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Fleming repeats as state champion in dominant style
Gabi Fleming lost just one game in four tournament matches and punctuated her second crown with another emphatic 6-0, 6-0
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WATERLOO — It would be hard to envision a more dominant week for Gabi Fleming.
The Cedar Rapids Xavier sophomore girls’ tennis standout – already in possession of one Class 1A state championship trophy – added a second to her burgeoning awards case Saturday by thoroughly blitzing the 1A state tournament field at the Byrnes Park.
“It is just all the work I have put in,” Fleming said. “I have been preparing for this moment. Last year, I got a lot of the initial nerves out in the final, for sure. Other than that, I just feel it is just all the work I have put in and how hard I worked in the offseason.”
Cedar Rapids Xavier sophomore Gabi Fleming captured her second-straight Class 1A state singles championship after a 6-0, 6-0 victory over second-seeded Kate Holton of Waterloo Columbus. #iahstennis pic.twitter.com/lxvftjmX2n
— Douglas Miles (@douglasmilesCRG) May 31, 2025
Fleming is the first player to repeat as state champion in 1A singles since Fairfield’s Anatta Charownkul (2017-18). With an improved forehand and serve, she did so by losing just one game in four tournament matches and punctuated her second crown with another emphatic 6-0, 6-0 win over second-seeded Kate Holton of Waterloo Columbus.
“Last year when I got to the final, I was super nervous,” Fleming said. “I wasn’t able to come out and play my game as early on, but this year I was.”
Peeking ahead a bit, only six players have ever won three state singles crowns in a row – regardless of class – since the girls’ tennis state tournament began in 1956. Given how well Fleming responded to the “defending state champion” label all season, that select group could soon have company.
“I kind of like it,” Fleming said of the target on her back. “I am the one to beat and it seems like no one could do it this year, so hopefully that continues. I kind of like it. I don’t feel the pressure that I feel like I am supposed to feel.”
Fleming’s Xavier teammates – seniors Ruby Smith and Isabel Tobin – made it a Saints’ sweep by defeating a pair of doubles teams from Dike-New Hartford by identical 6-4, 6-3 scores and winning the 1A state doubles championship.
“Oh my gosh, it’s the best,” Smith said. “It’s the best feeling ever and I would not have wanted to do it with anyone else.”
Cedar Rapids Xavier seniors Ruby Smith, left, and Isabel Tobin won the Class 1A state doubles championship after a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over third-seeded Izzy Norton and Aidalyn Tott of Dike-New Hartford. #iahstennis pic.twitter.com/H7UwViiqme
— Douglas Miles (@douglasmilesCRG) May 31, 2025
The doubles crown was the fourth in six seasons for the Xavier program. Smith and Tobin fought through a difficult path – including a third-set tiebreaker in Friday’s quarterfinal – just to get to Saturday.
“Just grit,” Tobin said. “And I feel like Ruby and I have a very strong faith. We just lean back on that.”
This is the second time in four years that Xavier won both singles and doubles in the same state tournament.
“Girls just came out ready to go,” Xavier Coach Matt Foxhoven said.
At the 2A tournament in Iowa City, Sasha Postnikov and Marie Stier of Iowa City West placed third in doubles, while Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s Lily Holland finished fourth in singles.
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