PITTSBURG — So far this season, Iola senior Rhett Allen is making the transition from doubles competition to singles look like no it’s big deal.
On Thursday, Allen took second in the Pittsburg Invitational by running the table in pool-play before dropping the championship match.
Allen knocked off Labette County’s Griffin Cooper, 8-0, and Pittsburg’s Cameron Lee, 8-4, to win his pool and set up a championship showdown with Bishop Miege’s Miles Zeller.
Zeller beat Allen 8-2 in the championship.
The Mustangs’ top doubles team of Jon Miller and Bret Plumlee also was able to go 2-0 in pool-play and get into the title match.
Miller and Plumlee beat Labette County’s Isaac Payne and Seth Jones, 8-1, and then were able to slip by Pittsburg’s James Richey and Caleb Dial to win the pool.
In the championship match, they fell, 8-5, to Bishop Miege’s Noah Jackley and Garrett Hagan.
Iola’s No. 1 singles player Isaiah Fawson began his day with a 8-2 victory over Labette County’s Noy Synakom, but lost to Pittsburg’s Devon McAfee, 8-3, in his second match.
Fawson recovered to beat Fort Scott’s Jacob Bailey, 8-5, in the third-place match.
The Mustangs’ No. 2 doubles team of Elijah Fawson and Eason Cheung was very competitive but wound up falling in all three of their matches.
Fawson and Cheung lost in a tiebreaker to Luke Falkenstein and Jordan Sutton of Labette County before falling 8-1 to Pittsburg’s team of Pat Sullivan and Noah Kangas,
The lost the fifth-place match 8-6 to Columbus’ Tim Epler and Reese White.
“The team did a great job today.,” Iola coach Dan Berg said. “I was impressed with all six of our players today. I hope we continue to play as well as we did today as we progress through the rest of the season.”
