Greenwood Boys’ Tennis wins its eighth-straight region championship as Jacks Lancaster takes home his fourth-straight singles title
By Perry Swack
In our preview of the 4th Region Tennis Tournament, we mentioned the likelihood of a Jacks Lancaster–John Guthrie final in the boys’ singles event. Lancaster, a Greenwood junior, and Guthrie, a Bowling Green senior, had met in each of the last two seasons for the singles title. The Gator junior had won three titles in a row dating back to 2017 when he was only a seventh grader. They both cruised to the finals as Guthrie won each of his first three matches 6-0, 6-0. Lancaster won five of his sets 6-0 and one set 6-1 to also reach the finale rather untested. Lancaster was able to get ahead of Guthrie early, winning the first set 6-0 and the second, 6-1, to finish off his four-peat. Both finalists qualify for the state tournament, along with the two semifinalists, Lucas McFall of Russell County and Brandon Sheffield of Monroe County. McFall, the tournament’s 4-seed, beat the 6-seed, Bowling Green’s Curtis Lin, 7-5, 6-0, in the quarterfinals to qualify for the state tournament. Sheffield – the 5-seed – upended the other 4-seed, Landon Trinh of Greenwood, in a third set (10-6) after the two split the first two sets.
On the doubles’ side, Greenwood’s Dylan Dethridge and James Chen were the tournament’s #1 seed and advanced to the final where they met teammates and #3 seed, Gary Zheng and Seth Thomas. Dethridge/Chen knocked out Andrew Law and Tucker Strow of Bowling Green in the semifinals. The 5-seed Law/Strow pairing upset the 4-seed team of Bradan Stephanski and Antonio Noble (South Warren) in the quarterfinals. Zheng and Thomas knocked out the 2-seed Cadan Stephanski and Jake Taylor, also of South Warren, as both pairings qualified for the state tournament by way of region semifinal qualification.
Dethridge and Chen faced a strong test in the quarterfinal match against Glasgow’s Creighton and Hewitt Lessenberry. Greenwood head coach Tim Dethridge mentioned that match as one of the team’s defining moments of the tournament. “The maturity our boys showed by standing strong, facing adversity in the face, and stepping their game up to leave no doubt who deserved to advance to the state tournament made me extremely proud as a father of not only my son, but also as the coach of the Greenwood High School tennis team.”
Greenwood’s boys’ tennis team has now won eight-straight region team titles. When asked to compare this team to other title-winners, Dethridge recounted 2015, his third season on the job. “We went into the season and had lost our top 3 players from the 2014 title team. Billy Adams and Blake Nelson had graduated, and we had lost another varsity player to an across town rival school. We entered the season as probably the 3rd or 4th place team. However, our players worked relentlessly all fall and winter to improve their skill level to win the title. We fast forward to 2021 and we again were going into the season losing 4 seniors off the 2018 title team. However, this team did not have the varsity experience we had in 2015. We came into this season with only 3 players who had played in a varsity match.” Dylan Dethridge’s leadership and example on the court was noted as a major reason for the team’s success. Of the younger Dethridge, “he created a culture for the young guys, and they were willing to step up and follow his lead.”
With the region championships out of the way, the Greenwood boys now focus on the state tournament in Lexington/Nicholasville from June 1-3. “The state tournament is a different animal,” Dethridge noted. “We want to go to state to continue to improve on our game, enjoy the experience, and try to bring home some hardware!”
On the singles’ side, Lancaster is the #3 overall seed in the state tournament and will face off against Whitefield Academy’s Luke Harvie at 9:00 AM EST on June 1. Guthrie is one of the 9-16 overall seeds and will face Daniel Davis of Bullitt East at 8:45 AM on 6/1. Sheffield will hit the court at 8:00 AM that day against Clay County’s Tayton Baker, while Lucas McFall plays at 9:00 AM against Ryder Riggs of Ashland Blazer. Lancaster and McFall could meet in the Round of 32 should they each win their opening match.
In the doubles’ bracket, Dethridge and Chen were awarded one of the 9-16 seeds and take on Meade County’s Clay Dupin and Peyton Johnson at 10:30 AM on June 1. Law/Strow will face off with the Knox Central duo of Kobe Abner and Brendon Bingham at 10:00 AM that day, while Stephanski and Taylor face the Hechemy brothers from Madison Southern at 11:30 AM. Thomas and Zheng take on Heath Embry and James Soderling of Muhlenberg County.
