EL DORADO — Iola High’s Riccardo Barbarossa has made quite an impression on his first and only season on the tennis courts for the Mustangs.
The Italian foreign exchange student capped a scintillating run through the Class 4A Regional Tournament Saturday, securing third place and earning a berth in the upcoming state tournament.
Barbarossa will advance to the Class 4A State Tournament, which runs Friday and Saturday at the Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka.
Iola’s other tennis players, the doubles team of Landon Carson and Patrick Weaver, and No. 2 singles player Sam Fager, bowed out in regional action.
“This is my first year coaching boys tennis and I could not have asked for a better team of athletes,” IHS head coach Chris Belknap said. “A few of our players have never played before, and made such awesome improvement in a short time.”
While Barbarossa had played recreationally as a youth in Italy, this was his first season competing at this level.
And, like the other IHS players, Barbarossa also made significant strides this year, Belknap noted.
That became evident on Saturday at El Dorado’s Sam Bittner Tennis Complex.
Barbarossa, the fourth seed, opened with a straight-set victory over Wellington’s Hunter Worley (6-0, 6-2), before bowing out to eventual top seed and eventual regionals champion Jax Comejo of Wellington, (6-2, 6-2).
Undaunted, Barbarossa was relegated to the third-place match, where he won a three-set thriller over El Dorado’s Hayden Greene, (7-2, 2-4, 6-3) in a 2-hour, 23-minute marathon.
“Riccardo finished up by beating every single player who had beat him in the past,” Belknap said. “Kansans will get to experience some ‘Italian Madness’ on Friday.”
CARSON and Weaver opened as the ninth seed in doubles action, and cruised past El Dorado’s Cody Meese and Cody Tole, (6-2, 6-3).
That put the Iola duo up against top seed Kade Adams and Carson Rademacher of Wellington. The Wellington pair won in straight sets (6-1, 6-0).
The Iolans’ ride ended in the consolation round, where they were ousted by Phillip Morris and Isaac Davis of Winfield, (6-0, 6-0).
“I really wish I had a couple more years with this duo,” Belknap said, noting both are seniors. “They have fun playing together and almost always get the crowd going in a good way.”
FAGER, playing out of the ninth seed, dropped his only match to Brad Bleich of Towanda-Circle, (6-1, 6-0).
