ALTOONA – On Tuesday afternoon, two Central Mountain boys tennis players in Tim Brinker and Joey McCluskey competed in the District 6 Class AAA singles tournament at Altoona. Against the best tennis talent in the district, the pair experienced ups and downs, with Brinker finishing his day 1-1 and Joey McCluskey getting eliminated in the first round against fourth-seed Garett Bouchard of Hollidaysburg.

For his first round matchup, Brinker faced Williamsport’s No. 1 in Joseph Hillman. After a back-and-forth first set saw Brinker edge out Hillman 6-4, the Wildcat used that momentum to propel him through the second with relative ease, as he won six of the final seven games to take the match, 6-4, 6-1.

Like McCluskey, Brinker would run into one of the bracket’s best in the next round – No. 2 seed Luke Mitchell of Altoona. Though he was able to take a game to narrow the first-set gap to 3-1, that’d be all he could manage, as Mitchell won the next nine games to take the match, 6-1, 6-0. McCluskey endured a similar defeat in the first round, falling to Bouchard 6-1, 6-0, but the pair of Wildcat athletes fought hard, and Brinker was able to exit the tournament with a victory.