Thomas Jefferson’s Prithvi Nagarajan has earned the right to compete at the MSHSAA Boys Tennis Championships.
Nagarajan was the singles champion at the individual district tournament on Friday. Thomas Jefferson was the host school for the Class 2 District 7 event.
The top two singles players and the top two doubles teams at Friday’s district tourney advanced to the individual state tournament.
A junior, Nagarajan was the singles champion and Barstow’s Liam Groden was the runner-up.
After an opening-round bye as the district’s No. 1 seed, Nagarajan defeated Ruskin’s Michael Titalangha 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Nagarajan defeated Webb City’s Jacob McDonald 6-1, 6-0.
In the bracket’s title match, Nagarajan defeated Groden 6-4, 6-1.
With the finish, Nagarajan earned a spot at the individual state tournament on May 18 in Springfield.
Barstow’s Groden advanced to the title match by beating Thomas Jefferson’s Devan Murali 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals.
In the bracket’s third-place match, Webb City’s McDonald defeated TJ’s Murali.
The top four finishers in each bracket are considered medalists.
Also competing in the singles bracket were Webb City’s Lucas Lowery and Neosho’s duo of Christian Williams and Willis Jarvis.
Williams defeated Ruskin’s Aamer Hamdan 6-1, 6-1 before falling to Groden in the quarterfinals. Lowery and Jarvis both went 0-1.
Barstow had the top two doubles teams.
Barstow’s Sankeerth Gandhari and George Colombo defeated their teammates Sanjeev Adma and Aaram Salam 6-3, 6-3 in the title match.
Two local doubles teams fell in the semifinals, thus falling short of a state berth.
Barstow’s Gandhari-Colombo defeated Webb City’s Tristan Lynch and Felipe Perez 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals.
In the other semifinal, Barstow’s Adma-Salam defeated Thomas Jefferson’s Chengle Qian and Jack Goodhue 6-3, 6-1.
In the bracket’s third-place match, Qian-Goodhue defeated Lynch-Perez 8-5.
Also competing in doubles were Thomas Jefferson’s Sam Li and Nathaniel Curtis, Webb City’s Jacob Russell-Kaden Cox and Neosho’s Reid Snyder-Peyton Williams and Breckin McAffrey-Noah Schade.
Li-Curtis defeated Ruskin’s Abdulrehman Assaf-Abdallah Banialmarjeh 6-0, 6-3 before falling to Webb City’s Lynch-Perez in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-2.
Neosho’s McAffrey-Schade defeated Ruskin’s Zhuhair Abuasbah-Mateo Lopez 6-2, 6-0 in the opening-round before falling to Qian-Goodhue in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 6-0.
Russell-Cox and Snyder-Williams both went 0-1.
DISTRICT TEAM TOURNAMENT
The Class 2 District 7 team tournament will begin on Monday.
Fourth-seeded Neosho will host fifth-seeded Belton at 3:30 on Monday, while third-seeded Webb City will host sixth-seeded Ruskin, also at 3:30.
The Neosho-Belton winner will play at No. 1 Barstow at 3:30 on Tuesday in the semifinals.
Second-seeded Thomas Jefferson will host the Webb City-Ruskin winner at 3:30 on Tuesday in the other semifinal.
The district title match is scheduled for 3:30 on Wednesday, May 10 at Thomas Jefferson.
