Bruns picks up a win at 1A State Tennis

 WATERLOO (May 28) -- Harlan Community senior Brock Bruns finished with a 1-2 match record and came within a tiebreaker of earning a medal at the Class 1A Boys State Tennis Tournament this past weekend at the Byrnes Park Tennis Center in Waterloo.
 Bruns, the Cyclones’ first state singles qualifier since 2012, played all three of his matches on Friday and all three were held inside due to the weather.
 Bruns lost to Keokuk’s Abbot Haner 0-6, 1-6 in his first-round match Friday morning, but was extremely competitive the rest of the day.
 Bruns outlasted Owen Thomas of Aplington-Parkersburg in his first round consolation match, winning 7-6, 0-6, 1-0 (10-5). He then faced Dubuque Wahlert’s Roan Martineau in a second round consolation match that once again came down to the 10-point tiebreaker. This time, Bruns won the first set 6-1, then lost 5-7 in set two and 1-10 in the tiebreaker.
 Martineau went on to place fifth in the 1A singles bracket with two more wins, including a tiebreaker victory over Haner.
 HCHS coach Chad Bruns said that Brock - his son - was very fatigued by the end of his third match and did not have much left in the tank. In the end, he finished just two points shy of earning a state medal.
 “That’s the way sports goes,” Coach Bruns said. “(He was) a little upset that he couldn’t finish at the end... He was out of gas.
 “He had his ups and downs. One match went his way at the end, the other match didn’t. It was kind of weird how they were kind of similar - just opposite.”
 Coach Bruns added that Brock was playing some of his best tennis all year vs. Martineau before tiring.
 “He was hitting really, really aggressively and doing very well,” he said. “It just didn’t go his way at the end. The second match did.”
 Bruns finished his senior season with an 11-7 record in singles play. All seven losses came against players that qualified for state in either singles or doubles.
 “I was proud of him. He had a great senior season,” Coach Bruns added. “It was a great experience getting to state, a great honor. He beat a great player and lost to the kid that ended up getting fifth place, so he has a lot of positives.”