Galbraith's long wait nets state berth

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Riley Galbraith took advantage of his second chance.

Galbraith found himself in the district semifinals for the second straight year, but this time he walked away with a fist pump, a loud "Yes!" and a state tournament berth.

The Cougars junior placed second in the Iowa High School Athletic Association Class 2A district meet Thursday at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center, qualifying for the state tournament May 27-28. Iowa City West's Kyle Appel won the singles title, helping the Trojans to the team title and a bye to substate team competition next week.

Galbraith captured his spot in the finals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over West's Blake Oetting in the semifinals.

"It means a lot to me," said Galbraith, who also competes in soccer for the Cougars. "The state tournament is the biggest thing in tennis and every (sport). after a close match like that to make it, it's awesome."

Although he won in straight sets, Galbraith and Oetting battled back-and-forth. Galbraith, who said his serve helped set up some easy points,  got up a break in the opening set and held on for the set point. he trailed 4-3 before running the last three games, breaking Oetting's serve in his final chance. Galbraith, who was seeded second and has been the Cougars' No. 1 player, said avoiding a third set was important.

"He was playing really well," Galbraith said. "You never know what's going to happen when it's one set. You're nervous and there's so much riding on the line."

The win finally banished the monkey Galbraith had been carrying since his district loss to Cedar Rapids Prairie's Parker Linn last year. That loss had been eating at him until reaching the finals.

"That was one of the reasons I was so nervous going into this because I felt like I should have been in state last year," Galbraith said. "I felt like I had a missed opportunity. I've just been waiting for this opportunity to come back again and now its here and done and I'm really relieved."

Galbraith received a bit of praise from Appel, who beat him, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, in the finals. Appel said Galbraith is a formidable foe and that the two have highly competitive matches. Appel said it was nice to come out on top.

"Riley's a really good player. We always have good matches," Appel said. "It's always fun to play against him and bang the ball back and forth."

Appel will have the chance to improve last year's sixth-place finish at state as a freshman. He was still focused on enjoying wins by himself and the team.

"It feels really good," Appel said. "I'm just so happy. It's so nice, especially since our whole team won. I'm so proud of my team. We've come so far."

The margin of error was slim for West, which earned a bye to next week's substate. Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Washington placed second and third to advance to Saturday's preliminary substate team competition. One more West loss and the winning banner would be heading to another school's gymnasium.

"I couldn't be prouder of of our team effort," West Coach Mitch Gross said. "Even though it's an individual tournament, it's a team effort. Everybody stepped up."

The tournament came to a stand still when controversy hit the doubles competition. Linn-Mar's Tyler McCann and Gavin Young were awarded the doubles title, due default by player ejection, when Washington's former state runner-up team of Charlie Hammond and Mitch Blades were disqualified.

"It's district. Things get heated," Linn-Mar Coach Chris Wundram said. "I can tell you nobody on our team and nobody in the entire tournament wants to have the outcome that happened."

Washington disputed a line call during the second set. Tempers flared, leading to warnings to both Warriors players. Kennedy Athletics Director Aaron Stecker, who was serving as the tournament director, served a third warning for unsportsmanlike conduct, resulting in the ejection.

Stecker said the team's behavior became objectionable during the dispute.

"They were in clear and blatant violation of the sportsmanship code for tennis," Stecker said. "It's distributed to all coaches at the beginning of the year and shared with all they players at the beginnning of the match this morning."

Stecker, who was sitting courtside outside the fence after a warning had been issued to a Washington player during the first set, returned to the clubhouse and called the IHSAA to clarify the rules and verify the proper decision had been made in accordance to the rules.

"My consultation with the Iowa High School Athletic Association on the situation," Stecker said, "we made the decision it was a default by ejection."

Stecker did not specifically comment on the violations but throwing rackets, water bottles and use of profanity would constitute violations. During a heated conference, including coaches, players and players' parents, Blades denied swearing or throwing rackets.

Washington coach Frank Howell was unceratin about the events that led to the ejection, but said things escalated quickly. He compared it to the car crash where none of the versions were the same and everyone had different points of view from the call to the actions that followed.

"Everything happened so fast," Howell said. "I don't have a very clear recollection of everything. it was very chaotic."

Blades and Hammond were stripped of their runner-up finish and their state tournament berth was awared to the Warriors' No. 2 doubles team of Mitch Anderson and Clayton Hoyt, who defeated West's Ben and Adam Dellos, 6-2, 6-4, for third. Blades and Hammond will also be withheld from Saturday's preliminary substate meet, according to officials.

"We'll have to try to win without them," Howell said about the prelimary substate meet.

Stecker stood by his decision, but called it the worst possible thing that could happen while running an event. He was confident it was the correct decision.

 "It's not why any of us are in this job but there is an integrity for high school athletics that has to be held up," said Stecker, noting he has bnever experienced a situation where a disqualification determined a state berth. "I truly believe in a sport that has an official; there, basketball, football, wrestling, the end result would have been the same."