Jaguars advance to postseason

Zack Kaltenbach stared at his opponent in the Class 2 District 7 tennis tournament and grinned.
It was his Blue Springs South teammate Brooks Stotts.
“First point wins the match,” shouted Kaltenbach, who scored that first point when Stotts hit a lob shot out of bounds.
Kaltenbach shuffled back and forth across the baseline and shouted, in mock joy, “I won! I won!”
Both players laughed, because it didn’t matter who won as the Jaguars would receive the points to further enhance their strong second-place showing.
Rockhurst was first, followed by South, Lee’s Summit West, Lee’s Summit North, Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit, Hickman Mills, Belton, Grandview and Raymore Peculiar.
Lee’s Summit West will travel to Blue Springs South Monday at a time to be determined for the next round of postseason play.
“Finishing second isn’t bad when you figure that we lost every one of our first matches today,” Jaguars coach Sheri Rehmer said. “Overall, I’m thrilled with the way the kids played.”
The top South finishers were the No. 1 doubles team of Steve Bodenheimer and Caleb Jeff, who downed Lee’s Summit North’s Mark Menne and John Shinn 6-4, 6-3 to claim third place.
“We didn’t hold anything back today,” Jeff said. “Steve gave me the stuff I needed to make my shots and I took care of the rest. We are disappointed we didn’t get to play for first, but at least we made the most of our opportunities by winning the third-place match.”
Bodenheimer agreed.
“I’m a senior, and I really wanted to play for first,” Bodenheimer said, “but we did play pretty well and finished strong after a disappointing loss to start the day.”
Kaltenbach, South’s No. 1 singles player, felt much the same way, even though he is just a sophomore.
“I wanted to do better than I did, but the draw was tough,” said Kaltenbach, who lost to eventual district champion Tom Campbell of Rockhurst (1-6, 2-6).
“After that, I came back and played pretty well.”
He defeated an opponent from Belton 8-0, downed Blue Springs’ Ryan Paxton 8-2 and then topped his teammate 8-4.
“That was a tough draw for Zack and he was really disappointed to start the day 0-1,” Rehmer said, “but he rebounded from the loss and had a good district tournament.”
The fifth-place match between the two friends from South provided some exciting moments and plenty of laughs.
When Kaltenbach hit a nasty little drop shot over the net, Rehmer shouted out, “Nice shot, Zack. Mean, but nice.”
Both players laughed.
“It was a lot of fun playing Zack,” said Stotts, who finished the day with a 2-2 record. “It was an honor to start out against Rockhurst’s (Jack) O’Flaherty. I lost 2-6, 0-6, but it was a great experience to play a player with that much talent.
“And then, to win a couple of singles matches and play Zack was a nice end to the day. And it didn’t hurt that we finished in second place, either.”
It was a tough day for Blue Springs, as the Wildcats scored nine points and finished in a tie with Lee’s Summit North. Because North had more players get into the semifinals, the Broncos were awarded fourth place and live to play another day.
“It was bittersweet,” Blue Springs coach Jody McClain said. “District was always the time that Garrett Clark would get everyone up and excited and we all miss him so much.”
Clark was killed in a single-car accident on Interstate 70 near the start of the tennis season.
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