Burke, Fisch lead Prospect at Highland Park
The Mid-Suburban League did well against perennial Central Suburban League and state powers Deerfield and Highland Park by advancing two at singles and another at doubles when play came to a close on the campus of the host Giants in boys tennis sectional action Saturday.
Carson Burke and Ben Fisch of Prospect came out of the field to capture third- and fourth-place medals, respectively.
Burke (18-9), a junior, earned his second consecutive trip to the state tournament. Fisch (20-9), an exchange student from Switzerland, makes his first state tourney voyage.
Buffalo Grove’s No. 1 team of Peter Georgiades and Anton Levitan (11-9) used back-to-back victories on Friday over teams from Hersey and Highland Park to qualify. On Saturday, they fell in the semifinals to eventual champs Harrison Crist/Noah Rosenblatt of Deerfield before taking third place overall when the Warriors’ No. 2 team took an injury default.
“I am really happy for those guys,” said Kevin Schrammel, BG’s coach. “They came out on Friday and played their best match of the season when they needed to, and for a couple of guys who were singles players, they came together to get themselves in the state tournament, and get their pictures on the wall at school.”
“I am going to take a picture of our picture,” joked Levitan, whose long reach and strong performance at the net was the perfect complement to his partner, who is steady and fearless, according to Schrammel.
The Knights’ singles standouts also performed well on Friday, with each using straight-set victories in their first two matches to lock-up their plans for next weekend.
“Carson is just a great kid, and a great sportsman as well, and with each week he has just improved his game. I am thrilled that he’s in the tournament next weekend,” said Knights coach Rick Huffman. “We were very fortunate and lucky to have Ben join us this season because not only does he give us another quality player in the program, but he also brought with him a terrific sense of humor, as well as a great work ethic. He’s agreat teammate as well.”
Fisch was born in New Jersey but left with his family to reside in Switzerland when he was 3. He’s spent the whole 2012-13 school year at Prospect.
He lost in straight sets in Saturday’s semifinal to eventual champ Toby Ma (20-7) of Deerfield, who will be making his fourth trip to the state appearance.
The Warriors standout, who had hoped to attend MIT next fall, will instead take his ACT score of 35 to the Illinois instead, and possibly attempt to walk-on to the tennis team there.
Deerfield won the team title with 26 points, followed by Prospect (13) and the host Giants (12).