WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Playing in the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region Championship, the Kenyon College Owls had some success in singles play and broke even in doubles play. Competition took place at Washington University in St. Louis.
In a field of 64 singles players, seniors Luis Andres Platas and Thomas Kallarakal had the most success for Kenyon.
Platas went into the tournament as the No. 11 seed. He won his first match 6-3, 6-0 over Martin Cardestig of Millikin University. In the second round, Platas was put to the test, but prevailed 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 against Arthur Hermange of Augustana College. That put Platas into the round of 16 and pitted him against the tournament’s No. 1 seed, James Hopper of Case Western Reserve University. Platas put up a fight, but bowed out of the bracket with a 6-4, 7-5 loss.
Kallarakal had a similar journey. He won his first match, topping Jacob Burkett of Hope College, 6-3, 7-5, and then went on to a 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 over Kalamazoo College’s Peter Fitzgerald. Now into the round 16, Kallarakal couldn’t keep things going. He ran into No. 5 seed Ansh Shah, of Case Western Reserve, and fell 6-3, 6-1.
In doubles play, two Kenyon pairings posted 1-1 records.
Platas paired with Eliezer Gonzalez and they received a first-round bye. In the second round, the duo knocked out Hanover College’s Mario Bravo and Nicolas Zumba by an 8-4 count. In the next round, Platas and Gonzalez were defeated by a hometown team in Colin Scruggs and Patricio Garcia Muriel Pasquel of Washington University. That match ended 8-5.
Meanwhile, Kallarakal teamed up with Paulo Pocasangre to also post a 1-1 doubles record, following a first-round bye. In the second round, the two recorded an 8-2 win against Baldwin Wallace University’s tandem of Matt McGee and Trey Kernan. Following that, the Kenyon pairing was defeated in the next round, 8-2, by another Washington University team, the No. 2-seeded duo of Abhi Ramireddy and Phuc Huynh.
Outside of the main draws, Pocasangre won two matches in the ‘Green’ singles draw, making it to the semifinal before bowing out. In the ‘Red’ draw, Eric Zhang went 1-1 for the Owls.
