Valtman leads Newton boys to sixth at LHC tennis tourney

GRINNELL — Ethan Valtman won a pair of matches to lead the Newton boys’ tennis team at the Little Hawkeye Conference tournament on Wednesday.

Valtman had the top finish for the Cardinals, but the rest of the lineup finished outside the top five and Newton came in sixth in the final team standings.

The tournament was hosted by Newton in Grinnell.

“Ethan had an awesome day. His only loss was to the eventual champion,” Newton head boys tennis coach Jared Gerber said. “We had good draws overall, but we just didn’t execute in a few matches that could have pushed our team even higher in the standings.

“We played hard and learned a lot for this young team today.”

The Cardinals scored 23 points in sixth. Indianola (24) was one point better in fifth.

Pella, the Class 1A favorite to win the state title, won the conference championship with 58 points. Norwalk (52) was six points back in second, while Grinnell (32) and Pella Christian (32) tied for fourth. Dallas Center-Grimes (18) finished seventh and Oskaloosa (9) ended up eighth in the eight-team field.

Valtman was the No. 2 seed in the Flight 2 singles bracket. He won his first match 6-0, 7-5 and then lost 6-2, 6-3 to Norwalk’s Braylon Stockwell in the semifinals. Valtman dominated the third-place match 6-1, 6-1.

Stockwell won the Flight 2 singles title as the No. 3 seed.

Evan Marshall played in the Flight 1 singles bracket as the No. 3 seed. He lost his first-round match 6-4, 6-4. He recovered to win his next match 6-0, 6-0 before losing 6-4, 6-1 in the fifth-place match.

Seth Adams and Harry Oswalt were the No. 5 seed in Flight 1 doubles and Collin Buchli and Andrew Wiles were seeded 8th in Flight 2 doubles.

Adams and Oswalt dropped their first match 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) but won their next match easily 6-2, 6-1. In the fifth-place match, the Cardinal duo was defeated 6-0, 6-0.

Buchli and Wiles finished eighth out of eight teams after going 0-3. All three losses were in straight sets.