St. Charles North's Amburgey survives first day at state
Aaron Amburgey was the lone survivor from the Tri-Cities on the first day of the 100th boys state tennis tournament.
The St. Charles North senior, who is Wisconsin-bound next fall, holds the best chance for success after coming back from a second-round loss to easily get past his next two opponents to set up a sectional final rematch with Ty Krill of Wheaton Academy at 8 a.m. Friday in Wheeling.
Amburgey, a state qualifier at doubles last spring, won his 30th match of this season after a comprehensive and convincing 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Logan Bennett of Marion, to meet one of his goals set forth at the start of the season.
“I wanted to play into the second day of the tournament, so after getting here now, maybe I need to readjust my goals from here on out,” said the affable Amburgey, who lost to Krill last week, 6-4, 7-6(4) at the St. Charles East sectional.
“Ty's a good player, but this is a huge match for me, because another win gives me all-state status after earning honorable mention all-state last year along with Grant Spellman,” continued the North Stars' top player.
“It was a long day of tennis with the heat and sun, and although Aaron was out of here around 3:30, it still is the type of day that can take a lot out of you (so) it's back to the hotel, get a good meal in him, and make sure he begins to hydrate like crazy in anticipation of another hot one,” said head coach, Sean Masoncup.
Tournament officials decided early in the day to begin Friday's play at 8 a.m. — with an eye of some rainy weather on the way around noon, with the hope of getting in two rounds of the front draw, and as many back-draw matches as possible.
Conference rival St. Charles East saw its doubles teams eliminated one-by-one on the first day of action, with Connor Anderson-Alexander Winters bounced after going 2-2 in Palatine at Fremd High School, while Nick Hauptmann-Kevin Schreiner (10-5) suffered the same fate at Buffalo Grove.
“We were late coming over because of major traffic jams, and we were worried the guys would have to default their first match, fortunately we didn't, but that was a little nerve-wracking for my guys,” said Saints assistant Matt Bulman, who was there for Hauptman-Schreiner all throughout the day.
Hauptman would handle the chores for head coach Robert Livermore at No. 1 for most of the season, while Schreiner was at No. 2 — with the pair brought together at the West Aurora Invite, were they earned first-place honors.
Their teammates won both a sectional championship ring this year. For Winters, this was his second trip here, last year advancing along with George Spoerl.
Batavia's Adam Maris-Andrew Nelson started brightly enough with a first-round victory over Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin (6-0, 6-1) but would find themselves out for good after a pair of straight-set defeats.
John King of Marmion Academy, at state for the third consecutive year, went 1-2 on the day, his lone victory over Matt Kramer (26-7) from St. Charles North, a first-time qualifier. Kramer's doubles mates Luke Dunteman and Matt Ernst also bowed out after going 1-2.