Boys tennis: Hersey takes 2nd to Hinsdale Central at annual Pitchford invite
Afternoon showers threw a wrench into Hersey’s prestigious Tom Pitchford 32-team boys tennis invite on Friday.
However, tournament officials came up with a creative way to ensure the second day of play would give players plenty of time on the courts.
Using all six venues as a mini-tournament of its own, the Pitchford came to an end Saturday afternoon with state power Hinsdale Central lifting the team trophy with 58 points, 10 more than tourney host Hersey.
New Trier was third overall with 42 points, while Lyons Township 39 and Fremd 38 rounded out the top five.
The field would play up to semifinals at each site with Barrington freshman and 3-4 seed William DeLach leading the Broncos to seventh place with 31 points after his two-set loss to top-seed Nathan Hernandez.
"I am thrilled we were able to get a lot of tennis in this weekend despite the rain ending our day so early on Friday," said Hersey coach Andy Walton.
"All this tennis will help from a seed perspective for state in three weeks. And for us, I cannot be happier with our performance to help us finish second overall — (maybe) the best team finish in program history."
With reigning state singles player Andrew Spurck (Fremd) currently at doubles for coach Johnny Kent, and still deciding if he will return to singles in advance of the postseason, it's clear Mitch Sheldon (Hersey) and Alex Kotarski from Hinsdale are the top two in the state at singles.
Sheldon breezed past all four of his opponents to validate his top seed here. Kotarski flew through his first three rivals until he needed extra time to defeat 3-4 Shashwat Srivatsa at Prospect.
"At this point it's all about staying healthy and just fine tuning things, and definitely taking it one match at a time," said Sheldon.
"Same with me," said Kotarski.
"Right now with Andrew (Spurck) at doubles, it looks as though Mitch and I are the top two seeds, but I'm not taking anything for granted from here on out," continued Kotarski, who will play next fall at Xavier University.
The aforementioned Srivatsa (13-1) was top eight at state a year ago as a freshman, and appears ready to make another step in the postseason.
"(Shash) beat Nathan Hernandez from Hinsdale Central in three sets on Tuesday, Colton Hume (Edwardsville) and Brent Chen (Hersey) this season, so he's playing great tennis and at another level," said Fremd coach Kent.
Naperville Central senior and 5-8 seed Charlie Morgan endured a near two-hour two-set contest (6-4, 6-4) with Barrington sophomore Hadi Dossani before running into Sheldon to end his tournament visit.
"It's great to be back playing at Central, and really looking forward to these last few weeks of the season," said Morgan.
Morgan played for Central as a freshman, then moved to Florida to train and take part in online education before returning to lead the Redhawks.
Wheeling would host the top half of No. 1 doubles where top seed Lyons Township (Mason Mazzone-Jack McLane) made its case to be the No. 1 seed at state after claiming four straight two set victories, including a 6-2, 6-3 win over 5-8 Jakub Pasielak-Matt Sikorski from Hersey.
"LT might be the best doubles team in the state right now, but to see (Pasielak) and Matt play as well as they did in just the second time together is exciting, and something we'll look forward to watching in the coming weeks," said Walton.
Walton was just as proud of his senior at No. 2 singles Brent Chen, who won four over the two days. He finished with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 thriller over No. 2 seed Jovan Morales from New Trier in the bottom half of his bracket at Fremd.