Juniors Luke McKibben and Luke Smith entered their Class 2A district meet as the No. 2 seed in the doubles bracket, and they upheld that seeding by winning in both the quarterfinals and semifinals before eventually falling in the championship match and finishing in second place on Wednesday afternoon.

After the semifinal victory over Valley’s Varun Myneni and Matt Galles, Smith and McKibben celebrated as head coach James Christensen came to congratulate the pair, knowing they had earned a place in Bobcat tennis history.

“I am really excited, when we won the last point I just remember Luke jumping into my arms and giving me a big hug, so that was pretty cool,” McKibben said.

“I was excited, this has been my goal for the longest time and it finally happened,” Smith said, a permanent smile plastered on his face.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown junior Luke McKibben, right, makes a forehanded hit on the ball while his doubles partner Luke Smith looks on during a match on Wednesday in the Class 2A district meet at West Des Moines Valley. McKibben and Smith qualified for the state tournament by placing second in districts.

It wasn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion that the pairing would walk into the state tournament, though they were seeded as the second-best doubles team. In fact the beginning of their match against Des Moines East’s Anthony Cooper and Zane Pettis, McKibben and Smith were struggling a bit with their strikes due to the swirling wind persisting throughout the day.

“I think we started out a little bit rough but we picked it up quickly and we had a lot of good momentum going into the first Valley match,” McKibben said.

Luke2 did eventually figure out what was working in the conditions and rolled to a 6-1, 6-0, victory in the quarterfinals, setting up a date with Myneni and Galles in the semifinals with a state qualification on the line.

Once again, however, the guys got down early, trailing the Valley pairing through the first few sets. McKibben and Smith flipped the switch when they started to knock down their serves, however, and it was all the Tiger duo could do to hold on.

“Wind was a factor, as always, but we had a lot of trials to see what would work and what wouldn’t work and once we figured out what was hitting that’s what we attacked,” Smith said.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Marshalltown senior Kadin Skala prepares to make a backhanded slice at the ball during a doubles match on Wednesday in the Class 2A district meet at West Des Moines Valley.

When the final point was scored in the boys’ 7-5, 6-4, victory there was a bit of a delay in emotion before the two erupted in smiles that just wouldn’t go away.

“It’s a huge accomplishment for Luke and Luke, it really validates all the effort they’ve put in over the last 12 months,” Christensen said. “They both came up short in districts last year, ran up against some tough players, and they dedicated themselves to fixing some of those holes in their game and you could really see that today.”

What was a huge factor in the two boys having success was how they were able to make up for the other being down a bit. McKibben said that just comes with having played together for two years.

“Sometimes I think we can really get down on ourselves but we really work together well when we can pick each other up and just push forward and win the next point,” McKibben said.

McKibben and Smith are the first state qualifiers since Ryan Shomo — who was in attendance for the district meet — went in singles in 2013. Christensen said the difference between what they did today and what Shomo did five years ago revolves solely around expectations.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“The last time we had a qualifier with Ryan Shomo in districts it wasn’t quite as strong as a district as we had this year and with the draw we kind of knew barring an epic meltdown Ryan was going to make it to state,” Christensen said. “Today, when you look at the draw sheet, we were the No. 2 seed but we were going to have a dog fight on our hands in that semifinal match.”

While those two making it to state is the biggest story from Districts, it by no means is all the Bobcats accomplished on Wednesday. Every competitor won at least one match, with sophomore Jack Gruening winning the third-place match in singles and setting himself up as the state alternate.

As a team, the Marshalltown was only bested by the tournament-host Tigers, and with that second-place finish they now will host a preliminary substate team dual on Saturday against Ankeny.

“Everybody accounted for points for us, finishing second as a team is just awesome. That makes us so proud,” Christensen said.

Gruening received a No. 4 seed in singles and a bye in the first round, so his first action was in the quarterfinals against Ankeny’s Jayce Georgen, where Gruening took a 6-3, 6-3, win.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

In the semifinals Gruening had a tough matchup against the No. 1 seed from Valley, Henry Schwab. Gruening lost to Schwab, 6-1, 6-2, but Christensen said the match was much closer than the final outcome.

“Jack knew he was going to be in a fight in the semifinals and he just didn’t have enough firepower today,” Christensen said. “Henry played very well for Valley and just had one more shot than Jack did today. A lot of those games went to deuce and Jack made him work for it.

“Getting a third place finish and a state alternate as a sophomore, that’s pretty cool. I know he is going to be a little disappointed not qualifying for state but he still has the team state to look forward to and being an alternate in this district is nothing to be ashamed about.”

Jacob Smith in singles and the doubles team of Kadin Skala and Joe Kennedy both had to play in the first round, and both came away with wins, though in different fashions. Jacob easily handled Hay Ar Blu from Des Moines North, 6-1, 6-1, while Skala and Kennedy were in a battle from the beginning. The two won the first set over Matthew Beals and Casey Coghlan from Indianola, 6-4, but lost the second set, 0-6, before coming back and taking a victory with a 6-4 win in the third.

“Kennedy and Skala coming back and winning that third set after dropping the second set 0-6, talk about mental fortitude right there. Big three points for our team,” Christensen said. “Then Jacob Smith going out there getting a win is huge before falling to the eventual district champion, he played really well and took a game or two and that bodes well for his future.”

Jacob was eliminated by eventual-champion Neil Sura from Valley, while Kennedy and Skala were taken out by the doubles champions Moise Habineza and Roy Jensen, who beat McKibben and Skala in the finals.

Now the Bobcats have another dual to prepare for, as they host Ankeny on Saturday in the preliminary substate match. Christensen said Ankeny easily could have been the No. 2 team coming out of their district had the chips fallen a different way, so his guys will have to bring their A-game to move on to the substate final.

“Ankeny didn’t have the greatest draw today, they ran into some roadblocks early and lost a couple of matches I think they felt like they could win,” Christensen said. “They will be hungry come Saturday and it’s a whole new ball game, it will be back to high school tennis rules and only six singles and three doubles. Not a lot of margin for error, we will have to play well from the get-go.”

Marshalltown will host the Hawks at MHS on Saturday in the preliminary substate dual, starting at 10 a.m.