Welker, Veltkamp find success in first state tourney visit
Nicholas Welker of Burlington Central and Chris Veltkamp of Streamwood made quite an impression during their first visit to the boys tennis state tournament, which celebrated its 100th version as play began Thursday.
In sweltering heat at tourney host Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Welker, a freshman, overcame an opening-round loss to 9-16 seed Victor Spolidorio of Dunlap to win his next three and stay alive in the backdraw as his day No. 2 begins at 8 a.m. Friday at Wheeling High School.
Welker will face 17-32 seed Tytus Metzger of Rockford Auburn.
Veltkamp (28-7), who came with the goal of simply winning one match, ended up doubling his pleasure with a pair of wins before falling late Thursday afternoon in straight sets to Jonluke Passett of Carl Sandburg.
"It was a great day for me, even after a case of the nerves kind of got to me in that first match. But after settling down and beginning to play the way that I know that I can, the rest of the day went well," said the Sabres standout, who advanced into the third round of the backdraw after a straight-sets victory over Caleb Urshan of Centralia. "I was up 4-1 and my legs started to feel a little tired, but I regrouped pretty quickly and then won the second set easily."
Welker, representing his school in spite of the fact that Burlington Central does not field a tennis team, drew into a tough customer in Spolidorio (39-2), who later advance into the round of 16.
"He was a very good player," said Welker, "but sometimes you lose to a player that is better than you. I got myself back together and went out and just played, and I guess I did pretty well after that first loss here."
Welker would concede just 7 games during his next three matches to extend his tourney visit.
"Nicholas is a solid USTA tournament player who's been involved in the sport for 10 years now, and at the moment he is top-10 in our Northern Illinois District in the 16's," said his coach, Adriane Welker.
Sectional champion Jacobs had a rough start Thursday before rebounding with some marvelous tennis throughout the lineup to remain alive at each spot.
The Golden Eagles' top singles player, Kailash Panchapkesan (33-6), bounced back from a disappointing second-round loss to easily win his next match. That set up a third-round match in the backdraw with David Wolk, which Panchapkesan won as well.
His doubles teammmates Kendrick and Kerwin Chong (35-1) sparkled after a second-round defeat to Lyons Township, finishing off a pair of opponents to make the fourth round at Palatine High School. The Chongs will play Normal Community's Brandon Lam/Justin Buechele Friday morning.
Matt Toomire/Riley Rowan fell quickly out of the front draw after an opening-round loss, but it didn't take long for the dynamic duo to find a winning demeanor. They beat their next two opponents in straight sets before outlasting Normal Community's Perry Lim/Patrick Deneen 7-6 (3), 6-1.
The Golden Eagles are standing 11th overall, tied with Peoria Richwoods in the team race after one day, while defending champion Hinsdale Central holds a slight lead over Stevenson (24-21) with both Lyons Township and New Trier next at 20.
The Huntley doubles team of Jake Grabner/Riley Michel were eliminated in third round after going 2-2 on Thursday.
The same fate befell sectional champions Josh Hegel/Andy Chai of Elgin as well as the Dundee-Crown duo of Nicklas Nelson/Chad Wagner and Chargers singles player Dither Rangel.
Cary-Grove's Amanda Schuetzle was as proud as a coach could be for her team of Kevin Burdick/Mitch Kedzior, who came back from an opening-round straigh-set defeat to win their next match in the backdraw before getting bumped from the tournament by Michael Yoo/Hayden Dodds of Champaign Central.
"Those guys played their best tennis of the year in that first set," said Schuetzle of the matchup at Conant. "There were zero nerves with those two, and they came out and played great, going up 4-3, before losing 6-4. Then it was lights-out for those guys in their second round straight-set victory. I was so happy for them."
Burdick-Kedzior finished 19-11 on the season.
In anticipation of some expected early afternoon storms Friday. the tournament committee decided to begin both the front and back draws one hour earlier than the normal 9 a.m. start time, in hopes of getting two rounds of the front draw into the books and as many rounds of the consolation bracket completed as possible.