During the awards ceremony following the Iowa High School Class 2A state tennis championships Saturday afternoon, tournament director Randy Krecji of Cedar Rapids said an old coach once told him that the next best thing to winning a tourney is to finish fifth.

In most meets, claiming the consolation bracket prize takes four victories. And, as is the case with the champion, it also means closing out with a victory.

The Linn-Mar doubles team of Tyler McCann and Brady Anderson picked up fifth-place hardware Saturday after defeating Clinton's Mitch Schumacher and Ryan Schroeder, 6-3, 6-4, at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center.

Seeded first in doubles coming into the tournament, McCann and Anderson won their first match but fell to the eventual title tandem from Ames on Friday. The Lion duo, who were 16-0 before the loss, roared back to win three straight matches to finish their season on a high note.

“It feels good,” McCann said. “I played poorly in the one that we lost, but both of us played a lot better today.

“It was kind of windy, so we had to come to the net a lot. And we’re pretty good at playing the nets.”

Anderson said that even though he and his partner came in fifth, he feels they proved themselves to be among the top two or three teams in the state. They won their district meet. And, in a hard-fought match, they beat Washington’s top duo of Mitch Anderson (Brady’s older brother) and Clayton Hoyt Friday night. The Warriors were seeded third.

“They’re definitely in the top eight and probably the top five,” Brady said.

The Linn-Mar pair had the misfortune, however, of facing Alex Qin and Tommy Pitcher of Ames in the second round. Unseeded because they lost in the districts to fellow Little Cyclones Calvin Song and Victor Wang, Qin and Pitcher played No. 1 doubles for Ames this year even though their senior teammates finished second in the 2011 state tournament.

Last year’s runnerup was the second seed this year behind McCann and Anderson. The younger Ames tandem breezed through this year’s meeting, however, winning the all-Ames championship final, 7-6, 6-1, Saturday afternoon.

Krejci said it was the first time two teams from the same school vied for the title since Sioux City North did it in 1994.

“Playing them that early in the tournament was a tough break for us,” Anderson said. “But that’s the luck of the draw.”

They’ll have a chance for revenge, though, since Linn-Mar is one four schools that will compete in the state team championships Tuesday in Des Moines along with Ames, Iowa City West and West Des Moines Valley.

“Both of us have beaten both of those guys in singles before,” McCann said. “So we’ll see what happens.”