WHS boys tennis loses close meet to Fairmont; track and field competes at home

WORTHINGTON – The WHS boys tennis team lost a highly-contested meet to Fairmont on Tuesday, eventually losing to the Cardinals 4-3.

The Trojans claimed one of the four singles matches and two of the three doubles matches, but came up short in their bid for a first meet win of the season.

In No. 1 singles, Fairmont’s Anthony Stegge defeated Worthington’s Quin Mathis 6-0, 6-0. Fairmont’s Tyler Slama also served a double bagel on the No. 2 court, winning 6-0, 6-0 over Kaw Blay. Leonardo Fortin of Fairmont beat Worthington’s Daelen Sithad 6-1, 6-1 in No. 3.

The Trojans’ lone singles win came on No. 4 with Worthington’s Bennett Oberloh winning the closest match of the meet over Fairmont’s Lillian Ortega 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.

WHS claimed wins in No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. Ryker Fricke and Kingston Nguyen beat Zachary Ashland and Leander Nelson 6-1, 6-3 in No. 3 and Cristian Miranda and Coltin Olhmanson defeated Simone Castro and Johan Vetter 6-2, 7-6 (4) in No. 2.

Fairmont did get a victory over WHS on the No. 1 doubles court when Oliver Thedens and Wylee Frederiksen defeated Moises Segura and Xander Barber 6-3, 6-0.

WORTHINGTON – Both of Worthington’s boys and girls track and field teams placed second in a five-team track and field meet at Trojan Field Tuesday.

Fairmont claimed first place in both boys and girls, scoring 148 points to win the boys meet and 206 to dominate in the girls meet. Worthington scored 137 and 60 points respectively to place as the runner-up.

St. James-Madelia was third in the boys team scores with 43.5 points, Blue Earth Area was fourth with 32.5 and MCW/BO fifth with 13. On the girls side, St. James-Madelia scored 56 points, Blue Earth Area 28 and MCW/BO 24.

Overall, the Trojans saw 10 winners in the individual results. Senior Jacari Swinea placed first in all three of his events. He won the 100 meters with a time of 11.54 seconds, just .01 seconds ahead of Fairmont’s Jeremiah Lebbi. He also won the 200 meters in 23.27 seconds and was on the 4x100 relay team with Welbaka Morke, Lucio Ramirez and Kevin Ramirez that claimed first in 44.71 seconds.

Fanuel Wolday was victorious in two events: the 800 meters in 2:05.69 and the 1600 in 4:33.02. Tethlouch Gach also won two events in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.86 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles with a personal record of 41.83 seconds.

The top three spots in the triple jump were occupied by Trojans. Permeye Okony won the event with a jump of 40 feet, 8.5 inches, Gach was second (40 feet, 4.75 inches) and Henok Ergicho third (38 feet, 10.5 inches).

Two other Trojan victories came on the girls side with Bella Lazzu winning the high jump (4 feet, 8 inches) and Grace Bates winning the triple jump (15 feet, 3 inches).

The next track meet for WHS was scheduled to be the annual Worthington Invite Thursday back at Trojan Field, but the meet was cancelled due to weather. Now, the Trojans are slated to compete April 29 at the Bob Nangle Relay in Pipestone.