PRATT — Colby Works accomplished a first in Iola High’s boys tennis history Sunday. After medaling at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament in doubles last season, he took 11th this year. He is the first Iola player to medal at state in both singles and doubles.
“Overall I thought I did what I expected I would do. I expected to finish in the 9-12 range and I got 11th,” Works, a junior, said. “For my overall play, I thought my first match was kind of a letdown, but after that I played as well as I did all year. I really served well the entire weekend, after the first match. I kind of got my rhythm back and that got me into games later on.”
In Works’ first match of the tournament on Friday, Works lost 6-4, 6-4 to De Soto’s Alex Zoller. It put Works in a corner because he needed to win his next two matches to advance to day two.
He settled down and beat Paola’s Peyton Graves 9-4 and Winfield’s Seven Derre 9-6 to clinch a spot in the second day of the tournament. In his last match of the day on Friday, he lost to Bishop Miege’s Will Grier.’
The tournament was supposed to wrap up play on Saturday, but due to the weather, they finished it up on Sunday. Works said that the extra day off paid off for most players.
“It probably helped in the long run because we were all fresh after playing a lot of tennis on Friday. We were supposed to play three matches on Friday and three on Saturday, but we did four [on Friday] and two [on Sunday] instead,” Works said. “It gave us an extra day to recover and we came out today and it was like a whole new tournament.”
Works lost his first match on Sunday 9-6 to McPherson’s Kaden Stewart.
“At the beginning of today, the best I could have gotten was ninth. I lost my first match, which was really close,” Works said. “It was really competitive. I knew that the next guy I was playing was a really big hitter, but I’m really good at countering. So, once I beat him, I was really excited and played really well.
In the 11th place match, Iola defeated Buhler’s Garrett Severud 9-7.
“My goal coming into the year was to make it to state, then halfway through the year I realized I was doing better than I thought I would,” Works said. “So, I was wanting to just medal. I achieved that.”
Works said that after the elite top-five players, the tournament was wide open. Especially between the top nine through 12 players.
“Just getting to state and seeing that, outside the top elite three or four, I did pretty good and held my own,” Works said. “It makes me really excited for next year because I know that I will be one of top-player in the state and can have higher expectations.”
Works finished the season 29-9 — just shy of his goal of 30 wins — and will be back at it for his senior season next year.
Iola’s Colby Works finishes 11th at state tournament
