Boys tennis: Stevenson shares Day 1 lead
Stevenson opened the Class 2A high school boys tennis tournament weekend in style.
The Patriots advanced all four of their teams into Friday's round of 16 and ended Thursday's first rounds action with 16 points, good for a three-way tie for the tourney lead with Hinsdale Central and New Trier.
Defending state champion Naperville Central is 1 point away from the leaders, while Barrington, Glenbrook South and Lyons Township are next in line with 10 points.
With more intense heat in the forecast, tournament officials announced that play will begin at 8 a.m. Friday at the various Mid-Suburban League host sites, including at Rolling Meadows where the Stevenson doubles teams of Sai Merneedi/Eric Perkowski (21-1) and Ozzie Viswanathan/Arjun Sheelvanth (21-6) will start their day.
Viswanathan/Sheelvanth needed three sets to defeat Lyons Township to stay with their teammates in the front draw.
In singles, Stevenson's 5-8 seed Sam Komis (23-1) and teammate Zach Kim (23-1) both played convincingly past their competition to earn spots at Hersey to start Friday.
"We had a very good result the first time coach (Tom) Stanhope put us together, and after that, we stayed together for good," said Merneedi, who with Perkowski went on to win Buffalo Grove's Bison Invite, followed by titles at the North Suburban Conference and sectional tournaments to earn a 5-8 seed.
"I'm a very confident type of person, so I always felt Sai and I could have a season like we have had so far, even as freshmen, because we've played together in closed tournaments in the off-season and we get along really well," Perkowski said.
The Patriots will play Metea Valley next, while Viswanathan/Sheelvanth next face 5-8 seed New Trier (Dylan Drier/Jake Zipoli).
Komis takes on Michael Bukhalo (21-3) of Glenbrook South, while Kim faces top seed Jack Randall (31-0) of Lockport.
The only other player from Lake County still to be found in the front draw is Wauconda senior Brian Hackman (20-0), who followed the direction of coach Ryan Whitfield and put away his two opponents as quickly as he could in order to earn a spot against Carlos Gutierrez of Fenwick on Friday morning in Class 1A competition at Buffalo Grove.
"On a day as hot as this one was so early in the day, we told Brian, and Dev (Patel) for that matter, to stay hydrated and do your best to get off of the court as quickly as possible," said Whitfield.
Patel (18-9) was eliminated in his first state appearance after going 1-2, as were Andrew Butler of Lakes, Matthew Pawlowski (Grayslake North, 16-12) and his teammates Alex Cisneroz/Brian Szramek, who finish at 15-13, as well as the Vernon Hills No. 2 team of Andrey Shor/Pranav Vaswani.
Antioch senior Kyle Boudreau (18-4), competing at state for a third time to cap a terrific career, overcame a second-round loss to Zach Periera of Carbondale and win his first backdraw match to ensure his play on Day No. 2.
"Knowing that it was going to be the hottest day of the spring, and with me fighting a cold, it was important to begin to hydrate last night, and continue again this morning, while eating more food than normal in order to keep my energy up," said Boudreau, whose next opponent will be Mason Beckham of Flora on Friday at Schaumburg.
"The difference between last year and this season is my patience and composure, which in the past has been my downfall," said Boudreau, who will play at Augustana next fall.
Boudreau is one of a handful of Lake County players and teams who will compete outside of the front draw, including Greg Madjarov/Jordan Ramsey (Grayslake Central, 18-8), Lakes (Adam Hagman/Matthew Mercure, 18-8) and Nikhil Mangtani/Matt Nguyen, 16-7), all in Class 1A.
Over at 2A, Libertyville seniors Nathan Valley/Kenny Herrmann (20-15) ran into a very good club from Springfield (Shaul Latif/Raj Sinha) and were soon sent into the backdraw. The Wildcats will next meet Naperville North's Kevin Zhang/Sam Li) on Fridya at Prospect High School.
While play will continue at various MSL schools in the backdraw, all quarterfinal matches in both classes will move to tourney host Hersey High School.