Boys tennis: State champ Sheldon powers Hersey to second place finish

The only thing more attractive than the postcard-pretty Saturday at the boys tennis state meet at Palatine was left-hander Mitch Sheldon’s inside-out forehand on the final point of the Class 2A singles final.

The Hersey senior and Michigan State-bound netter crushed the shot to clinch a physical 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Hinsdale Central senior and Xavier (Ohio) recruit Alex Kotarski, another heavy-hitting southpaw. Sheldon’s wallop also punctuated the team’s runner-up showing — the best state finish in program history — and doubled the number of Hersey Huskies who had claimed a boys state singles championship, matching Brad Rosenbaum’s feat in 1988.

“I’ve never seen any tennis player work as hard as Mitch does,” Hersey coach Andy Walton said. “It’s incredible, his work ethic. He hits several hours a day, and when he competes like he did today against a great player like Alex, he’s next-level. But, to Mitch, who’s as humble as they come, the team trophy we earned this weekend means just as much to him as the singles title does.”

Hersey tallied 28 points to state champion Hinsdale Central’s 36. The Red Devils, behind Kotarski’s silver-medal performance and a pair of fourth-place showings (junior Nathan Hernandez in singles and sophomores Barry Zhu/Nicholas Marringa in doubles), captured their third straight state title under retiring coach John Naisbitt and the program’s 28th overall.

“We played our best tennis in late May,” said a contented Naisbitt, whose 15th and final squad clinched the ninth state championship on his watch at noon on Friday, day two of the three-day tourney. “(Zhu/Marringa) beating the two seed (Edwardsville’s Jesse Hattrup/Jade Dynamic) in Thursday’s third round was huge. Huge. It catapulted them and us. They then went on to win a quarterfinal (worth 4 points; wins in each of the other main-draw rounds netted 2 points). And we got two other quarterfinal wins from Alex and Nathan.”

Hersey received a fine state run by senior and 9-16 singles seed Brent Chen, who placed seventh-eighth, and a resilient effort from the 3-4 seeded pair of junior Jakub Pasielak/freshman Matthew Sikorski, who won four back-draw doubles matches after absorbing an upset loss in the Round of 32 on Thursday. Huskies Andrew Weber/Ben Werling contributed a doubles victory.

All of the above turned into proud teammates and spectators as Sheldon — half of the 2A state doubles champion in 2022, with Pasielak’s brother Kacper, and fourth at state in singles last year — pummeled clean winners and smacked well-placed, sizzling serves en route to a 6-3, 4-1 lead in the final. On break point in the seventh game of the first set, Sheldon (36-1) slugged a two-handed, cross-court backhand winner to secure a 4-3 lead.

“At the start, I was tense and nervous,” admitted the top-seeded Sheldon, who did not drop a set in any of his six state matches. “Breaking serve at 3-3 helped me. As they say, the seventh game of the set is the most important. Right now, I’m happy, relieved.

“Throughout this whole tournament,” he added, “my mind was right.”

Second-seeded Kotarski, who lost to Fremd’s Andrew Spurck (his future Xavier teammate) in last year’s 2A singles final, broke Sheldon to cap a mini 2-0 rally and trailed only 4-3 in the second set. A composed Sheldon found himself down 30-love on Kotarski’s serve in the eighth game, won the next two points and overcame a game-point-against to force deuce. The Huskie won the next two points to go up 5-3.

A Sheldon ace set up match point at 40-love in the next game. Kotarski made it 40-15 but couldn’t handle that inside-out beaut off Sheldon’s forehand on the second match point.

“I did not play my best,” Kotarski said. “But I’m not that guy who makes excuses. Mitch outplayed me today. This was absolutely Mitch’s day.”

New Trier finished third (25 points), followed by Fremd (22), Lyons (19), Glenbrook North (18), Evanston (14), Metea Valley (13), Barrington (13) and Edwardsville (11). Had Conant (11th-place tie, 10 points) notched one more team point, the Mid-Suburban League would have achieved four top-10 finishes.

Fremd’s fourth-place finish was remarkable because only two of the Vikings’ four entries had qualified for state from last weekend’s Hersey sectional. Spurck (92-10 in his decorated prep singles career) defeated Hernandez 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the third-place singles match, while Fremd senior Amaye Shyani and junior Shashwat Srivatsa — seeded 5-8 and friends since they were 6 years old — downed Zhu/Marringa 6-1, 6-3 for third place in doubles a day after edging reigning state doubles champs Evan Glebov/Blake Gold of Highland Park in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 quarterfinal.

Shyani’s big serves and Srivatsa’s wide, high-kicking serves to the ad court either stunned or flummoxed returners.

“We’re top-heavy,” Srivatsa said of coach Johnny Kent’s 2024 crew. “And Amaye and I are both competitive.”

Hinsdale Central’s other doubles state entrant, 9-16 seed Aidan Hernandez/Bodie Teuscher, split four matches.

In Class 1A state-meet action, also staged at Palatine on Saturday, champion Chicago (University) finished with 35 points to runner-up Dunlap’s 26. Prairie Ridge (16) placed third, two spots ahead of Wauconda (14), which was paced by junior and 9-16 seed Sean Lenhart’s fifth-place singles showing — the best in program history.

Lenhart (26-2, including 6-1 at state) came up clutch in his final match Saturday, rallying from a 7-3 deficit in the super tie-breaker to nip St. Francis sophomore Umar Bajwa 6-3, 3-6 (11-9) in the match for fifth place.

“All in all, Sean has no glaring weakness,” said Wauconda coach Ben Volheim, who lauded Bulldogs junior Marshawn Gallego for winning four of six matches in the first two days of the state tourney. “Sean’s biggest attribute is his mental toughness. He’s got grit too; just when you thought you had won a point against him, he gets to the ball and makes you hit another shot.”

Only one Cadet, junior Benedict Graft, struck shots for Marmion Academy at state. Seeded second in the 1A singles draw, he hit enough winners to rack up 12 points for Marmion — good enough for seventh place in the team standings. Graft bowed 7-6 (5), 6-1 to top-seeded Nicholas Patrick of Alleman in the championship match.

“Some really close points,” said Graft, who finished third at state as a freshman and runner-up last spring, and added power to his serve and forehand this season. “I can’t thank my teammates enough for supporting me all three days. That helped me a lot.”

Dinks & slices: Among Sheldon’s teammates at Michigan State next year will be big brother and former Hersey standout Max Sheldon, who finished runner-up in singles at the 2A state tournaments in 2019 and 2021. Mitch and Max will be college teammates for one year in East Lansing. … Hersey’s previous best state finish was fourth, accomplished in 1988 and again in 2021. …The Class 2A Pitchford Sportsmanship Award went to Warren senior Brandon Paasch, who won three of five matches as the Blue Devils’ lone state qualifier. … Marmion Academy’s Graft has lost only three singles matches since the start of his freshman season in 2022. All three occurred at state. His summer plans include competing at sanctioned tennis tournaments and serving as a computer-engineer intern at Tesla. … New Trier’s Chris Ackerman/Jovan Morales defeated Lyons’ Jack McLane/Mason Mazzone 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the 2A doubles final. … In the Class 1A doubles final, Chicago University’s Krish Khanna/Arjun Sawhney triumphed over Dunlap’s Shaan Kashyap/Ethan Mcraven 6-1, 6-2. … Hersey’s Chen plans to major in Mathematics at Boston College but not play college tennis. “Tennis will always be a big part of my life,” he said on Thursday morning. … Fremd’s Shyani will attend Indiana and might play club tennis at the Big Ten school. … Schaumburg Christian junior and three-time state qualifier Michael Todorov did not compete in a regular-season match before topping a trio of seeded players and capturing the singles title at last week’s 1A St. Francis sectional in Wheaton. Seeded 5-8 at state, the Conqueror, who learned to play tennis from his babysitter at around the age of 9, reached the Round of 16.