Mike Kraft/MDN Minot High’s Tyson Barden returns a shot during the dual portion of the Minot Round Robin Tournament at Hammond Park on Friday, Aug. 22. Barden teamed up with Calvin Olson for No. 2 doubles on Saturday, Aug. 23, going 5-2 to help the Magicians to a third-place finish.

The Minot High boys tennis team left Hammond Park following the conclusion of the two-day Minot Round Robin Tournament feeling good about where they currently stand amongst the best in the West Region.

The Magicians may not have won the tournament title, but there were plenty of positives to be taken from their third-place finish following the individual portion of the competition on Saturday, Aug. 23. Minot finished with 23 points and every member of the team contributed at least three victories in their seven matches on the day.

“All in all we had a very successful day,” Minot coach Scott DeLorme said. “We had a lot of guys playing spots they probably haven’t played a lot of in their lives going into the singles and doubles varsity divisions. I was very happy with how we competed. I thought every single person in our lineup really gave a good effort, really competed hard and at the end of the night they were happy with, but they all had things they wanted to come back and work on in practice.”

Mandan claimed the tournament title with 30 points, followed by Bismarck Legacy in second place with 28 points. Bismarck Century (21) and Minot North (12) rounded out the top five in the eight-team competition.

The individual tournament followed a 3-2 format, with Oliver Thompson serving as Minot’s No. 1 singles player with Nolan Moore – the usual No. 1 – teaming up with Henrik Evanoff to play No. 1 doubles. Connor Ressler filled in at No. 2 singles and Aiden Bye at No. 3 singles. Tyson Barden and Calvin Olson paired up at No. 2 doubles.

Minot’s two doubles pairings combined for a 10-4 record, with both defeating teams from Bismarck High, Bismarck Century, Jamestown, Mandan and Minot North. Barden and Olson placed second behind Legacy’s Andrew Jones and Kevin Kalb. Moore and Evanoff finished fourth at No. 1 singles behind Williston’s Kallon DeLorme and Shannon Kane and Mandan’s Matthew Christen and Deklan Wollschlager, who both finished 6-1. Minot lost the third-place tiebreaker on its head-to-head loss with Legacy’s Brady Johnson and Connor Svihovec.

“We had teams playing together that really hadn’t played maybe ever for a few of them,” DeLorme said. “When you throw new combinations together, you don’t know what to expect, but the overall feeling from watching them was they communicated well, they got to the net, which we really stress and they did it in pairs. Sometimes we say not to be a singles player playing doubles and we didn’t see that. We had two doubles players playing together and a lot of positives we can take away from that for sure.”

Ressler and Bye each won five of their seven matches in singles play. Ressler won a tiebreaker with Legacy’s Carter Madison and nearly knocked off Lucas DesRosier of Mandan, but ultimately fell 7-6. Bye won a pair of close matches during his day, defeating Century’s Mason Wagendorf, 7-6, and Williston’s Torsten Thomas, 7-5. Ressler finished second at No. 2 singles and Barden placed third in No. 3 singles.

Mandan or Legacy took the top spot in all five divisions, with the Braves claiming No. 1 singles with a 7-0 performance by Christen in which he won 42 of 46 sets. DesRosier accomplished the same undefeated feat at No. 2 singles, but it was Legacy’s Braxton Spooner who went 7-0 in No. 3 singles. The Braves won the tiebreaker to claim No. 1 doubles at 6-1 and the Sabers took No. 2 doubles with an unblemished mark.

“Everybody knew going into the season that Mandan was probably the team to beat and they definitely showed that this weekend that they not only have very good top players but good depth,” DeLorme said. “Legacy, same kind of thing. They bring back a lot of guys. But after that, we didn’t really know what to expect from the 3-7 spots as far as the West Region teams. Both Friday and Saturday, I think our guys learned they can compete with the Mandans and Legacys. Even though we lost to Mandan, we were closer than maybe the score indicated and I think they took a lot of confidence from the third-place finish that they’re not that far away from that next step.”

With confidence building for the Magicians, the focus continues to figure out the doubles pairings, as that will be a key factor come tournament time.

“We know Nolan Moore and Connor Thompson are going to have good singles years for us, but ultimately when it comes down to that West Region and state tournament, it comes down to doubles,” DeLorme said. “We’re going to stress doubles for the next month here each and every day. We’re still playing with our combinations. I think there’s some different combinations we can try and we’ll probably try this week when we have these 4-3 format non-conference matches. Doubles will be the one thing we’ll continue to focus on. It’s probably the one thing we can change in the shortest period of time for the good.”

Minot North’s Reece Blikre had the best performance for the Sentinels, posting a 4-3 record at No. 3 singles to finish tied for fourth. He defeated Bismarck’s Quinn Roberson, 6-1, Jamestown’s Rajen Bansal, 6-0, Wagendorf, 6-3, and Thomas 6-2.

Colton Griffith and Lucas Griffith both finished 3-4 at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively.

Minot High plays a non-conference 4-3 format match against Legacy, while Minot North opens region play against Century. Both games are at home on Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 4:15 p.m.