Senior Jason Wegener rose to the occasion in the Marion Regional with back-to-back victories over undefeated senior standouts Joseph Conrad of Lapel and Riley Worland of Marion.
As a result, he helped Delta gain 3-2 victories over both state-ranked teams and earn the Eagles’ sixth consecutive IHSAA regional title.
Delta (19-4) won regional for the 22nd time in the past 23 years. They now have won 35 regional titles in boys’ and girls’ tennis, which is nearly half of the 80 regional titles won by all sports in the 51-year history of Delta HS.
Conrad and Worland entered with a combined record of 42-0 for this season. Wegener topped Conrad 7-6 (4), 6-3 in Tuesday’s opening round. Tannon Dishman and Joel Ashman won big at No. 1 doubles, and Michael Curtis and Mason Knight rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles to clinch the victory.
Against Marion, the Eagles again swept doubles in dominating fashion. Dishman and Ashman won 6-2, 6-0, and Curtis and Brandon Jackson won 6-0, 6-0. Wegener then sealed the regional title by beating Worland 6-2, 6-3, ending the career of the 2016 IHSAA Singles State quarterfinalist.
Delta started three freshmen (Curtis, Jackson and Tanner Southerland) among the seven players in the regional final. This was the first time the Eagles have ever won regional with three freshmen in the lineup.
After starting the season 5-3 in their first eight matches, the 20th-ranked Eagles now are 19-4 entering semistate. Their only loss in the last five weeks of the season was a 3-2 decision to 10th-ranked Fort Wayne Carroll. They face 4th-ranked Homestead at 10 a.m. Saturday in Fort Wayne.