Aug. 30—LAPEL — Those early morning workout sessions will pay dividends for multi-sport athlete Quinn Wilkins, who handles a racket for the Lapel boys tennis team during the fall and will be driving to the basket for coach Kevin Cherry and the basketball team later in the year.
That extra endurance certainly paid off in spades for the Lapel junior Friday afternoon under the blazing Indiana sun.
Wilkins stormed back after dropping the first set of his No. 3 singles match and outlasted the heat — and a tough opponent — to take the decisive third set and clinch the Madison County championship for the 10th time, 3-2 over Pendleton Heights.
The Bulldogs have never lost in the county final but, after seeing a nine-year championship streak come to an end last year and with no conference affiliation, it is a championship that means a lot to Lapel.
This particular title, won despite oppressive heat all week and the toughest draw, was very special to coach Justin Coomer. He bellowed his approval when Wilkins won his match in a rare show of outward emotion and was on the verge of tears as he thought about what his team accomplished this week.
“I thought coming into this thing there were four or five teams that could win this. It just depends on the given day,” Coomer said. “I didn’t think we were the favorite whatsoever, but I knew if we played well, we’d have a shot. When you don’t win it for a year after you’ve won nine in a row, yeah, I’m about to cry now.”
For junior Hogan Bair, who played on the last county title team in 2022, it was important for Lapel to reclaim the crown.
“It feels great to return it to its rightful owners,” he said. “We say this a lot, but we don’t have a conference tournament, so this is a big deal to us.”
The Arabians — with five seniors among their seven starters — finished as the runners-up for the fourth straight year after coming tantalizingly close to their first title since 2013 and their third overall.
“They worked hard. This doesn’t negate the work they’ve done,” PH coach Bryant Beard said. “We still have a lot to learn. I’m still proud of where we’re at as a culture.”
Coomer expected a close match, and for the second straight day, it could not be any closer. Thursday’s semifinal 3-2 win at Madison-Grant was decided by freshman No. 2 singles player Kaleb Barnett, but Friday it came down to Wilkins and his No. 3 singles battle with Arabians senior Sean Cunningham.
And it was a back-and-forth contest right down to the end.
Cunningham took advantage of a break of Wilkins’s serve to take the first set 7-5, and with two other matches well in hand, the Arabians were in good shape as the two players began the second set.
Again, the set remained on serve as fans who had been watching other matches and the players’ teammates began to filter down to watch the deciding match play out. It was obvious to the competitors they were playing the deciding match, and for Wilkins, his back was against the wall.
He responded with a break of Cunningham’s serve and took the second set 6-4, forcing a third set as both players paused to replenish their fluids.
The third set started as one neither player seemed to want to win. Certainly, neither player could hold serve through the first four games. It appeared there would be a fifth straight broken serve as Wilkins found himself down 15-40 and looking at the prospect of falling behind Cunningham.
“The people behind me were on my side, congratulating me for every point. That was amazing to hear,” Wilkins said. “I felt like I finally got some momentum, especially with my serve.”
It worked. Wilkins stormed back, saving three game points along the way, and held serve. He then broke Cunningham at love in the following game and rolled from there, clinching the title to the delight of the many Lapel fans on hand.
“He’s such a great kid, a great athlete,” Coomer said. “He’s been doing cross-fit for a while, I’m sure that helped.”
“I train at 5:30 in the morning every day of the week that we don’t have a match,” Wilkins said. “It helps my endurance, and I gain so much strength from it, my mindset, everything. It helps me through it all.”
The Arabians tallied the first point of the night in the No. 1 singles match as Austin Perny handled Bair 6-4, 6-3, and moments later, Lapel evened the match at 1-1 when Barnett knocked off Owen Kean 6-4, 6-2 in the No. 2 singles match.
There was a split in the doubles matches as Arabians Parker Coon and Bradae Souders dominated the No. 2 match 6-2, 6-2 over Aidan Gooding and Bode McClintock. But Lapel got one of the surprising outcomes as Tyler Cash and Cam Novak held off Ivan Chen and Garrett Morgan 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in the No. 1 doubles match.
Like Wilkins, Cash’s primary sport is basketball while Novak is a star on the Lapel baseball team, but Coomer said they played one of their best matches Friday.
Contact Rob Hunt at
rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com
or 765-640-4886.
