Boys tennis: Hinsdale Central wins third straight state title, 28th overall

PALATINE – The only thing more attractive than the postcard-pretty Saturday at the boys tennis state meet at Palatine was left-hander Mitch Sheldon’s inside-out forehand on the final point of the Class 2A singles final.

The Hersey senior and Michigan State recruit crushed the shot to clinch a physical 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Hinsdale Central senior and Xavier commit Alex Kotarski, another heavy-hitting southpaw. Sheldon’s wallop also punctuated the team’s runner-up showing – the best state finish in program history – and doubled the number of Hersey Huskies who had claimed a boys state singles championship, matching Brad Rosenbaum’s feat in 1988.

“I’ve never seen any tennis player work as hard as Mitch does,” Hersey coach Andy Walton said. “It’s incredible, his work ethic. He hits several hours a day and when he competes like he did today against a great player like Alex, he’s next-level. But to Mitch, who’s as humble as they come, the team trophy we earned this weekend means just as much to him as the singles title does.”

State champion Hinsdale Central tallied 36 points. Hersey had 28.

The Red Devils, behind Kotarski’s silver medal performance and fourth-place showings from junior Nathan Hernandez in singles and sophomores Barry Zhu and Nicholas Marringa in doubles, captured their third straight state title under retiring coach John Naisbitt and the program’s 28th overall.

“We played our best tennis in late May,” said Naisbitt, whose 15th and final squad clinched the ninth state championship on his watch at noon Friday on day two of the three-day tournament. “[Zhu and Marringa] beating the two seed [Edwardsville’s Jesse Hattrup and Jade Dynamic] in Thursday’s third round was huge. Huge. It catapulted them and us. They then went on to win a quarterfinal [worth four points; wins in each of the other main-draw rounds netted two points]. And we got two other quarterfinal wins from Alex and Nathan.”

Second-seeded Kotarski, who lost to Fremd’s Andrew Spurck – a future Xavier teammate – in last year’s 2A singles final, broke Sheldon to cap a mini 2-0 rally and trailed only 4-3 in the second set. A composed Sheldon found himself down 30-love on Kotarski’s serve in the eighth game, won the next two points and overcame a game-point-against to force deuce. The Huskie won the next two points to go up 5-3.

A Sheldon ace set up match point at 40-love in the next game. Kotarski made it 40-15 but couldn’t handle an inside-out beaut off Sheldon’s forehand on the second match point.

“I did not play my best,” Kotarski said. “But I’m not that guy who makes excuses. Mitch outplayed me today. This was absolutely Mitch’s day.”

Hinsdale Central’s other doubles state entrant, 9-16 seed Aidan Hernandez and Bodie Teuscher, split four matches.

In Class 1A, which also was staged at Palatine on Saturday, Marmion junior Benedict Graft lost 7-6 (5), 6-1 to top-seeded Nicholas Patrick of Rock Island Alleman in the championship match.

“Some really close points,” said Graft, who finished third at state as a freshman and runner-up last spring and added power to his serve and forehand this season. “I can’t thank my teammates enough for supporting me all three days. That helped me a lot.”

Graft has lost only three singles matches since the start of his freshman season in 2022. All three occurred at state. His summer plans include competing at sanctioned tennis tournaments and serving as a computer-engineer intern at Tesla.

New Trier’s Chris Ackerman and Jovan Morales defeated Lyons’ Jack McLane and Mason Mazzone 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the 2A doubles final.