On a chilly, overcast night, the Wayne boys track team won its first team title since 1996 Thursday at the Wayne Regional.The host Generals had 80 points to slip past runner-up Carroll’s 75.
FORT WAYNE – Not that it hasn’t been without its share of bumps, but the Canterbury boys tennis team is returning to the site of some unfinished business.
The No.3 Cavaliers took care of No. 23 Carroll 4-1 on Wednesday to win the Carroll Regional championship and advance to the Homestead Semistate.
“We never want to take anything for granted,” Canterbury coach Jerry Gerig said of the regional championship. “We have had a talented group of guys here who have been around for 3 to 4 years, but it’s not always going to be that way and we know that. We want to enjoy the years that we have with this special group of guys.”
The Cavaliers (18-0) will play the winner of today’s Fairfield/Angola regional championship match at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Canterbury, which won its third straight regional title, lost in the semistate last year 5-0 to Indianapolis North Central after advancing to the 2010 state finals.
“We have had different lineups throughout the season,” said Canterbury’s No. 2 singles player Davis Huber, a junior. “No one has played one position the whole time. Everybody played something out of the ordinary and everybody stepped up. With this regional title, we’re all coming to play our best and improve to hopefully go even further.
“We all did pretty good stepping up to our positions. We didn’t have any trouble. We did pretty good with the cards that were dealt to us.”
It’s been a bit of a juggling act this year because of illnesses on the team and the back injury to No. 1 singles player Patrick Downs, a senior who has been playing at No. 2 doubles recently. That prompted a ripple effect in the lineup, with most of the players moving up a spot.
“We had expectations, and we had settled into some spots and just run with it,” Gerig said. “We have had to, at times, just put together the lineup that is able to win for that day. But, that’s made us stronger because we aren’t taking our talent for granted.”
If Canterbury wins its semistate match and advances to state, North Central could be waiting in a first-round matchup.
“We definitely like our draw this year, as opposed to last year,” Gerig said of not facing North Central at the semistate. “Our big slogan this year is to get better each day, and not worry about who our opponent is. Whether it be North Central or somebody else, we were coming into Saturday with that mentality. We tried really hard to build our schedule to face some of the tougher teams so that wouldn’t be such a shock.”
Against the Chargers, Huber won 6-1, 6-2 over Luke Garrison; Tom Filus 6-1, 6-1 over Austin Legere at No. 3 singles; William Wright and Chris Yahanada 6-2, 6-3 over Cody Chase and Cory Daman; and Downs and Chad Schouweiler 6-1, 6-3 over Daniel Quade and Dillon Fernando.
Carroll, which got a 7-6, 7-6 win from Ross Marano over Clay Hoffacker at No. 1 singles, finishes at 20-3.
