Barrington’s Coll, Nuckles heat up at home

Mother Nature lobbed a nasty blast of wet and cold weather onto the courts during the first day of the 96th boys tennis state tournament on Thursday afternoon, but after a 3-plus hour delay play finally began at the 11 venues scattered around host Hersey in Arlington Heights.

The dreadful conditions didn’t bother the top seeds, who overcame thunderous winds, and temperatures which were generously listed at 49 degrees at the start to send their opponents packing and into the backdraw today.

Championship bracket play continues with today’s fourth-round play at Hersey (singles) and Prospect (doubles) at 9 a.m.

The consolation bracket starts at 98 a.m. at Rolling Meadows, Wheeling, Buffalo Grove and Palatine, and can be followed at IHSA.org throughout the rest of the weekend.

The Mid-Suburban League doubles champs from Barrington, Ben Nuckles/George Coll, are the lone survivor from the area in the front draw after the Broncos pair downed a trio of opponents on its home courts to stay alive in the championship bracket to face 3-4 seed New Trier (Drew Campbell-Thomas Fawcett) in one of the breakfast specials today in Mount Prospect.

“What a great win for the boys, and the program,” said an elated Barrington coach John Roncone, who had the pleasure of watching Nuckles/Coll defeat Downers Grove South (Cody Freischlag-Connor Harmon) 6-2, 7-6 (1) in front of the home crowd.

“Yeah, I guess we did have home court advantage today,” said Nuckles with a smile. “It was nice being in the comfort zone of playing on your own courts, with your friends and teammate there to cheer for you, but I really feel that we progressed with each match that we played today.”

Both Nuckles and Coll (25-7), state qualifiers a year ago at doubles (Nuckles) and singles (Coll), waited things out while the tournament committee monitored weather radar before sending the 64-man field out on the courts just before 1 p.m. to help ensure the completion of all three rounds in the front draw and a deep run into the backdraw as the day came to a close.

“Everyone was glad that (tournament director) Matt Norris waited it out today in order to play the tournament outdoors where it belongs, and to give everyone who came to the tournament a chance to play their matches,” said Roncone, whose No. 2 doubles team of Ben Adams and Greg Baker bowed out after going 2-2 in during their first tournament appearance.

The Broncos’ top team, which had earned a 9-16 seed, took control of its match with its Downers Grove South (33-10) opponents with a 6-2 first set victory, but let the 17-32 seed back into the match when they broke the MSL champs to draw even at 5-5.

South went up 6-5 and nearly sent it to a third and final set, but Coll held service thanks to 4 straight first serves to level the score at 6-6. After that, it was all Barrington.

“Their experience at state last year, and the way they have been playing and coming together of late might have been the difference in the tiebreaker, because both Ben and George were unstoppable as they went on to win 7-1 for the match,” said Roncone.

The news wasn’t as good for the MSL team champ, Fremd, which appeared to be in line to join their division rivals in the front draw at doubles.

Nick Makowiecki-Maciej Niemcyzk (18-4) were stunned by Effingham St. Anthony’s Cole Buehnerkemper-Hayden Esker in the third round, sending the Vikings duo into the consolation bracket today at Buffalo Grove after the pair breezed to consecutive straight-set victories to begin their day at Fremd.

“I don’t know what happened to those guys,” said disappointed Fremd coach Matt Duncan, who saw his No. 2 team (Erik Rosencrans-Joe Cantieri) win its first match over South Elgin in 3 sets before losing to Nuckles-Coll (6-2, 6-3) in the second round.

The first-time state qualifiers won their next match against Sandburg, and were on the courts against Belleville West (Sam Edwards-Hayden Quandt) as Day 1 came to an end.

Teammate Matt Burkhardt remains alive after going 2-1 at the Schaumburg venue, using a three-set victory over Tyler Anderson (Chicago U-High) to advance in the backdraw.

The MSL champion at No. 1 singles lost his second-round match to 17-32 seed Justin Ancona (Rockford Christian, 24-1) in three sets.

Isriz Balase’s brilliant four-year career at Schaumburg ended on Thursday when the Saxons captain, and three-time qualifier lost his second match of the day to Patrick Gaffigan of Springfield High in straight sets. Balase finished with nearly 130 victories under head coach Jason Campbell.

At Palatine, Conant’s Takuma Ito and Peter Istkovich bounced back from their first-round 3-set defeat to win the next two, both in 3 sets, and will be back on the courts this morning against Zach Andor-Ben Crowe of Wheaton North.

Reigning state champion Robert Stineman (New Trier, 36-0) cruised past a trio of victims on Thursday, and will face 9-16 seed Jeremy Bush (26-4) of Stevenson. The Patriots’ David Packowitz-Ross Putterman ran their record to 30-0 at wind-blown Buffalo Grove to set-up a fourth-round match with Neuqua Valley (Patrick Carpio-Michael Baiochi) at Prospect.

The Patriots stand fifth behind team leader New Trier (24 points). The Trevians are just ahead of the trio of Deerfield, Hinsdale Central and Oak Park-River Forest, all with 22 overall points.

Fremd is tied for 16th with Latin and Naperville North (10 points each); Barrington is 19th with 9 points.