HAYS— Grant Harris sailed through the first flight of singles on Monday and helped Great Bend to a third place finish at the Hays Varsity Invitational.

The Panthers finished play with 11 team points just a point behind second place Scott City. Abilene was the top finisher with 18 points. Hays, Liberal and Trego rounded out the bottom three with nine, seven and three points respectively.

Harris was 3-0 in his singles competition defeating Trego’s Isaiah Fabrizious in an 8-0 shutout. Grant then bested Abilene’s Gabe Johnson and Andrew McGinnis of Hays by scores of 8-5 and 8-1.

In the second flight, Aaron Rodriguez went 1-2 with an 8-1 opening round loss to Jacob Berven of Abilene. Rodriguez then defeated Trego’s Alex Haxton, 8-7, before falling 8-3 to Alberto Araiza of Scott City.

In the first round of doubles play, Great Bend’s Marcos Cerda and Santi Talamantes defeated Ian Conness and John Kuhn of Trego in an 8-5 score. The Panther duet then dropped 8-3 and 8-1 decisions to Reggie Koops and Ryan LaCombe of Abilene and Liberal’s Buddy Buchanan and Mitchell Irby.

OC Ofoma and Dorian Lueth finished the final leg of doubles falling in their opening match to Abilene’s Weston Shehi and Jason Petz by a score of 8-1. Ofoma and Lueth then edged Tate Pfannensteil and Branden Swart in an 8-7 decision before dropping their final match to Scott City’s Juan Quintana and Isaac Evans, 8-5.

“It was good to see everyone get at least one win,” said coach Zachary Bartel.  “Grant won a tough match against Johnson from Abilene who had defeated him at this meet last year.”

The Panthers will compete at Dodge City on April 23.