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Show Conklin, E-Husvon, Conklin win vermis championships j Rod Conklin stormed to victory Monday in the Vernal City Recreation Tennis Tournament by beating David Wallis 6-0, 6-1. Terri Huston beat the number one seed, Rose Bigelow, to win the championship cham-pionship in the women's division. Tom Conklin, who went to the quarterfinals of the men's open, also won the junior division championship. The juniors-included J6 years and younger. Conklin is IS. .. . The beginning men's championship has not yet been decided. Rod Anderson Ander-son has already advanced to the championship cham-pionship match, and is awaiting the winner of Dick Rosemier and Ken Bassett who have yet to play in the other semi-final match. Conklin's patience proved too much for the much stronger game played by . Wallis on this particular day. Conklin - continually hit balls back at Wallis and . waited for Wallis to make the mistake. Wallis had problems serving from the outset, and ended up losing every ; game he served. The only game he won came at the beginning of the second se-cond set, when he broke Conklin's serve. But Conklin came back to immediately im-mediately break Wallis and from there waltzed in for the victory. Conklin walked through the tournament tourna-ment without losing a set. He faced Jim Peltier, Steve Wallis, Kent Bigelow, and his brother Tom Conklin in the quarterfinals. Tom posed the biggest obstacle on Rod's road to victory, vic-tory, losing by 2-6, 4-6. To see David Wallis play the final match as opposed to the rest of the tournament, one might think it wasn't the same person. Wallis faced Paul Burgess, Buss Paulson, Bert Peterson, and Day DeLaHunt in the semi-final match which proved to be the match of the entire tournament. Wallis didn't lose a set in his first three matches, but then, neither did DeLaHunt. Both play very similar games. Both hit the ball very hard, and both are looking to come to the net at every opportunity. Both volley well. In the semi-final match Wallis started off like a man possessed. Before either player knew what was happening, Wallis was up 5-1. DeLaHunt then got his serve together and won two games before finally losing 3-6. He then tore Wallis up in the second set, winning 6-2. Momentum with him, it looked as though he would walk on in for the victory. vic-tory. But Wallis wasn't willing to roll over and die. DeLaHunt went up 5-3, but Wallis won his own serve. At 5-4 DeLaHunt was serving for the match. Wallis obviously began to remember what had been so right at the beginning beginn-ing of the match, and stormed the last three games to win 7-5. With the coming of the final match, it appeared Wallis would have the momentum after the DeLaHunt victory. vic-tory. But Rod Conklin was obviously unimpressed. His pinpoint ground strokes and cat-like quickness gave him the early lead. Wallis was not again capable of the mental toughness he exhibited in the DeLaHunt match. Mental toughness means so much in sports, and especially in head-to-head WMMmmm f J - -- j i i" ! X SS;s 1 -X ' i . ; j 'f ''' -''"'" '.-"''mmmtJr2 h-iJ - . . i- - i t - s . - 5 t .. . i I" . i i Jk ! : . ; f i r : ' :-' ' ' ROD CONKLIN delivers a backhand slam to win over David Wallis in the finals of the Vernal city tennis tournament. Con klin netted first place. Wallis came in second. and one-on-one competition like tennis. Many players lose to people with less talent, but more mental toughness. Conklin was never really pushed, and perhaps never had to reach back to gather that mental toughness, but perhaps that in itself demonstrates the most mental toughness of all. Not once did he allow an opponent to force him into that situation. His ground strokes are not as strong as many players, his serve is at best mediocre, although his body control is good and his net game is very good. But, whatever his physical game may have lacked, his mental game made up for, at least in this tournament. Rose Bigelow was defending her championship win of a year ago. She and Terri Huston have been regarded by most tennis buffs in the area as the two best women players. Huston's victory vic-tory came as a surprise to many, and perhaps to herself as well. There was no competition in the junior division for Tom Conklin. He should prove a valuable addition to the Uintah High School tennis team in years to come. Vernal City recreation Director Pam Beyers said she was pleased with the way the tournament turned out. Total participants in the tournament-this tournament-this year was almost double what is was last year. She said there has obviously ob-viously been increased activity on the tennis courts, and more people are playing than before. A doubles tournament is continuing this week. "Common sense is instinct and enough of it is genuis." Josh Billings r '''- --' 'i ? ' - - . i i "x I : ' 1 ! f DAVIS WALLIS goes to the net during play against Rod Co klin, but too many mistakes at the net cost Wallis the mater |