Tumwater’s Ty Gentry, aiming for a title three-peat, roars into tennis semifinals

A different-looking Ty Gentry showed up for the Class 2A state boys tennis tournament Friday.

His flowing hair was gone, replaced by a neatly trimmed mohawk style.

“Have to have a little more aerodynamics,” Gentry said.

The two-time defending 2A singles champion from Tumwater flew through the first day, losing two games in four sets to reach the state semifinals for a fourth consecutive year.

Gentry, a University of Oregon signee, will face Olympic’s Tye Loane in a Saturday morning semifinal at the Nordstorm Tennis Center in Seattle. Renton’s Oscar Cruz will play Sehome’s Max Shmotolokha in the other semifinal.

“He looks really confident, for the most part,” Tumwater coach Jim Click said of Gentry. “He struggled with his serve a little bit, but it ended up being very strong.”

Click was referring to Gentry’s quarterfinal match against Lindbergh’s Jeremiah Bayna. In the first game, Bayna broke Gentry’s serve.

Gentry broke right back and won the next six games to take the first set, 6-1. He won the second set by the same score.

“(Bayna) was a good player,” Gentry said. “It was real important for me to see the bigger ball (on the indoor court), which is a higher-level tennis ball. I have now seen it, so there should be no problems tomorrow.”

With rain in the forecast, second-day action is supposed to remain indoors. If Gentry makes it to the championship match, that should start sometime after noon.

And he will sport the same mohawk.

“Like (Russell) Westbrook,” Gentry said.

In 4A girls singles at the Columbia Basin Racquet Club in Richland, Timberline’s Angela Schuster won her two matches, and is in the state semifinals for the first time.

She defeated Mountain View’s Amila Gogalija in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 6-2.

“My first match, I went for the ball, and just got out there to win,” Schuster said. “In the second match, I was just hanging in there that first set.”

At one point, Gogalija went up, 4-3. But Schuster, the reigning West Central District champion, registered the third break of serve in the set to even it at 4-4, then won the final two games.

In 4A boys doubles in Richland, Olympia’s Jeremy Ong and Justin Ong lost their opener to Wenatchee’s Cameron Mandelis and Jack Yount, 6-2, 6-4. The Bears tandem won their next two consolation matches before being eliminated.

Capital’s Ranjan Sharangpani, the 3A WCD boys singles champion, was upended in his state opener by Lakeside of Seattle’s Jason Edmonds, who won, 6-4, 7-6, at Tri-City Court Club. Sharangpani won his next two matches to stay alive in the consolation bracket.

CLASS 1A/2B/1B TRACK

Kaylee Sowle appears to be the next standout athlete to come out of tiny Mary M. Knight.

Sowle, a ninth-grader, recorded a pair of top-two finishes Friday in field events, including winning the 1B girls high jump at 5 feet, 2 inches.

She placed second in the girls long jump, too. Her leap of 16-10 came two inches short of Berlyn Hunt’s winning jump of 17-0 for ACH.

Ian Frost, also of Mary M. Knight, finished second in the 1B boys discus at 140-6.

In the 2B girls triple jump, Northwest Christian junior Heidi Sowers was second at 34-7 1/2. Teammate Elizabeth Stottlemyere was the runner-up in the 2B girls javelin at 145-6.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Tumwater’s Ty Gentry, aiming for a title three-peat, roars into tennis semifinals."