Balciar, Damm advance; team finishes 3rd at GNC tourney

Medford’s Brayden Balciar and Saskatoon Damm advanced in singles play Tuesday, but some of the tiebreaker success the Raiders experienced early in the season was missing when it was needed most during the WIAA Division 2 Eau Claire Regis subsectional.

Balciar at number-two singles and Damm at number-three singles qualified for sectional competition today, Thursday, which is again being hosted by Regis at Eau Claire’s Menard YMCA Tennis Center starting at 9:30 a.m. Balciar can automatically qualify for the June 2-4 WIAA Division 2 individual state tournament by winning two matches today. As a flight-three player, Damm’s season will end no matter what happens, but it would end with a sectional championship if he wins twice.

The seasons for all three of Medford’s doubles teams ended in 10-point, thirdset tiebreakers. Quinton Tlusty and Mason Reimann lost their first matches in singles play and were eliminated as well.

Medford scored 10 points to tie Altoona for second place out of eight teams for the day, four points behind Regis. The Ramblers have some work to do to catch La Crosse Aquinas for the team championship today. The Blugolds scored 20 points at the West Salem subsectional and have the inside track at the spot in the June 11 WIAA Division 2 team state tournament. La Crosse Logan sits in second place with 16 points. Amery and Baldwin-Woodville also scored 14 points each at West Salem.

Balciar’s stellar sophomore season is extended after he cruised through his two matches. Playing as the two-seed in his flight, Balciar (15-2) blew by seventhseeded Gage Kabasa of Ashland 6-0, 6-1 in the first round did the same to thirdseeded Tony Wesner of Regis in the second round, also winning 6-0, 6-1.

In the sectional, Balciar will face junior Joe O’Flaherty of Aquinas (18-2) in the semifinals, while Lakeland’s Dominic Gironella (8-10) gets Amery sophomore Russell Bagley (10-3). The winners will play for the flight championship, while the losers will play for third. O’Flaherty was a sectional qualifier in flight one last year, where he fell to Medford’s Logan Searles in the quarterfinals. Balciar has three straight-set wins over Gironella this season. Gironella upset top-seeded Sam Bretl of Antigo in his second match of the day 6-3, 6-7 (3), 11-9.

Damm (11-3) was the top seed in the number-three bracket and drew a firstround bye. In his only match Tuesday, he easily dispatched of fifth-seeded Brandon Spies of Altoona 6-1, 6-0.

In sectional play, Damm get 15-6 sophomore Collin Fritts of Baldwin-Woodville in his semifinal. Antigo’s Seth Beaber (4-3) faces Aquinas sophomore Shane Willenbring (15-6) in the other one. Damm beat Fritts 6-2, 6-4 in the season-opening Baldwin-Woodville Quad on April 9.

At number-one singles, Tlusty drew the fourth seed in the subsectional bracket and met fifth-seeded Jesús Hoyos for the fourth time this season. Hoyos earned a split in the season series and advanced to the sectional with a 6-4, 6-2 win. Tlusty went 7-9 while facing some of the areas top players in the flight during his senior season.

At number-four, Reimann drew the fifth seed and got a rematch with Lakeland’s Jack Stepec. Just like Thursday’s GNC tournament, Stepec was the winner, taking the match 6-2, 6-4. Stepec then took top-seeded Landon Nelson of Antigo to three sets before falling 10-8 in the tiebreaker. Reimann, a freshman, was 2-8 overall in singles play this year and 2-6 in flight four.

Medford’s number-two doubles team of junior Brett Lundy and sophomore Conner Klingbeil went 1-1 to fall one match shy of a sectional berth. Playing as the two-seed in the flight, they got off to a strong start with a 6-3, 6-0 win over seventh-seeded Aaron Converse and Michael Hagerty of Antigo. But in a match between the second- and third-place flight-two teams in the GNC, Pacelli’s third-seeded team of Marcus Lansing and Keagen Austreng knocked them off in an epic match. The Cardinals swept the first set 6-0, but the Raiders clawed back in the second set, sending it to a tiebreaker, which they won 7-4 to take the set 7-6. Pacelli then won the match tiebreaker 10-6.

Lundy and Klingbeil went 9-4 together this season.

The number-one doubles team of senior Brayden Machon and junior Dante Axon needed one win to qualify for the sectional. They drew the fifth seed and won their first set 6-4 against Altoona’s fourth-seeded Xai Her and Tyler Goodwin. But, the Railroaders’ team evened things up with a 6-2 win in set two and clinched the match with a 10-4 win in the tiebreaker.

After a hot start, Machon and Axon finished 6-5 together.

At number-three, sophomores Nathan Willman and Alex Wilson were seeded fifth and took the first set 6-4 over Lakeland’s fourth-seeded team of Sawyer Brown and Jayson Wahlgren. The Raiders were on the verge of winning the match, but the T-Birds took the tiebreaker 7-4 in the second set to win the set 7-6. They held off the Raiders 10-7 in the match tiebreaker.

Lakeland scored eight points Tuesday, Antigo scored six, Pacelli had four, Ashland scored two and Newman Catholic did not score.

GNC tournament

Balciar led three Raider entries that made the finals by winning the flighttwo singles championship in the Great Northern Conference tournament, which almost got completed Thursday before thunderstorms moved into the Antigo area.

The number-one and number-two singles championships were the only matches that had to be finished on Friday and Balciar’s title bout with Bretl went the distance. Balciar won the first set on Thursday 6-3, but Bretl took the second set 6-3 when play resumed on Friday. The match then went to a 10-point tiebreaker, which Balciar won 10-5 to claim his second GNC title. He was the flight-four champion last spring.

In his semifinal match, the secondseeded Balciar took care of the thirdseeded Dominic Gironella 6-2, 6-2.

Balciar’s title highlighted a thirdplace finish for Medford in the tournament and in the final GNC standings. The Raiders scored 22 points in the tournament to finish behind Rhinelander (37) and Antigo (27) and ahead of Lakeland (11) and Stevens Point Pacelli (8). Those scores, added to dual-meet points gave Rhinelander the overall title with 141 points, followed by Antigo (99), Medford (80), Lakeland (39) and Pacelli (20).

Damm also played for a championship on Thursday. In flight-three singles, the junior drew the second seed and opened with a 6-1, 6-0 semifinal win over Lakeland’s Carson Tegland. That sent him to the title match with Rhinelander’s John Currie, who won it 6-1, 6-3.

The number-two doubles team of Lundy and Klingbeil, both first-year players, earned second-team honors by going 1-1 in a four-team bracket. As the two-seed, they opened with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Antigo’s Converse and Cole Umland to reach the flight championship against Rhinelander’s Leo Losch and Charlie Heck. The Hodags won that match 6-1, 6-2. Losch was a second-team number-three singles player a year ago.

The Raiders earned honorable mention awards in both number-one flights.

In singles, Tlusty drew the four-seed and had to play a first-round match against fifth-seeded Ben Westrick of Stevens Point Pacelli, which he won easily 6-0, 6-1. That win put him in the semifinals against top-seeded Garrett Husnick of Antigo. Husnick earned his second win over Tlusty in four days and dominated 6-1, 6-0.

Tlusty ended the day on a good note, however, taking care of Hoyos 6-4, 6-3 in the third-place match and taking a 2-1 lead over him in their season series, which has been quite competitive.

Machon and Axon drew the third seed in flight-one doubles and were defeated 6-0, 6-3 by Antigo’s second-seeded team of Calvin Jansen and Nolan Bunnell in the semifinal round. The Raiders bounced back in the third-place match, easily defeating Mateo Koch and Eli Robinson of Pacelli 6-1, 6-1.

Reimann was the fourth-place finisher at number-four singles. He was defeated in the semifinals by Nelson 6-1, 6-0 and by Stepec in the third-place match 6-0, 6-4. The number-three doubles team of Wilson and Willman finished fifth. Pacelli’s Dominic Kroening and Hunter Wrezinski beat them 6-3, 6-0 in a first-round match.

Saskatoon DammSectionalqualifier2nd team GNC

Medford’s Dante Axon slams down a shot at the net while Brayden Machon backs him during flight-one doubles play at Thursday’s Great Northern Conference meet in Antigo. Axon and Machon were beaten in this match by Antigo’s team, but they earned honorable mention by beating Pacelli’s team in the third-place match.SCOTT WALBECK/ANTIGO DAILY JOURNAL

Brett Lundy Second Team #2 doubles

Conner Klingbeil Second Team #2 doubles

Medford’s Quinton Tlusty uses a backhand swing during his third-place GNC number-one singles match with Lakeland’s Jesús Hoyos, which he won to earn honorable mention status.JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS