By Brad Hallier
Hutchinson High juniors Ellie Foos and Ayla Booe teamed up to qualify for the Class 5A state tennis tournament, which begins Friday in Salina.
Foos and Booe were seeded fifth in the tournament and came in fourth at Monday’s Salina Central regional.
Foos and Booe were challenged right again, needing to go to a third-set tiebreaker but winning their first-round match 5-7, 6-2, 10-3. Then, the Salthawks won another three-set thriller, this time 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 over Newton’s Lucy Buller and Mara Oswald.
Booe and Foos will enter the state tournament with a 16-9 record.
Girls golf – Hutchinson earned one entry into the Class 5A state tournament, which will be Monday and Tuesday at Carey Park.
Junior Lily Rodriguez carded a 108 at the 18-hole regional Monday at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wichita. That tied Rodriguez for 24th.
Boys soccer – The Salthawks started a treacherous stretch to end the regular season Tuesday with a hard-fought 3-0 loss to Derby.
Derby has recent wins over two of the top teams in Class 5A, including Maize South and Newton, both of which made the state semifinals last year. Maize South is the reigning 5A champion.
Previously, the Salthawks romped past Arkansas City 6-2 on Thursday.
The Salthawks will take on McPherson on Thursday at the Salthawk Sports Complex and then head to Maize South and Newton next week.
At 6-6-1, the Salthawks are tied for eighth in the Class 5A West regional standings with Hays.
Volleyball – The Salthawks dropped two AVCTL Division 1 matches on Tuesday at Newton. The Salthawks started the night with a 25-16, 25-17 loss to Maize South, and then dropped a tough three-set match to Newton, 25-21, 14-25, 25-14.
The Salthawks dropped to 9-22. They will have their regular-season finale next Tuesday against Maize at the Salthawk Athletic Center.
Cross country – The Salthawks travelled to Salina on Saturday, and the boys came in eighth place.
Leading the way again was sophomore Lalo Rodriguez, who came in 35 place in a time of 18 minutes, 52.3 seconds on the 5,000-meter course. Junior Ethan Hancock was right behind in 39th place (19:02.65).
Freshman Avery Tecklenburg led the girls team with a 23rd-place finish (22:28.2).
