Chilton County’s girls and Jemison’s boys have advanced to their respective state tennis tournaments.

For the JHS boys, their visit to the Cox Tennis Center in Mobile on April 26-27 will be the program’s ninth consecutive season to compete for a championship.

The Panthers advanced despite losing five seniors from last year’s team and starting three new players.

“There were a lot of questions about who was going to step up after finishing third in the state last year,” JHS coach Benton Morton said. “Trevan Anderson, Dylan Cummings and Brett Paschal met the challenge.”

Jemison posted a 9-2 regular season record, and at the section tournament at O’Connor Park in Montgomery, Panthers competed in seven of the nine championship matches as they finished second in the section, good enough to qualify for the Class 4A state tournament.

Chilton County’s girls team also finished second in its section tournament, which was played at and won by Walker High School.

Anna Adams (in the No. 2 position), Mary Colby Kelley (4), Anna Bearden (5) and Caitlyn Smith (6) all competed in singles championship matches, as did the doubles combinations of Ada Ruth Huntley and Kelley (2), and Bearden and Smith (3).

The Class 5A state tournament will be held April 26-27 at Lagoon Park Tennis Complex in Montgomery.

The CCHS boys just missed qualifying for state, finishing in third place in the section tournament.

Weston Harris (No. 3 position) and A.J. Davidson (6) won singles section titles for their positions. Rett Russell (2) competed in a championship match, as did the doubles team of Harris and Chase Baker (2).

Jemison’s girls finished in fourth at the sectional.

“Not bad when we started four new players,” Morton said. “They really improved over the course of the year and finished the regular season 6-6.

“Tanya Liveoak, Samantha Cochran, Sarah Brantley and Kayla Smith did a good job in filling the vacant spots. It’s something to build on for sure because we had only one senior.”