Boys tennis: Fremd ends Barrington's MSL reign

Fremd would finally break the eight-year hold of Barrington on the Mid-Suburban League boys tennis trophy Saturday.

By using its superb depth at doubles to hold off the reigning champs, 56-51, to win the conference tournament at Buffalo Grove.

By virtue of its MSL West title, Barrington will share the overall championship with coach Matt Duncan's Fremd squad.

MSL East champion Hersey was third with 46 points, while Prospect rounded out the top four with 28 points.

"I was looking at all the press clippings the other day, and after my first two seasons as head coach when we had control of the MSL, it's been all Barrington since then so it feels good to finally win one away from them," said a proud Duncan, who watched his doubles teams win at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, plus an individual championship at No. 2 singles from freshman Andrew Spurck, who recently captured the crown at No. 2 singles at the Pitchford Invite.

"We obviously wanted to continue our streak here at the conference tournament, but (Duncan) has a great team, who played very well today so to share the overall trophy is a nice accomplishment for our boys," said Barrington coach John Roncone.

The Broncos were champions at two flights, No. 3 singles (Eishi Amaro) and at No. 1 doubles where Ammar Wazir-Ethan Park (22-3) sent off No. 1 seed Mitch Sheldon-Kacper Pasielak (Hersey) 6-4, 6-3, needing just over 90 minutes to claim the top prize for the No. 1 seed.

"We've known each other for a long time, so we have great chemistry out there and things kind of came together for us right away this year," said Wazier, himself a two-time state qualifier at singles.

Hersey senior Max Sheldon won his third consecutive MSL crown with an impressive performance over Casey Hishinuma (6-4, 6-3) to solidify his top seed at the Glenbrook South sectional, and as one of the favorites to win a state singles title in two weeks.

CSL Tournament:

While perennial Central Suburbn League powers Deerfield and Highland Park were fighting it out for the North Division title on Saturday at host Niles North, Maine West star Kamil Kozerski was already looking ahead to sectionals at Glenbrook South, with an eye on earning his third appearance at the state tournament in two weeks.

The Warriors' senior would fall to top seed Eli Gordon (Highland Park) in straight sets to drop his overall record to a still sparkling 22-3, with the losses coming at the hands of Max Bengtsson (New Trier), Marc Blekhman (Glenbrook South) and Gordon, each considered strong contenders for top 8 seeds at the state tournament.

"I've worked hard on making my serve stronger and more effective while playing with more patience and composure (and) to play points out and to finish them off," said Kozerski, who will play next fall at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis (IUPUI) where he has been accepted to the prestigious Kelley School of Business.