The Rivals Reid Martin of Chimacum and Stuart Dow of Port Townsend combined to take fifth place in doubles at State during the tournament over Memorial Day weekend in Yakima.  

Martin and Dow qualified for the state tournament during the fall tennis season and had a long layoff before the state tournament. After dropping a winnable first match to rusty play, Coach Keith Johnson said the pair stormed back going undefeated in the rest of the tournament to finish fifth.

Martin and Dow started playing doubles together at districts after competing as the No. 1 and No. 2 singles players for the regular season.

It was the first time Port Townsend has sent an athlete to the boys state tennis tournament, according to Johnson. 

“It was great getting to play against such a high level this year,” Dow recalled. “Coming into my first year of tennis I never thought we’d make it this far, but we practiced hard throughout the year and getting fifth at state was definitely a highlight of my high school athletics career.”

Their last match went to a third set tiebreaker where Dow and Martin rallied to upend their opponents from Goldendale 6-0.  

“They were on fire in the final set of the tournament,” Johnson said.

“Serves, returns, netplay. Everything clicked. It was the best set I’ve seen them play,” he added. “It was a great season; coaching these two was more like play than work.”