For the last decade, there’s been one constant aspect within high school sports for South Dakota – the Sioux Falls Lincoln boys tennis team winning a state title. The Patriots claimed their tenth straight state championship on Friday in Rapid City.
Lincoln finished with 555.5 points in the top spot of the standings. O’Gorman came in at second with 428, Sioux Falls Washington in third with 383.5, and then Yankton (273) and Harrisburg (264) rounding out the top-5.
“It’s a lot of fun. Each time it happens it’s a special situation, because the kids are different. You always get somebody that’s graduating out, and it’s a new group,” explained Tom Krueger, Lincoln head tennis coach. “They mature, they get older, and so it’s always fun and special every time.”
In total, the Patriots tennis team won six of the nine flights – four in singles and two in doubles.
Rocky McKenzie (SF1), River McKenzie (SF3), Christopher Tao (SF4), and Connor Husser (SF6) won in the singles flight, while Drew Gohl finished runner-up in singles flight 2, and Jacob Husser took home third in singles flight 5.
McKenzie (Rocky) and Gohl, and McKenzie (River) and Ronan Hartwig won in Doubles Flights one and two, and then the Husser brothers, Connor and Jacob, came in as the runner ups in the third doubles flight.
“This group is just really cohesive. They get along so well. They’re such a strong strong playing team,” said Krueger. “They all hit the ball hard, so it’s just a lot of fun to watch them.”
Lincoln’s boys tennis streak now sits at ten year’s in a row. Had the state tournament not been cancelled a year for COVID, this could have potentially been their eleventh straight.
“Ten years is unreal. I was talking about that with Andrew [Krueger], my assistant, and a lot of these kids that are seniors now from the other teams, they were seven year’s old when we started winning,” exclaimed Coach Krueger. “It’s just such an amazing thing to keep it together for that long. It’s like three generations of kids that have done it, it’s not just one group that keeps winning every year, so to be able to sustain it through multiple generations of players like that has been phenomenal.”
It's certainly one of the more impressive streaks in SD sports history. Put it into the same conversation as Sioux Falls Christian volleyball, Pierre football, Canton wrestling, or Sioux Valley competitive cheer.
“I just love coaching. These kids are top shelf kids. A lot of [advanced placement classes], a lot of high quality academic kids, but they’re just solid, nice kids,” stated Krueger. “When you have coaches and parents of other teams come up to you and compliment you on your sportsmanship and how they treat you. To have kids who aren’t just full of themselves, and are able to look beyond, respect others for what they do, it’s pretty cool. And these kids have always been that way.”
Rocky McKenzie, Drew Gohl, and Ronan Hartwig are the varsity players on this year’s Lincoln squad.
For full results of the entire event, and to see event/award photos, click here.
