Our look back at the top stories of the year is sponsored by the Republic Mud Run, southwest Missouri’s only mud run that’s exclusively for youth! The first got Mud? Run will be held Saturday, August 29, at Brookline Park. It will feature three age divisions (5-7, 8-10, and 11-15), with age-appropriate obstacles for each. Get more information at RepublicMudRun.com, or get registered online right now.
In all the years that Republic has been competing in tennis, no Tiger had ever won a Central Ozark Conference championship. Then came 2015, when Michael Nacy teamed with Bradley Hendrix to do it twice on the same day.
In singles, Nacy cruised through the first round with an 8-1 win over Neosho’s Jordan Cox, then followed it up with an 8-5 win over Zach Gardner of Nixa. That set up a championship showdown with O.B. King of Webb City–one of the area’s best players, who’s caused problems for Nacy over the past couple seasons.
Nacy used an aggressive serve-and-volley game to jump out in front. On match point, he spiked an overhead into the top of the back fence, clinching a 9-7 victory and Republic’s first-ever COC singles championship.
The doubles team of Nacy and Hendrix won their first two matches (8-2 over Carthage and 8-6 over Webb City) to advance to the finals against Nixa. They fell behind early but won four of the last five games to win the match 8-5, clinching the doubles title.