Dual state singles qualifiers adds to Pirates’ tennis growth
GUILFORD — It wasn’t that many springs ago when the tennis courts were typically unoccupied at the recreation area across from Goulette’s IGA while the adjacent baseball field and playground were filled with kids after school each day.
About the only time the courts got significant use was to help ease the burden on the Burns-Johnson memorial tennis courts a few miles down Route 15 in Dover-Foxcroft when the Foxcroft Academy tennis team was hosting a match.
The local tennis world has changed dramatically in recent years, not only with the expansion of the tennis complex at Foxcroft Academy from two to four courts but with the introduction of boys and girls varsity tennis teams at Piscataquis Community Secondary School, where the courts are now one of the more popular aspects of the recreation area after school during the spring.
And the Pirates have enjoyed considerable tennis success. Since the program was established in 2012, the Piscataquis girls team has qualified for postseason play every year and reached the Eastern Maine Class C semifinals in 2013.
The boys squad has earned a playoff berth each of the last four years, including an Eastern C runner-up finish last spring.
The 2015 boys roster suffered significant graduation losses, but this year’s team appears poised to return to postseason play again, as does the girls squad that currently is ranked fifth in Class C North despite routinely forfeiting its second doubles match due to the lack of a full lineup.
Key to the girls’ team success has been the 1-2 punch of top singles players Lucinda Wingert and Alanna Whitney.
Both players not only have led their team to a 6-3-1 record entering this week’s play, but also have qualified for the state singles championships that begin Friday in Lewiston.
Wingert has reached states for the fourth straight year, according to Pirates’ coach Brian Gaw, while Whitney is a first-time qualifier — and the fact Piscataquis has two of the final 48 players left in the schoolgirl singles tourney is no small feat for a 5-year-old program in an area of the state not known as a tennis hotbed.
Wingert and Whitney were seeded second and eighth, respectively, in the Region 2 playdown that covered most of eastern Maine and won two matches apiece to advance to the Round of 48 at Lewiston High School.
The PCSS duo represents one of just 10 high school tennis programs statewide with two more more qualifiers for the girls state singles tournament. Many of the others represent a who’s who of traditional tennis powers — among Falmouth, Lewiston, Waynflete of Portland, Camden Hills of Rockport and Caribou.
That’s pretty good company for the Pirates.
FA player survives upset-filled regional
A third tennis player from the area to advance to this weekend’s state high school singles tournament is Foxcroft Academy boys second seed Kazuyuki Kawashima.
Kawashima, a sophomore boarding student from Japan, emerged as one of 11 survivors from an upset-prone Region 2 qualifying event during which four seeded players were ousted.
Kawashima, 7-2 during the regular season for coach Ryan Dankert’s Foxcroft club, bested Ellsworth top singles player Brian Awalt 8-2 in his first-round match, then ousted the region’s No. 11 seed, Beowulf Urban of George Stevens Academy, 8-3.
That left Kawashima to face Bangor’s Tom Szewczyk with a trip to states at stake, and the Foxcroft standout won in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.
Kawashima is scheduled to face Matt Morse of Camden Hills of Rockport in his first-round match Friday morning, with the winner to play No. 1 overall seed and two-time defending state runner-up Nick Mathieu, a junior from Mount Ararat of Topsham, during the afternoon session.
Speed aids FA’s Church in two sports
Foxcroft Academy senior pitcher Nate Church has displayed a lively fastball in helping the Ponies’ baseball team compile a 9-3 record in Class B North entering this week’s schedule.
It turns out his feet are pretty fast, too.
Church is seeded first in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes for the Penobscot Valley Conference large-school track and field championships, which will be held Friday afternoon at Hampden Academy.
Church has seasonal bests of 11.33 seconds in the 100 and 23.32 in the 200 as one of several athletes who should help Foxcroft contend for a high finish in the meet involving the conference’s Classes A-B schools.
Also leading the way for the Ponies is senior Hunter Smith. The University of Maine-bound football standout is seeded first in the 110 hurdles (16.29) and high jump (6-4) and second in the 300 hurdles (43.12) and long jump (20-7).
Among top individual competitors in the PVC large-school girls meet, Foxcroft’s Emily Mikoud is seeded first in the discus with a best effort so far this spring of 121-7.
While Foxcroft will compete in the PVC large-school track championships at Hampden, it will host the conference’s small-school meet Saturday at Oakes Field.
Among top area competitors in that event will be Brandon Allen of Dexter, seeded second in the high jump and triple jump and fourth in the long jump; Joshua Martin of Penquis Valley of Milo, third in the javelin; Haylee Patterson of Piscataquis of Guilford, third in the shot put and fourth in the javelin; and Danielle Cummings of Dexter, fourth in the 200.