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Print this story By the Salina Journal WICHITA -- The Salina Central Mustangs are halfway home, and so is Salina South's Jan Labas. With Spencer Brass and the doubles team of Craig Knox and Will Exline through to the semifinals, plus their other entries still alive in the consolation bracket, the Mustangs buoyed their chances for a fifth straight Class 5A boys state championship Friday at the Wulz Riverside Tennis Center. Top singles seed Labas, South's standout exchange student from Slovakia, also advanced to the semis with a pair of straight-set victories.
The tournament concludes today with the semifinals and finals, plus remaining place matches on the back side. "We got out of the first day what we needed and everybody is playing well right now," Central coach Jim LoVullo said of his Mustangs, who still must hold off a challenge from Shawnee Heights to keep their string alive. "The ball's in our court and I have all the confidence in our kids that we can do it. "The way the cards were dealt, we couldn't have done much better, but we still have work to do." Central's semifinalists both got past regional champions in the second round to advance. Brass, after a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Winfield's Nolan Astrab, edged Bonner Springs regional winner Rafael Maasberg of Bishop Miege, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-2. He will face Shawnee Heights' Chance Joost in a key semifinal matchup this morning. The other singles semifinal matches Labas against Topeka Seaman's Steven Fletcher. Knox and Exline needed three sets to beat Topeka West's Garrett Gunn and Andrew Davids in the first round, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, then beat Miege's Will Stadler and Joe Schultz -- the Bonner Springs regional champs -- 6-4, 6-2 in the quarters. They face Cody Fawl and Nathan Wehrman of McPherson in one semifinal, with Shawnee Heights' Billy Bloomquist and Philip Lucero taking on Salina regional winners Luke Fangman and Ben Braun of Hutchinson in the other. Central's Connor Brass beat David Alley of Valley Center, 6-0, 6-1 in his first-round singles match, fell 6-0, 6-1 to Joost in the quarters and came back with a 9-6 consolation victory over Lansing's Ale Buogo to still have a shot at fifth place. Michael Etheridge and Ross Rundell, Central's other doubles entry, lost 6-1, 6-0 in the first round to second-seeded Billy Bloomquist and Philip Lucero of Shawnee Heights, but picked up two straight consolation victories and could still finish as high as fifth. Labas, who came in with the tournament's only perfect record at 30-0, breezed past Valley Center's Tyler Dort, 6-1, 6-1, and St. Thomas Auinas' Phil Shinn, 6-1, 6-0.
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