The Westfield boys tennis team won its first-ever sectional championship on Thursday. The No. 11 Shamrocks beat host Noblesville 4-1. (Richie Hall)
By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – Westfield High School has put together a long list of athletic accomplishments over the past several years.
On Thursday, the Shamrocks added another one: their first ever boys tennis sectional championship.
No. 11-ranked Westfield broke through to win its inaugural sectional by beating host Noblesville 4-1 to claim the Sectional 56 crown. The Rocks swept all three singles matches to secure the trophy, then also picked up a win at No. 2 doubles for their fourth point.
Noblesville’s Dustin Turpin (left) and Parker Stallings (above) won the No. 1 doubles match and advance to next week’s individual sectional. (Quinn Matthews)
Westfield coach Tony Peters said the feeling of winning was “awesome,” and probably a little bit of relief, too.
“We came close the last couple years, so this is super exciting,” said Peters. “Guys have been working hard all year and so it’s awesome seeing the hard work pay off.”
The march to the championship began in February, when the Shamrocks started a weight program with Tavio Henson, the Westfield strength and conditioning coach. The Rocks then continued working throughout the summer and went through a tough regular-season schedule to get to this moment.
No. 2 singles Luke Stoecker got Westfield’s first point with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. The other two singles were next in line, finishing within seconds of each other. No. 3 Ajay Prasanna won 6-3, 6-2, then No. 1 Parker Paramoure won his match 6-1, 6-4 in a tough battle with the Millers’ Dane Campbell.
The Shamrocks won at No. 2 doubles, with Charlie Juleen and Ben Soukup coming back to win over Noblesville’s Nicky Schmeigel and Joey Schmeigel 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
The Millers got their victory at No. 1 doubles. Dustin Turpin and Parker Stallings dropped the first set to Westfield’s Leyton Steill and Payton Paramoure in a tiebreak, but the Noblesville team toughed out the second set 7-5 and won the third 6-2. The win qualifies the Millers team for the individual doubles tournament, which begins next week with the sectional at Noblesville.
Millers coach Chris Pyle was happy for his No. 1 doubles team, “because they lost a really tough first set,” he said. “I think they were overthinking too much. I just told them, ‘You got to keep it simple and do what comes naturally.’ They won the next two sets, so really happy with their effort.”
Westfield will come back to Noblesville on Tuesday to compete in the Regional 14 tournament. The Shamrocks will play No. 13 Delta in the semifinals, which won its own sectional Wednesday by beating Yorktown. Play begins at 4:30 p.m.
The second semifinal will be contested by Jay County and Alexandria. Tuesday’s semifinal winners advance to the Wednesday championship, which also starts at 4:30 p.m.
