CHS places first in Clay Center tourney

CLAY CENTER — Elijah Steffen and Eric Grogan swept the singles divisions to lead the Concordia High School tennis team to a first-place finish in the Clay Center Invitational on Thursday.
Concordia won the tournament with 16 points.
Ellinwood also scored 16 points and finished second. Maranatha Christian Academy was third with 13 points.
“I'm very proud of the way we played today. We had a beautiful day, and the guys took advantage of it,” Concordia coach Michael Wahlmeier said, “Our singles players did an excellent job and played better and better throughout the day. Our doubles teams battled in some tough losses, but communicated well and captured enough points to get us a team victory.”
Steffen, playing number one singles for Concordia, shut out Colt Benfer, Clay Center, in the opening round. He defeated Deven Brown, St. John's Military Academy, 6-3 and then rolled past Kevin Kerman, St. John's, 6-1.
Eric Grogan also went unbeaten on his way to placing first in number two singles for the Panthers. He got past Clay Center, 7-5 in the first round; shut out Shawn Qiu, Maranatha Christian, 6-0; and downed Adrian Cabildo, St. John's, 6-2.
Ismael Perez and Christian Redmond placed third in number two doubles for Concordia. They defeated Clay Center's number two team 6-0, lost to Maranatha 6-1 and downed St. John's, 6-0.
Isaac Bombardier and Keegan Grogan finished fifth in number one doubles for the Panthers. They fell 6-2 to Clay Center and 6-1 to Maranatha and then blanked Clay Center, 6-0.
Concordia will host a meet next Thursday.