Your Prep Sports

CEDEAR RAPIDS – Sam Shin's style was cramped in the first game of the third set of his Class 2A state singles quarterfinal match with Ankeny Centennial’s Will Blevins.

The West High senior had just split sets with Blevins when all of the sudden he felt a stabbing pain in the back of both legs at the start of the third set.

“It just hit me right at the end of the first game,” Shin said. “It hit me in both (quad muscles) and I just went down.”

As did Shin’s quest to win a state title.

With his mobility limited, Shin, the No. 3 seed, was not able to play his usual game, allowing unseeded Blevins to close out a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 win at the Westfield Tennis Center.

When the cramping began, Shin admitted he had to alter his thinking.

“I just tried to keep positive,” he said. “I kept trying to stretch out my quads and keep my head in the game.”

West High coach Mitch Gross knew it would be difficult for Shin once his leg problems started.

“Once you start cramping, it gets pretty tough to play,” he said. “The key is to prevent that from happening. We will have to take a look at our routine and protocol to get ready. There was a glitch somewhere. It usually doesn’t happen, but it did today and it was unfortunate for Sam.”

Ironically, Shin was part of a marathon state semifinal match last year where he lost a three-set marathon to eventual state champion Timmy Ellis of Ames on a very warm afternoon outdoors at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center.

“As far as I'm concerned, Sam is one of the most fit players out there,” Gross said. “Like I said, we're going to evaluate it and see what might have been wrong.”

The third set was shaping up to be very competitive. Both players had their share of sensational shots during the first two sets.
“It was a back-and-forth match,” Shin said. “The first two sets were brutal. It came down to a few points either way to see who won the set. I felt good going back out there for the third set.”

Shin was understandably disheartened at missing a chance to play in the Saturday semifinals.

“Obviously, it was very disappointing,” he said. “All I know is that I tried my best and what happened (with his quads) just happened. There was nothing I could do about it.”

To his credit, Shin did rebound after an hour to rest and hydrate to defeat Johnston’s Chris Yao, 6-3, 6-2 in consolation-round action.

He can finish as high as fifth when play resumes on Saturday where he will meet his West teammate, Jack Wenzel, in the consolation semifinals.

After losing his first-round match to Linn-Mar junior Luke VanDonslear, 6-3, 6-4, Wenzel won a pair of consolation matches to advance to play Shin.

Wenzel downed Mike Mintier of Davenport Central 6-1, 6-1,  and followed that up by topping Waukee’s  Sam Fouts, 7-5, 6-4,

Doubles matches were held at Coe College where the unseeded Trojans’ duo of Sasha Chackalackal and Eli Young moved into the semifinals with a pair of wins.

They opened with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Ben Kreamer and Quincy Pullen of Johnston then followed it up with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over Cedar Rapids Washington's Ty Sherman and Grayson Zylstra in the quarterfinals.

Chackalackal and Young will meet another unseeded team, Jake Dolphin and Nathan Wong of Pleasant Valley in the semifinals.

The other West doubles team in the field, Luca Chackalackal and Mukundan Kasturirangen lost 6-2, 6-0 to Ellis and Nate Withers of Ames.

They came back to down Nick Songer and Kyle Elmore of West Des Moines Valley, 6-2, 6-1 in the consolation round before advancing to play on Saturday with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Washington’s Sherman and Zylstra.

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