<p>Two and three years ago, the Center Grove boys tennis team was forced to sit and watch rivals celebrate county and sectional titles on the Trojans’ home court.</p>
<p>Those days seem pretty far gone right now.</p>
<p>Center Grove finished off a week in which it reasserted itself as the area’s clear top dog, capping a convincing run to the Johnson County championship with a 4-1 triumph over Greenwood in Thursday’s final.</p>
<p>The dominating tournament performance by the fourth-ranked Trojans (11-1) makes it easy to forget how big of a hill they’ve had to climb since the 2016 season, when they won just four matches and Franklin dominated both the county and sectional tourneys.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>"We’ve had a lot of matches and they’re this way, that look like it’s a lopsided match, 4-1 or 5-0, but we’ve had really close sets," Center Grove coach Ivan Smith said of his team’s progress since then. "The difference is that we are now able to win those matches. They’ve learned how to win."</p>
<p>The Trojans got a point in their column early on Thursday when the No. 2 doubles team of J.T. Embrey and Dhrumil Patel coasted to a 6-0, 6-0 victory.</p>
<p>Every other match started out looking more competitive, particularly in the top two singles spots, but Center Grove was gradually able to gain control, and it closed out three of those matches in fairly rapid succession.</p>
<p>Mason Runkle capped off a 6-2, 6-1 win over Nick Belovic at No. 3 singles, and the Trojans’ top doubles team of Grant Herron and Nic Ballesteros clinched the championship just seconds later with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Charlie Brooks and Ben Sobieray.</p>
<p>Center Grove’s fourth and final point came at No. 2 singles, where Mitch Runkle battled back from an early deficit for a 7-5, 6-0 win against Greenwood’s Jacob Rothaar.</p>
<p>Down 4-1 in the opening set, Runkle won 12 of the next 13 games to close it out.</p>
<p>"I just told him he had to take away (Rothaar’s) forehand," Smith said. "Mitch was just steady."</p>
<p>The Woodmen (9-3) were able to avoid being shut out when their top singles player, Ethan Gray, stormed back from an opening-set loss for a 6-7, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Trey Thixton, who had been unbeaten last season in the No. 1 spot against county opponents.</p>
<p>Gray said that once he rebounded from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to force a tiebreaker, he felt like he was in control even though he was down a set.</p>
<p>"Once I went out and broke him right off the bat (in the second set), I felt like, ‘Oh, I have this’ … and I just kept that momentum throughout the third set."</p>
<p>Greenwood will have another chance at a title next week when it competes in the Mid-State Conference tournament.</p>
