The Club Green Meadows 14U Advance tennis team completed their trip of a lifetime by competing at the Junior Team Tennis National Championship at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., Sept. 21-24.
The team placed 13th out of the 16 teams in their age group, winning two of their five matches.
As Houser was told by the USTA national staff, 13th isn’t all bad when considering there are some 20,000 teams competing nationwide in a season thus making it to nationals is reaching the top 1 percent in the nation.
Members of the team include James Bertheau, Elise Kang, Kiah Hollister, Lucas Gorretta, Mariam Nechiporuk, Vincent Hsu, Rogue Stone and Lu Abuizzah. The team is coached by Matt Houser, and Yung Hsu is the parent captain.
“It was a very unique experience to see all the different styles of play,” Houser said.
The team also had to battle through Florida’s high humidity and major rain delays that moved some of the matches indoors, to which Houser said his players knew how to handle that.
“Our kids had never experienced that kind of humidity. We definitely played our best when there was some cloud cover,” Houser added with a laugh.
In order to make the trip possible, Club Green Meadows helped the team raise $3,000 through junior tennis events, adult socials, and golf fundraisers. The team also raised $2,640 through a gofundme.com campaign.
Adult tennis team competes at sectional
An adult league team made up of players from Club Green Meadows and Vancouver Tennis Center went 1-2 in their flight at the Pacific Northwest Sectional at Sunriver, Ore., Sept. 21-24, and did not advance to the final of the eight-team draw.
This 65-and-over team won all their league matches in 2017 to earn their spot in the sectional.
Members include Alf Langland, Tom Hegerle, Ron Huggins, Don Pearson, John Sundell, John Bala, Tom Hahn, Andy Huck, George Middleton, Ron Spaude, Mark Benecke, Phil Brenes and Jim Collins.
They competed against teams from Tacoma, Mill Creek and Eugene in their flight. The other flight had teams from Bellevue, Olympia, Gresham and Salem.
Robinswood of Bellevue defeat Sprinker of Tacoma to advance to nationals in January at Surprise, Ariz.
Appreciation run set for Saturday
The Running Club Appreciation Run to honor the local clubs, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7. The race begins at 54 40 Brewing, 3801 Truman Road in Washougal.
There is no entry fee to run this 5K, 10K or 15K event. The course is from the brewery to the Washougal Dike and back.
More information online at clarkcountyrunningclub.org.
Still time for Girlfriends Half Marathon
The 11th annual Girlfriends Run for a Cure Half and Quarter Marathon event is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 15 in Vancouver.
This year’s start/finish will be at Warehouse 23/Vancouver Waterfront Landing at 100 Columbia Street.
Entry fee until Oct. 13 is $75 for adults, $50 for ages 17-under. Day-of-race is $85 and $55. Fees include T-shirt, medals, and post-event bruch/drink/festivities at Warehouse 23.
More information online at http://whyracingevents.com/event/934/
