Boys tennis: Conant claims first state trophy; Hinsdale Central nets 29th state title

To Conant’s boys tennis team: You have some explaining to do.

Nobody demanded that at Saturday’s Class 2A boys tennis tournament at Palatine, but it must have been on the minds of many.

The Cougars tied for fourth place in the Mid-Suburban League and finished second at a sectional meet last month.

Not exactly glowing feats.

They then shone brightly at the three-day event with only three of the maximum four entrants, racking up 26 points to finish runner-up to now 29-time state champion Hinsdale Central’s 34 and claiming the program’s first state trophy.

“The pressure at the state meet made all of us play better,” surmised Conant sophomore Maximus Rysz after he and classmate Austin Wu placed fifth as a 9-16 seed in doubles and became the first two Cougars to garner a state medal in program history.

Conant’s Kabir Motwani — a 5-8 singles seed and yet another sophomore — would join them as a medal collector after bowing 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to sophomore and top-seeded Matthew Sikorski of Hersey in a highly entertaining 2A singles final that featured blistering groundstroke winners and a glut of guile from both athletes in sunny, breezy conditions.

“Our guys rose to the occasion,” said Cougars coach Matt Marks, whose other qualifying entrant, sophomores Nathan Desai/Haruki Watanabe, won 3 of 5 doubles matches at state.

“I never had to hope they would do that; I just expected it.”

Sikorski lived up to his “Slap-korski” nickname and then some in the final, particularly at the end of the match’s penultimate point. Up 5-2 in the third set with Motwani serving at deuce, Sikorski dashed to a spot several feet behind the baseline to reach a scorching groundstroke from Motwani.

The right-handed Husky somehow slapped a sharply angled cross-court forehand off his back foot. The wicked shot landed in the southeastern corner of the service box for a resounding clean winner and a match point.

Sikorski closed it out shortly thereafter, securing the program’s third state singles championship to match the accomplishments of Hersey graduates Mitch Sheldon (2024) and Brad Rosenbaum (1988).

“Matthew is such a gutsy, fearless kid,” said Huskies coach Andy Walton, whose squad finished an impressive third (22 points) with only two state entrants (seniors Andrew Weber/Jakub Pasielak finished sixth in doubles, falling 6-3, 6-4 to Conant’s Wu/Rysz in the match for fifth place).

A relieved, grateful Sikorski stood among teammates near a court’s fence afterward, recalling what lifted him during the taut final and praising the tactics Motwani used to force a third set.

“I could not have won the final without them,” Sikorski said of the thunderous support he received from his teammates and friends. “Every point in that third set was a grind. Kabir is an amazing player, handling the pressure as well as he did in the big points and making me earn points. He changed things up and got more aggressive in that second set.

“That was a fight,” he added after improving to 2-1 against Motwani this spring. “This feels great now. Helping my team, being happy, getting to do what I love to do — I’ll remember all that and more about today.”

Hinsdale Central’s talented Red Devils put together another memorable run for the venerable program, netting their fourth straight state title behind a runner-up showing in doubles (juniors Nicholas Marringa/Kyle McCain) and a sixth-place finish in singles (junior Barry Zhao). Senior Nathan Hernandez went 4-2 in singles and Winston Stangle/Bodie Teuscher matched that record in doubles.

“Talent that doesn’t work hard doesn’t go very far, and if you work hard, you gain talent,” said first-year HC coach Pete Alex, whose team clinched title No. 29 on Friday. “I’m proud of our guys for not thinking talent was all they’d need to succeed this weekend.”

Marringa/McCain (17-1) earned the top 2A doubles seed — as HC’s No. 2 team. New Trier’s Chris Ackerman/Jayden Dussias (12-0) edged the pair of Red Devils 7-6 (3), 7-5 in Saturday’s final. Ackerman medaled at each of his four state appearances with a different partner.

“Today it came down to four points,” Marringa said. “Four big points, all won by New Trier.”

“Both teams,” McCain said, “wanted to win that match badly. There was some high-level tennis going on out there, along with a lot of fun.”

Speaking of plenty, Alleman senior Nicholas Patrick won his fourth Class 1A singles title, downing Marmion Academy senior Benedict Graft 6-3, 6-0. It was their fourth state meeting, with Patrick defeating Graft in a 2022 semifinal before starting his fantastic 4-pack.

Graft took third at state as a freshman and second three times.

“Tennis is an individual sport, but what I appreciated about playing in high school was the team environment,” said Graft, who plans to major in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Science at UC-Berkeley.

Wauconda senior Sean Lenhart, meanwhile, made program history for the second year in a row, this time as a doubles player with classmate Marshawn Gallego. After placing a Bulldogs-best-ever fifth in singles a year ago, Lenhart/Gallego placed third in doubles as a 5-8 seed by downing 3-4 seed Jordan Beck/Wyatt Jurgensmeyer of Mascoutah 6-3, 6-3 Saturday morning.

Lenhart/Gallego had defeated second-seeded Alex Fei/Ethan Mcraven of Dunlap 6-4, 7-6 (8) in a quarterfinal Friday after trailing 4-1 in the first set and overcoming deficits in the second set and in the tie-breaker.

“We were confident heading into our last match and trusted our shots,” said Lenhart.

Before the start of the Class 2A state meet Thursday, a Streamwood Sabre had never medaled at the boys tennis state meet. Sophomore and 5-8 singles seed Mathieu Veltkamp became the first to do so on Friday, clinching a top-six prize when he defeated Fremd senior and 3-4 seed Shashwat Srivatsa 6-3, 6-3 in a quarterfinal.

Veltkamp (32-3) wound up in fourth place after a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Lane Tech senior and Case Western Reserve-bound Marko McRae on Palatine’s show court Saturday morning.

“Mathieu played with determination and grit all weekend,” Sabres coach Mack Mowen said. “His work ethic, his drive, his family’s support — he’s got all that going for him.”

Others earning medals Saturday included Hinsdale South senior Zeke Bisharat (4th, 1A singles); Timothy Christian freshman Hudson Tseng (5th, 1A singles); St. Francis junior Umar Bajwa (6th, 1A singles); and Stevenson junior Jaden Dai (5th, 2A singles).

New Trier (19 points), Glenbrook South (17), Stevenson (17), Barrington (16), Glenbrook North (16) and Waubonsie Valley (15) finished 4th through 9th in 2A. Chicago University (28) topped the 1A field ahead of Prairie Ridge (18). Dunlap (17), Alleman (17), Triad (16), Hinsdale South (14), Wauconda (14) and Marmion Academy (13).

Quote-worthy: “Not many people realize just how important wins in the back draw are in the team standings,” Hersey coach Andy Walton said. “What (Andrew Weber and Jakub Pasielak) did for us after their quarterfinal loss, winning those two rounds, clinched a trophy for us.”