High School Sports

Hemry nets 4th straight CIC tennis crown; 3 doubles teams stay undefeated

Three doubles teams capped undefeated conference seasons and a singles player from South High came a step closer to an undefeated high school career Saturday at the Cook Inlet Conference tennis championships.

Christine Hemry captured her fourth straight CIC girls singles title with a 6-0, 6-1 win over second-seeded Emilee Groth of Chugiak.

Groth was the only player to take a game from Hemry in the two-day tournament at the Alaska Club East. In her first three matches, Hemry won 6-0, 6-0.

Hemry, who is 15-0 this season, will be the favorite at next week's state tournament in Anchorage, where she'll try to win a fourth straight state crown and complete a perfect high school career.

The West Eagles claimed the CIC team title and South finished second.

The Eagles were boosted by two doubles teams that wrapped up undefeated conference seasons.

Teddy Bahr and Charlie Rush improved to 13-0 in boys doubles with a 6-2, 6-1 win over South's Steve Kilkenny and Gage Webster.

ADVERTISEMENT

Kristina Yu and Andre Lief moved to 13-0 in mixed doubles by stopping the South team of Peyton Brown and Walker Brown 6-1, 6-2.

Also remaining undefeated was the Dimond doubles team of Kate Debenham and Layne Debenham. They dispatched Service's Lia Moon and Claudine Mock 6-1, 6-2 to improve to 14-0.

Claiming the boys singles title was East's David Columbus, who held off Chugiak's Riley Fugere 6-1, 7-6.

All of the tournament's top seeds won titles, and four of the five No. 2 seeds all finished second. The exception came in girls doubles, where third-seeded Moon and Mock knocked off second-seeded Aieleen Kim and Athena Clendaniel of West in the semifinals to earn a shot at the Debenhams.

West coach Bill Cotton was named coach of the year, and sportsmanship awards went to Fugere and Eagle River's Kali Spencer. Fugere and Spencer will each receive a new racket from the Alaska Tennis Association.

Dimond earned the academic award with a team grade-point average of 3.86.

ADVERTISEMENT