Rosewood's Cuddington finishes state runner-up in 1A men's tennis

By Staff Reports
Published in Sports on May 11, 2013 11:15 PM

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CARY -- Another step.

Rosewood junior Dylan Cuddington emerged the runner-up in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A men's singles tennis championships after a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Hendersonville's James Fuqua on Saturday morning.

Cuddington reached the semifinal round a year ago.

Fuqua denied Cuddington's bid to become just the sixth individual state champion in Rosewood's athletics history. He is the third tennis player in program history to place second in the state tournament along with Carlos Torme (1990) and Sebastian Graf (1992), who competed in the 1-A/2-A ranks.

The Eagles' tandem of Bryan Daniels-Todd Entriken were the 1-A/2-A doubles runners-up in 1988.

Goldsboro's tandem of Tyler Lane-Josh Matias endured an opening-round shutout loss to Elkin's Tyler Macy-Ryan Schell on Friday morning.

Class 3-A

BURLINGTON -- Chad Fitzpatrick's bid for an NCHSAA Class 3-A state singles championship ended in quarterfinal-round play Friday afternoon at the Burlington Tennis Center.

Fitzpatrick, a four-time state qualifier, cruised into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Northwest Cabarrus' Kyle Kennedy. But his season ended with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Hibriten's Paul Hogan in the quarters.

"Chaz has a tremendous four-year career and will be sorely missed," EW head coach Craig Hassell said.

Senior Mitch Kaspar concluded his prep career with a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Midwest Region champion Riley Brosnan in the first round. Kaspar finished the season 16-5 overall.

"Mitch worked hard this year and it was great to see him finish his senior year as a participant in the state tournament representing the best 16 3-A singles players in the state," Hassell said.

There have been just three individual state singles champions in Wayne County history, according to available NCHSAA records.

Goldsboro High alum Ed Caviness won three singles championships from 1952-54. Eastern Wayne has had two state singles champions -- Charlie Drew won the 3-A title in 2003 and Russell Turner, who won the 1-A crown at the N.C. School of Science and Math in 2011 before returning to Eastern Wayne for his senior season.

Goldsboro's Ray Stallings-Alan Weil won the 1961 state doubles title. Stallings and Kay Stallings claimed the state doubles championship the following year.