None earned their bid more emphatically than Sabina, Wood River’s top boys player, who won the Great Basin 7 title and ran his record to 16-1 on the year.

The senior dropped just nine games over four matches to claim the title without losing a set. His closest match came against a teammate, junior Ben Boccabella. The top-seeded Sabina beat Boccabella 6-4, 6-2, in the final match.

Entering the tournament unseeded, Boccabella beat No. 3 Mason Ward of Twin Falls and No. 2 Sebastian Cortes of Burley on the way to the finals.

Now, both Sabina and Boccabella (10-1) advance to Timberline, where the boys tennis team looks to repeat as 4A champions.

The top four from each discipline advance out of the Great Basin 7. The Burley pair of Cortes and Ryan Gerratt round out the boys singles qualifiers.

In the girls draw, Wood River senior Jessica Popke (14-4) earned a spot in state by virtue of her runner-up finish in the conference. Popke held seed, making a run to the finals from the No. 2 line. There, she lost to No. 1 Mazie Walter of Twin Falls in a third-set tiebreaker.

Burley’s Katri Beck and Canyon Ridge’s Emma Pierson round out the girls singles qualifiers.

The Wolverines will send two boys doubles teams to Boise, led by the pairing of junior Garin Beste and sophomore Chase Schwartz. Beste and Schwartz (14-2 as a team) lost in a third-set tiebreaker to the undefeated Twin Falls team of Brett McQueen and Noah Cox. Cox and McQueen also beat a team of Wood River freshman in the semis, holding seed against Ballard Griswold and Joe Boccabella. Still Griswold and Ballard (13-1) beat Canyon Ridge’s Jackson Greene and Tanner Stevens to place third in the conference, becoming the only freshman to qualify for state out of the Great Basin 7.

Wood River also found success in mixed doubles.

The No. 2 pairing of junior Simon Weekes and senior Tenney Barrow finished second, losing 6-4, 7-5 to top-seeded Asher Alexander-Megan Peacock team out of Canyon Ridge. In the consolation game, Twin Falls’ Alexander Coates and Libby Traveller beat Wood River’s Cody McKinnon and Lili Peck for third place. All four teams are heading to state.

Neither Wood River team advanced past the quarterfinals in competitive girls doubles draw, where Burley’s Christina Cook and Andi Bulkeley won the conference crown. They’ll be joined at state by the Jerome team of Bryleigh Merritt and Hallie Ellis (second place), Burley’s Grace Miller and Jessica Stock (third) and Minico’s Nayeli Rodriguez and Jamie Tanner (fourth).

All told, Wood River led the conference in state bids with 11. Burley will send seven—three singles players and two doubles teams. Twin Falls and Canyon Ridge each earned five berths, while Jerome and Minico will send two players apiece.

As of press time, the ISHAA hadn’t set seeds or matchups for the state tournament.