INDIANAPOLIS
Whatever nervousness Whiteland coach Mike Gillespie usually feels on the last day of the Mid-State Conference tennis tournament took a much-deserved break this season.
Gillespie, whose Whiteland squad is ranked No. 26 in the state, clinched the team title on Monday.
And though the outcome of Tuesday’s matches at Perry Meridian couldn’t possibly deny the Warriors their fifth league title and first since 2012, plenty of good tennis was played, with the Warriors represented in all five championship matches.
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“I was very relaxed,” Gillespie said. “I’m a team-first guy, and once our team won, I kind of stepped back and it was the individuals and their matches. Obviously, I want them all to win, but at that point in time it’s just icing on the cake.
“In the last two years we’ve come so close. Thinking, ‘Man, we deserved it and didn’t get it.’ This year is pretty special for us.”
Whiteland won with 45 points, followed by Greenwood and Plainfield.
Whiteland sophomore Ty McCullars was the conference champion at No. 2 singles after downing Greenwood’s Nick Belovic, 6-3, 6-0. McCullars was the lone winner for the Warriors on Tuesday as Whiteland fell short in three of its other matches in 10-point super tiebreakers.
“I was impressed with myself because I was getting to the shots that I didn’t think I was going to get to, and (Belovic) was hitting some good shots,” McCullars said. “I had played him once before, and it went to a super tiebreaker, and I won, 10-8.”
To no one’s surprise, the final at No. 1 singles positioned longtime rivals Ethan Gray of Greenwood and Whiteland’s Quinten Gillespie on opposite sides of the net. Gray lost the first set, but rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 10-3 victory in a match that saw the first set alone take 45 minutes to complete.
Both seniors seized momentum at different times, with Gillespie storming back from a 4-2 deficit in the opening set before Gray racked up five consecutive games in the second set and finishing in style with the last eight points of the tiebreaker.
“We first played each other in the seventh grade. We’re fine off the court, but on the court we’re both super competitive, and I think that really what fuels it," Gray said. "Neither of us are going to give up at any point.
"I kind of lost my mind there toward the end of the first set. I was getting frustrated and kind of lost focus. I have to give credit to my two coaches because they really calmed me down after the first game of the second set. I was able to refocus."
Gray’s Woodmen teammate, Charlie Brooks, earned conference supremacy at No. 3 singles by downing Ariss Mardanzai of Whiteland, 6-2, 6-2.
Plainfield won titles in both doubles finals, edging the Whiteland duo of Dylan Gross and Christian Felker, 5-7, 7-5, 10-3 at No. 1 and Travis Robinson and Josh Pitts at No. 2, 7-5, 1-6, 10-4.
