OCEAN CITY- The first of two high school tennis tournaments in a summer-long series at the Ocean City Tennis Center are in the books with championships and the right to advance decided in both.
The first of the Grand Prix Summer Circuit at the Ocean City Tennis Center were held this month with two more events slated for July and August. The first tournament featured 30 juniors from seven high schools competing for the right to move on to the Grand Prix finals in September. In the girls’ gold flight division, Seung Son of Indian River took first place with 39 points, while Natalie Lopez of Bohemia Manor was second with 24 points and Reina Kitsawa of Washington High was third with 22 points. The girls’ silver flight turned out to be a Salisbury battle with Sydney Weaver of Bennett High sharing first place with Parkside’s Sara Diller, each with 35 points. Bennett’s Madi Robertson finished third with 31 points.
In the gold flight, Connor Hautman from Parkside and Luke Murphy from Bennett tied for the top spot with 39 points each. In the silver flight, Zach Bugus of Bennett and Jeff Ward of Bohemia Manor shared first place with 32 points each. Sam Bannister of Bohemia Manor was a close third with 30 points.
The second tournament of the season was the highly regarded Delmarva Junior Boys 16. In the championship flight, Andrew Kilchenstein of Millersville, Md. took the title, beating William Niessner of Winchester, Va. The next two tournaments will be held on July 16 and August 23. The top four players in the previous gold and silver flights will be invited to play in the Grand Prix finals on September 20. For more information, contact the Ocean City Tennis Center at (410) 524-8337.