Winners advancing to Regionals From left, Sarah Daly, Meghan Daly, Hank Armstrong and Justin Maciel advanced last weekend to the Rapid Rally Tennis Regional competition, to be held June 22 in Sacramento. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch Competitors of the Amador Rapid Rally Tennis competition show their ribbons after the May 31 event, sponsored by the Amador Tennis Club at Argonaut High School in Jackson. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

Budding tennis stars turned out to try their hand at Rapid Rally Tennis, part of the Junior Olympic Skills competition. Rapid Rally tests how well children ages 8 to 13 can serve a low-compression tennis ball and continue to hit the ball against a wall above the net line as many times as possible in 30 seconds.

"It was obvious that the competitors had been practicing, because scores were high and errors were low," said Benita Asher of Amador Tennis Club, which hosted this season's third annual Rapid Rally Tennis local competition.

The ribbon recipients were Hank Armstrong, first in the boys age 10-12 division; Sarah Daly, first in the girls age 10-12 division; Justin Maciel, first in the boys 12-13 division; and Meghan Daly, first in the girls 12-13 division.

Taking the second place ribbons were Aaron Lake in the boys 10-11 division; Samantha Cooper in the girls 10-11 division; Alex Armstrong in the boys 12-13 division; and Tory Spence in the girls 12-13 division. Mikayla Hirschel took third in the girls 12-13 division.

The first-place finishers in each category now have until June 22 to sharpen their skills for the Regional Competition in West Sacramento. Winners at Regionals will then have their scores ranked with thousands of competitors from across the nation to determine who will earn an all-expenses paid trip to Colorado Springs for the national championships at the Olympic Training Center.

In 2006, Jackson's own Sarah Daly earned a silver medal at nationals and she is on a repeat path this year, earning her third trip to regionals. Meghan and Justin have also been to regionals before, but this will be the first year for Hank. Justin had the highest score of the day with 24 (21 hits plus three bonus points for hitting a target on the serve).

Amador Tennis Club hosted the third annual Rapid Rally competition.

For more information on local tennis activities and the ATC, see its Web site at www.amadortennisclub.org or call 257-1208.