9 Valley athletes qualify for state tennis meet

PALMER — Four years ago, as freshmen, Logan Crawford and Kati Renfro were members of Colony High School’s first tennis now. Now seniors, Crawford and Renfro will compete in the ASAA/First National Bank State Tennis Championships for the first time.

“They have been with us all four years. It’s exciting seeing them going to state,” Colony coach Susan Brunner said earlier this week.

Crawford and Renfro are among six Knights and nine Valley athletes who qualified for the two-day state meet, which starts Friday at 8 a.m. at Alaska Club East in Anchorage.

“I’m pleased with the number. Obviously I’d like to bring the whole team,” Brunner said.

Colony qualified three doubles teams for state. Crawford and Renfro will compete in the mixed doubles class, sophomores Kaden Ketchum and Andrew Svoboda qualified in the boys’ doubles, and Chloe Wright and Katie Good are in the girls’ doubles class. Wasilla will have three players in the state meet. Lindley Cebrian qualified in the boys’ singles. Rosabella Cebrian and Calvin Stoll qualified in the mixed doubles.

Brunner said she’s excited about the growth of high school tennis throughout the Valley.

“I think it’s continuing to grow,” Brunner said.

Colony was the first Valley school to establish an official tennis program. The Knights competed in their first region tournament in 2015. Kodiak was the only other program at the meet. Brunner said the Knights were able to schedule regular-season matches against a couple of schools outside of the Valley, most notably Bartlett and Eagle River, in past seasons. But that’s changing.

“This year, several Anchorage teams contacted us and wanted to scrimmage us. We felt like we kind of established ourselves. They said we want to play you, instead of me begging,” Brunner said.

Brunner said that’s encouraging for a Colony team that had 21 players on its roster this year.

“Our numbers were great,” Brunner said.

Wasilla head coach Jeff Krzypkowski said he’s also thrilled with the growth of the Warriors program.

“I’m so proud of these kids. They’ve worked unbelievably hard all season,” Krzypkowski said earlier this week.

The second-year head coach said participation jumped from about six last year to 13 athletes on the roster this year. He said he’s also excited about having three Warriors hit the court for the state meet. Krzypkowski said overall interest in the program is growing.

“The word got around,” Krzypkowski said.

Krzypkowski said a handful of Wasilla baseball players joined the team.

“We put a tennis racket in the kids’ hands. The transition from baseball to tennis was unbelievably fast,” Krzypkowski said.

Stoll, one of Wasilla’s three state qualifiers, is among the Wasilla baseball players now on the tennis team.

Palmer also had a team this year, but did not have a state qualifier.

Both Brunner and Krzypkowski said they are eager to see interest and participation continue to grow in the Valley.

“The biggest goal is to get them hooked on tennis. It’s life-long,” Krzypkwoski said of the activity.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.