HELENA — Another crosstown battle took place in the Capital City on Tuesday as Helena and Helena Capital recognized their senior tennis athletes.
The combined celebration occurred at Barney Park where the doubles matches were held. The singles matches were at Lockey Park.
Helena doubles player and captain Will Johnson, who will be heading to Honduras to complete a two-year Mission, spoke about Senior Day, saying, “It was super awesome to be recognized for the time I’ve spent with this team, it’s been quite a long journey, it’s neat.”
Capital coach Ryan Swenson, who played tennis for the Bruins from 2005-2009, took over head coaching duties of the varsity program in 2016. It was evident that these 11 seniors, which include players such as Kevin Lachere, Gaberiel Sova, and Miranda Sheafor, truly mean a lot to the Bruins' coach.
Helena High is led by second-year coach Nicole Riebe, and her No. 1 girls singles competitor, Qayl Kujala, beat Capital's Julia Krings. The Bruins, though, came out on top overall in the boys and girls matches.
Bengals doubles player Brynn Woodmansey said of her teammates, “It’s a lot of fun. My doubles partner and I used to do ballet together as kids, we kind of grew up together, so we really have that connection on the court. We can read each other really well and have each others backs.”
Woodmansey will be a senior next year, and she said “it should be interesting because this whole year, Ayla (Silvonen) and I have been playing two seniors, so we’ll be playing some new meat next year, so we’ll see what happens, it should be fun.”
