Boys tennis: Hughes, Wiker net state berth

All the hard work for doubles duo Thomas Hughes and Blake Wiker have paid off.

Now they’re getting some time off.

The Sequim doubles partners netted a fifth place finish at the West Central District tournament, held Oct. 27-28 at the Kitsap Tennis & Athletic Center in Bremerton.

They’ll now move on to the state 2A tournament, set for May 25-26 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle — the same time and location as the girls’ 2A state tournament when those teams complete seasons in the spring.

Hughes and Wiker went 4-1 to earn one of six doubles berths to state. The pair went 13-5 through the regular season and league tourney play.

In 2016, Sequim sent doubles teammates Justin Porter and Stephen Prorok to the state tournament, where they went 1-2.

Doubles team

advances at league

Hughes and Wiker earned a No. 4 seed while teammates Damon Little and Tim Porter (as a doubles team) and Raymond Lam each earned a district alternate berth by taking fifth at the Olympic League tournament Oct. 18-19 in Bremerton.

Hughes and Wiker opened the tourney with a straight-set win over Zach Meek and Ryland Schmidt of North Kitsap in the opener (6-0, 6-1), then topped Dylan Heino and Logan Lambert of Olympic.

In the semifinals, Hughes and Wiker fell to the North Kitsap duo of Nate Blanchard and Justus Jagodinkse, who would go on to place second.

In the consolation bracket, Hughes and Wiker topped their teammates, Little and Porter, 6-4, 6-2, for a spot in the consolation finals. The Sequim pair fell 6-4, 6-3, to Kingston’s Dawson Clark and Ethan Sax for fourth place.

Little and Porter knocked out Port Angeles’ Bo Bradow and Hunter Dougherty 6-4, 6-3 in the tourney opener before falling to Kingston’s Clark and Sax in the quarterfinals. The Sequim pair rebounded with a win over Bremerton’s Evan Frankowski and Nolan Myers before falling to their fellow Wolves. Little and Porter earned a district tourney alternate berth via a coin toss, and are 10-7 on the season in doubles play.

In singles play, Lam (9-8 as a singles player) edged Port Angeles’ Jaden Seibel 6-4, 0-6, 12-10 in the first round before falling to PA’s Kenny Soule in the second. Lam rebounded in the consolation bracket with wins against Ethan Griffin of Kingston and teammate Liam Payne. Hayden Woods of Port Angeles knocked Lam into the fifth/sixth consolation match, which Lam won by a coin toss to earn him a district alternate berth.

Payne earned a first-round berth over Olympic’s Zachary Wyant (2-6, 6-4, 10-8) before a second-round loss to Ian Schmid of Kingston. Payne topped North Mason’s Gus Sandquist in the consolation bracket before being knocked out of the tourney by Lam.

Payne finished 5-5 on the season in singles play.