Most top seeds advance on first day of North Dakota state boys tennis individual tournament
Oct. 10—GRAND FORKS — There were few surprises on the opening day of the North Dakota state boys tennis individual tournament on Friday.
The singles and doubles tournaments played out through the quarterfinal round at Choice Health & Fitness.
Leighton Heick of West Fargo Sheyenne, seeded as the East Region's No. 3 singles player, was the only individual who wasn't seeded first or second in a region to advance to the semifinals.
West Region No. 2 singles player Reed Romsaas of Bismarck High lost in the first round to Grand Forks Red River's Max Mecham 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Mecham, the East Region No. 7, fell to Heick in the quarterfinals 6-0, 6-1.
Mandan's Jared Christen (West No. 1) faces Brandt Aslakson of West Fargo Sheyenne (East No. 2) at 10 a.m. in the singles semifinals.
Aslakson was a state doubles champion in 2024, teaming with Andrew Rexin.
The other side of the singles bracket will feature Heick against Grand Forks Red River's Julian Mallory (East No. 1).
Mallory is aiming to keep the state singles crown in Grand Forks as Central's Cole Wilber won the title in both 2023 and 2024.
Red River's last state singles champion was 2019 when Kaden Johnson took the crown.
The final four doubles teams are the top two seeds from the two regions.
Luke LeFevre and Braxton Burkett of Jamestown (West No. 1) will take on Arnav Panwalkar and Drew Burris of Fargo North (East No. 2) at 11 a.m.
On the other side of the doubles bracket, Nolan Moore and Oliver Thompson of Minot (No. 2 West) will face Jason Ling and Rylan Spicer of Grand Forks Central (No. 1 East) at 11 a.m.
The West Region's top doubles pairs had to battle to advance in the quarterfinals.
LeFevre and Burkett beat Alex Comings and Garnett Anderson of Wahpeton 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Moore and Thompson beat Carson Peterson and Jordan Clemenson of West Fargo Sheyenne 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
Jamestown hasn't won a state doubles championship since James Kale and Brian Heintz in 1985.
