DES MOINES, Iowa – Mohanad Alhouni (So., Tripoli, Libya) and Zach Ekstein (So., Eagan, Minn.) both won their respective singles flights for the Gustavus men’s tennis team on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Drake Invitational.
In the first competition of the season, Alhouni claimed the Flight ‘A’ singles title with wins over Alex Woodward of Omaha (6-1, 6-1), Quinn Dippel of Creighton (6-7 (3), 6-3, 12-10) and Alex Koca of Creighton in the championship (6-7, 6-0, 10-3).
Ekstein won the Flight ‘B’ singles championship with wins over Dave Bergstom of North Dakota (6-4, 6-2), Jake Norman of Creighton (6-0, 6-3) and Ben Clark of Drake in the title match (6-3, 3-6, 10-4).
In the Flight ‘C’ singles bracket, Tommy Entwistle (So., Sioux Falls, S.D.) took third place. Entwistle beat Erik Anderson of Omaha in the first round (6-2, 3-6, 10-8), lost to Harrison Lang of Creighton in the second round (3-6, 3-6) and then beat Travis Lau of North Dakota in the third place match (6-4, 6-4).
Gabe Steinwand (So., Moorhead, Minn.) won the consolation final in the Flight ‘D’ singles bracket. After losing to Brooks Kendell of Creighton in the first round (4-6, 1-6), Steinwand beat Brent McKnight of Omaha (6-3, 6-0) and Sean Padios of Omaha (6-2, 6-3).
The Flight ‘D’ singles bracket was played as a round robin and Chase Johnson (Fy., Golden Valley, Minn.) won all three of his matches. Johnson beat August Nysted of Creighton (6-1, 0-6, 10-2), Lukas Vanzura of Omaha (7-5, 6-1) and Daniel Choi of North Dakota (6-0, 6-1).
Gustavus returns to action this weekend as it hosts the ITA/USTA Midwest Regional Championships Oct. 2-4.