Seniors Owen Vest, Riley Bratton and Colin McCrady led the way as the Eagles defeated Pendleton Heights 5-2 on Wednesday night during Senior Day. The victory keeps Delta tied for first place in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, setting up a winner-takes-all championship match on Monday evening at Mt. Vernon.
Vest won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, while Bratton/McCrady won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles. Also winning were junior Dalton Royal at No. 1 singles (6-0, 6-1); sophomore Kody Vest at No. 3 singles (6-1, 6-4); and juniors Preston Shanayda/Jake Bilby at No. 2 doubles (6-1, 6-1).
The teams played a varsity format of four singles and three doubles. Pendleton Heights won the final two matches, both of which went long into the evening. At No. 4 singles, junior Simon Marlow battled for three hours before losing 6-2, 5-7, 4-6. At No. 3 doubles, senior Heath Sprague played his first-ever varsity match. He teamed with junior Caleb Hewitt and they also battled closely but fell 5-7, 6-7.
The team’s fifth senior, Isaac Anderson, sat out the match with an injury.
Exchange student Matteo Caddedu teamed with freshman Alex Smith to win 8-4 in JV doubles.
The JV team won 7-2 to improve to 12-6 for the season. Among the highlights:
> Sophomore Owen Cupp dug deep to climb out of a 0-4 hole and win 8-6 in an entertaining battle at No. 1 singles. Cupp collected his team-leading 16th victory of the season.
> Freshman Kaden Crist and junior Hanson Heintzelman pulled out a tiebreaker victory, 8-7 (12-10). They trailed 2-6 in the tiebreaker and faced quadruple match point but hung tough and rallied for the win.
> Junior Will Kile won his 10th consecutive match, teaming with Kam Swoboda for an 8-4 victory. Kile hasn’t lost since the opening weekend in Columbus.
> Freshmen Ben Miller, John Atkinson, Aaron Elliott and Brady Williams teamed at the top two doubles spots and won their matches. They each have won between 11 and 13 matches this fall.
> Junior James Root and freshman Jacob Williams gained an 8-5 victory. Root now has 11 wins this fall.
Thank you to the committee of parents who put together an excellent Senior Night event! Committee coordinator Jen Joslin and her crew of Heidi Root, Michelle Cupp, Heidi Marlow, Lisa Shanayda, Stephanie Smith, Amanda Russell, Heather Elliott and Derek Mitchell (and anyone else who also helped!) took care of all the details to honor our seniors!
The varsity will host the Delta Invitational on Saturday. The Eagles play Lake Central at 8:45 a.m. Additional teams in their bracket are Western and Muncie Burris. In the other bracket at Yorktown HS, the matchups are Norwell vs Richmond and Yorktown vs Bellmont.
The JV plays at the FW Carroll Invitational on Saturday against Carroll and Homestead.
Varsity Results
Singles
- Dalton Royal def. Sam Bowers 6-0, 6-1
- Owen Vest def. Austin Perny 6-1, 6-0
- Kody Vest def. Cove Ritchey 6-1, 6-4
- Simon Marlow lost to Troy Thorsen 6-2, 5-7, 4-6
Doubles
- Colin McCrady/Riley Bratton def. Mark Nielsen/Cole Bubenzer 6-0, 6-1
- Jake Bilby / Preston Shanayda def. Ben Caldwell / Isaac Hough 6-1, 6-1
- Heath Sprague/Caleb Hewitt lost to Owen Kean/Isaac Elizondo 5-7, 6-7 (2)
JV Results
Singles
- Owen Cupp won 8-6
- Ayden Mitchell lost 2-8
Doubles
- John Atkinson/Ben Miller won 8-4
- Aaron Elliott/Brady Williams won 8-2
- Will Kile/Kam Swoboda won 8-4
- James Root / Jacob Williams won 8-5
- Justus Subler/Daniel Tokar lost 3-8
- Matteo Caddedu/Alex Smith won 8-4
- Kaden Crist/Hanson Heintzelman won 8-7 (10)