Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – With great success comes great expectations.

Just as members of the West High tennis program.

Two decades of unprecedented success has turned the Trojans into one of the top dynasties in state history and made West High the gold standard for Iowa prep tennis.

West High owns five singles titles and a couple more runner-up finishes since 2005 and has had six doubles teams reach the 2A finals in the last season.

That success has raised the level of expectation and sometimes creates the need for perspective.

Take Saturday at the Class 2A state tournament for example.

West High qualified all four of its entries for state, two in singles and two in doubles and put all four in the top eight.

The doubles team of Mukundan Kasturirangan and Luca Chackalackal finished runner-up while BJ Wolf and Samir Singh finished seventh.

Eli Young defeated teammate Jayden Shin in the fifth place singles match.

Four entries, four medals. That is impressive to say the least.

At West High, staggeringly it has become the norm.

“The immediate reaction is you are upset (about the doubles loss) but when you put it in perspective you got second in doubles, seventh in doubles, fifth in singles and sixth in singles and when you look at it that way it’s a good weekend,” West High coach Mitch Gross said. “When there is just one goal to get and it comes up short it stings and it is supposed to sting when you work as hard as these guys do.”

All four West High entries came into state seeking gold. That’s the standard at West High.

Kasturirangan and Chackalackal came the closest.

The duo powered into the 2A title match with a workman like 6-0, 6-1 semifinal win over the Pleasant Valley team of Mazen Alsheikha and Gavin Pangan.

Kasturirangan and Chackalackal gave West High a team in the 2A doubles championship for the sixth time in eight seasons and second season in a row.

West High has won six doubles championships during that stretch.

“It says something about West tennis as a program and the legacy that we have,” Chackalackal said. “A lot of it is thanks to Gross and our coaches, they are great coaches that push us to get better, and the team energy. We always push each other to improve. It’s a combination of all those things.”

Kasturirangan and Chackalackal fell to the Waukee freshmen duo of Kaden Taylor and Quinn Monson 6-3, 6-3 in the title match.

“We are grateful to have the opportunity and it’s big picture it’s good to get second in the state,” Kasturirangan said. “Can’t complain about that.”

The championship win capped an unbeaten regular season for the top-seeded Waukee squad which didn’t drop a set at state.

“I just think Waukee was more aggressive from the get go,” Gross said. “We just didn’t play our best today and that’s unfortunate to go out that way but that’s sports and you have to deal with it.”

The runner-up finish was a big jump for Kasturirangan and Chackalackal who finished sixth two years ago in 2019.

“I think we were definitely playing a lot better tennis than we were last season,” Chackalackal said. “Fundamentally we are a better doubles team than we were.”

Young bounced back from a quarterfinal loss to eventual state runner-up Will Blevins of Ankeny Centennial with three consecutive consolation wins to place fifth in singles.

The senior defeated third-seeded Jake Dolphin of Pleasant Valley 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6) in the consolation semifinals before downing teammate Shin 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 in the fifth-place match.

Shin finished 3-2 in his state meet debut reaching the fifth-place match with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Nicholas Lauderville of Johnston.

Singh and Wolf defeated the Cedar Falls squad of Neel Shah and Pranav Chandra 6-0, 6-0 in the seventh-place match.

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