Bazarnik tops Moore for state tennis title
The desire to win a state championship was epitomized by the way Stevenson junior Blake Bazarnik accomplished his dream.
In a captivating and nerve-wracking final with top seed Michael Moore of Glenbrook South, Bazarnik, who appeared to be on the edge of defeat, came back with in his usual flair and heart-stopping play to defeat Moore in 3 long sets to capture the singles title Saturday afternoon before a big crowd at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights.
The 2-plus hour victory not only gave the Patriots their first singles champ since Karl Sloss in 1998, it also sent outgoing coach Mark Linnenburger's team home with sole possession of second place overall behind Hinsdale Central. The Red Devils edged Stevenson 43-42 in the team race to make it three titles in a row for coach Jay Kramer, who is retiring after an amazing 51 years on the job.
New Trier earned thirrd-place honors with 40 points; Glenbrook South (37) and Oak Park-River Forest (28) rounded out the top five.
Stevenson's doubles duo of Ross Putterman-David Packowitz (32-2) fell in the title match for the consecutive year, 7-5, 6-0 to Hinsdale Central's Dan Ballantine-Ian Tesmond to cap a brilliant tournament, including a memorable 3-set victory on Friday over Rockford Guilford to help send the sophomore team through and give the Patriots an important 4 points to keep them alive in the team title chase.
"It couldn't have happened to a better kid," said Linnenburger, just moments after Bazarnik (29-1) closed out Moore with a 7-4 tie-breaker win in the third set. "This match just ebbed and flowed (all) throughout, and in true form since Blake has been here, he somehow has a way of never coming back to life when it looks almost hopeless to come out of it ahead."
Linnenburger, who is stepping aside in favor of assistant Tom Stanhope after he and his wife had a second child recently, couldn't help but smile when recounting what Bazarnik said after he dropped the first set 6-2: "Blake came (off) and cracked, 'Well, I guess I've got a nice long (match) for you.' He's just an amazing young man and player."
The day began easy enough for the eventual state champ after he topped Lake Zurich freshman Michael Redlicki in straight sets before concentrating only on staying hydrated and mentally sharp in wait of his next opponent, with Moore (36-2) taking on defending state champ Denis Bogatov in the other semifinal.
"I feel like I let my team down last year when I was cramping up so bad in the consolation quarters, because my loss would be the difference between us sharing the team title with Hinsdale," said Bazarnik, who promised himself and the coaching staff to stay on course with his fitness and training in order to stay free of any physical woes during this tournament.
The Moore-Bogatov match was a classic, taking nearly 31/2 hours to complete, with Moore outlasting the Warren senior 6-1, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3).Together, they wowed the ever-cheering audience with abundant highlight reel shots.
"In the end, Michael hit more of the clutch shots, and just didn't miss when it counted," said Bogatov, who came back to defeat Redlicki (30-6) in the third-place match.
"To think that as a freshman Michael was able to go all the way through and into the semifinals was just fantastic, and after his loss to Blake we (all) were cheering for him to win a title for himself and the NSC," said Lake Zurich coach Kristen Chamberlain, who has the honor of coaching the first tennis state medalist in school history.
Bazarnik suggested the marathon match with Bogatov may have taken something out of the Notre-Dame bound Moore down the stretch, but certainly not it was not a factor early as the four-time state qualifier came out firing in the opening set, yet slipped a bit in the second as Bazarnik easily won 6-3.
The third and deciding set kept the sun-kissed crowd glued to center court with each holding serve until Moore broke Bazarnik to go up 5-3.
"He (Moore) kind of surprised me," said Bazarnik, "because he was hitting everything back, (then) and all I could do was just keep it in play and stay away from unforced errors."
However, after Moore went up 30-0 and on serve, Bazarnik roared back to win the next two to draw even (5-5) until a trio of booming serves helped put Moore back in front for the last time at 6-5.
After Bazarnik sent the match into a tiebreaker, it was more back-forth until Bazarnik went ahead for good 5-4 after a long 12-ball rally.
Once there, he finished off a superb opponent and sportsman with the next 2 points.
"I could hardly wait for the season to begin, and now for myself, and the team, the wait was all worth it," said Bazarnik.