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Sports
By Patrick Browne
IRON RIVER — Playing inspired tennis for their coach, Jim Anderson, the West Iron Wykons Boys tennis team continued its undefeated season by tying Kingsford 4–4 May 10 and soundly defeating Ishpeming 7–1 May 13. The next stop for the seemingly unstoppable Wykons was their last home meet of the season against an equally strong team from Negaunee.
Hope abounded, a crowd gathered at the tennis courts near Nelson Field and the Wykons went to work. Unfortunately, Negaunee bested the Wykons and set the home team back with their first loss of the season.
The Wykons ran into what Coach Jim Anderson described as a “buzzsaw”. The loss was the first of the season for the Wykons who could not overcome an impressive opponent.
When two undefeated teams meet, only one can stay undefeated and the Wykons fell to the best team in the division, 8–0.
“Negaunee is well coached, has a great program, and a ton of talented kids,” Anderson said. “Our guys were excited to test themselves today and they put up good fights at all of our doubles spots, but didn’t have enough to come out with wins.”
While none of the singles players could capture a set, the second doubles team of Jackson Strom and Elijah Oberlin was able to capture the first of their three sets before succumbing 6–2 and 6–1 to lose the best of three.
With only two weeks to go before the Upper Peninsula Championships in Iron Mountain May 28, the Wykons are playing well but must improve their game if they are to compete with the best.
Anderson’s team is strong, and he is excited to see how well they can compete.
“Negaunee is the best team you will run into in the U.P., I’m glad we took some games off them and made things competitive,” he said. “We’ve had some great matches this year.”