
The Saxons were competitive at the four
contested flights with the Bulldogs. Ionia’s
Cole Petersen managed to outlast Saxon
senior Heath Hays 6-2, 6-2 in the first singles
flight. Owen Shippey took a 6-4, 6-0 win over
Saxon senior Caleb Borton at second singles.
Borton stepped up a spot from third singles
to second singles for Monday’s dual. Hayes is
in his second season as the Saxons’ first sin-gles player. He held that spot as a junior too
after playing with Haines at second doubles
most of his sophomore season.
The Saxon second doubles team of Porter
and freshman Owen Boge fell 6-3, 6-2 to the
Bulldogs’ Riley Yokum and Palmer Jaxon.
Schueller said that Boge has typically been
a singles player, but Monday’s math meant
that teaming with Porter was the best spot for
him. She is hoping to add a few more players
to the squad if possible.
Ionia got forfeit wins at the other four
flights.
Sophomore Anderson Forrel filled a sin-
gles spot for the Saxons last Saturday, but
wasn’t competing Monday.Gull Lake bests Delton teams in early dual
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Gull Lake had seven of the first eight fin-
ishers in both the boys’ and girls’ races at
Gilmore Car Museum Wednesday.
It was still a good second run of the season
for the Delton Kellogg teams.
Senior Samantha O’Meara, in her first var-
sity cross country season, led the DK girls’
team for the first time turning in a time of 25
minutes 38.92 seconds that put her seventh
place. She was just a few seconds off the time
that put her in 13th at last Friday’s Lawrence
Jim Carey Early Bird Invitational.
“It was good to see Sam O’Meara, she is
new to this it is her first year running, and she
just kind of put her head down and went after
it,” Delton Kellogg head coach Dale Grimes
said. “Her time I don’t think reflected that,
but everybody’s times were not quite as fast
as what we’d like to see – not quite as fast as
at Lawrence on Friday.”
There were far fewer runners competing
Tuesday in the rare cross country dual than at
the invitational Friday. The 20 girls and 23
boys competing for their teams Tuesday were
about half the number in Lawrence.
“I think that is part of [times being slower].
You lose contact with somebody and that lit-tle race mentality slips away. We have been
practicing in the morning. Everything we
have done has been in the morning, so this is
our first time doing anything in the afternoon.
That might be a little factor.
“But it is good. It is an eye-opener for
some of our beginners yet that we’re not there
yet. We have work to do. It is early.”
Junior Ethan Rimmer led the Delton Kel-
logg boys in the dual hosted by Gull Lake
with a third-place time of 19:34.9. He was
about a minute off the pace that had him third
overall at Lawrence’s invitational last week.
“He was pushing himself pretty hard
today,” Grimes said of Rimmer, “which is
good. We need to see more of that.”
Gull Lake took the boys’ race 18-45 Tues-
day while the Blue Devil girls scored a
15-49 win.
Gull Lake senior Kendall Wank won the
girls’ race in 23:47.84 ahead of freshman
teammate Lane Isom who came in at 23:57.
in the runner-up spot.
A pair of sophomores led the Gull Lake
guys. Gavin Markucki won in 19:00.60 and
Finn Tauren was second in 19:20.65. The
Blue Devils had four sophomores among the
first six finishers in the boys’ race and 12 of
the first 13 finishers overall.
In the scoring group, Delton Kellogg’s
Brock Hickerson was ninth in 22:55.15, Nick
Muday tenth in 22:59.45 and Rhys Bedford
11th in 23:05.29. The 12th-place scorer for
DK was Isaiah Kellogg in 30:31.31.
Bedford was the only Delton Kellogg guy
to cut his time from the season opening meet
in Lawrence. He shaved off about 23 seconds.
Gull Lake girls finished in the first six
spots in their race.
In the scoring for DK, junior Kylie Main
was ninth in 26:33.09, Elli Timmerman tenthin 27:19.39, Summer Ritchie 11th in 27:19.
and Izabelle Gruber 12th in 28:24.51. Coach
Grimes was pleased with Main’s kick at the
end to beat out Gull Lake sophomore Josie
Shanley and liked how strong his own soph-
omore Timmerman looked overall.
“Overall, we’re seeing some improvement
today. We’ll take the good with the bad and
keep working,” Grimes said.
The Delton Kellogg teams will be back in
action Friday, Aug. 25, at the South Christian
Under the Lights Invitational.Hastings senior Lang Haines hits a forehand back at the Ionia first doubles team
during his win with teammate Keegan Lindsey Monday afternoon at Hastings High
School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Hastings senior Evan Porter stretches out for a backhand return during the second
doubles match against Ionia at Hastings High School Monday afternoon. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Hastings senior Caleb Borton hits a
serve against his opponent from Ionia
during their second singles match
Monday afternoon at Hastings High
School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Delton Kellogg senior Samantha
O'Meara winds her way around the build-
ings at Gilmore Car Museum during her
team's dual with Gull Lake Tuesday after-
noon. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Rhys Bedford and Brock Hickerson close in on the finish of the course at Gilmore
Car Museum during the Delton Kellogg varsity boys' cross country team's race against
Gull Lake. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Piper McArthur Lillian Lester and Avery Barker make their way around the course at
Gilmore Car Museum during the Delton Kellogg varsity cross country team's dual with
Gull Lake Tuesday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)