Highland Park’s Jacob Edelchik heads to the state meet as the No. 1 seed. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Lake Forest High School junior Connor Polender — a golfer in the fall and a tennis player in the spring — bettered par on a tennis court earlier this week, teaming with senior Jack Armstrong to capture the Class 2A Warren Sectional doubles championship in Gurnee.
“Connor has such great touch around the net,” Armstrong said after he and Polender defeated Libertyville juniors Kenny Hermann and Nathan Valley 6-0, 6-2 in the final on May 22. (Inclement weather last weekend suspended some of the action on May 20).
Touch certainly comes in handy when Polender holds a putter on an entirely different kind of green surface.
“He also serves well and is a super-consistent player overall,” added Armstrong, who owns a big serve and the ability to crack clean winners from the baseline — when his partner doesn’t poach to clinch a point here and there with a well-placed touch volley.
Polender/Armstrong earned a 9-16 state seed. The state meet is scheduled to begin May 25 at many sites in the northwest suburbs.
Polender’s father, Russ, teaches tennis at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka. It was there where Connor Polender and Armstrong worked together as doubles partners in the offseason and developed sound strategies.
Polender/Armstrong reached the match for fifth place at the Pitchford Invite in late April, before combining forces to win the No. 1 doubles championship at the North Suburban Conference Meet for the runner-up squad of Scouts on May 13.
The Scouts’ other three sectional entries at Warren also qualified for the state meet, as Lake Forest easily won the team title with a 35-point total.
Runner-up Warren finished with 21 points.
Scouts sophomore Will Zordani downed senior teammate Oleksyi Vyshyvanyuk 6-0, 6-2 in the singles final, and the LFHS pair of juniors Jack Pasquella and Daniel Beedle placed third in doubles.
Four sectional entries, four state qualifiers.
It was quite a different story last spring, when a strong LFHS team — a week after winning the NSC Meet — got slotted in a highly competitive sectional and did not qualify a single entrant to state.
“We’re going to work on keeping the pressure on, hit a lot of tennis balls and fine-tune everything,” Armstrong said of the team’s preparation for the state meet.
Highland Park High School
The Giants received championship efforts from senior singles player Jacob Edelchik and the doubles team of senior Brandon Lew and sophomore Jeremy Learner at Cary-Grove on May 20.
Edelchik won via injury default in the singles final, while Lew/Learner topped a Stevenson duo 6-1, 6-3 for the doubles title.
HP took (24 points) runner-up honors behind Stevenson (29) in the team segment of the sectional.
Edelchik is seeded No. 1 at state; Lew and Learner are seeded 3-4 with a Hinsdale Central pair.
New Trier
The Trevians went 4-for-4 at Niles North, qualifying the maximum number of state entrants and skipping to the team championship with a 35-point effort.
Junior Jeffrey Chen beat Notre Dame’s Nick Hebda 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the singles final, and Peter Leutz — another NT junior — advanced with a third-place showing. The doubles final featured an all-New Trier affair, with Dylan Drier/Nathan Friedman defeating Reed Bianucci/Jake Zipoli 6-1, 6-4.
The state seeding committee awarded a 5-8 seed to Bianucci/Zipoli and a 9-16 seed to Drier/Friedman.
Loyola Academy
Ramblers Nick Goschi and Thomas Sullivan paired up for a third-place result in doubles, besting a couple of Evanston Wildkits in their final match at the Niles North Sectional.
Glenbrook South
The Titans (33 points) powered their way to the Buffalo Grove Sectional championship behind senior Bryce McClanahan’s singles title and Sebastien DesRoberts/Rohan Gupta’s doubles title.
DesRoberts/Gupta netted the No. 2 seed at state.
Two other South entrants advanced to state: sophomore Michael Bukhalo (singles, third place) and Jacob Adas/Jack Upperman (doubles, fourth place).
Glenbrook North
The Spartans finished runner-up (29) to Glenbrook South’s Titans (33) at Buffalo Grove, as senior Mark Wu silvered in singles, and the young doubles team of freshman Ben Riad and sophomore Ethan Park took second.
North’s Nick Marino (fourth place) qualified in singles, while Van Fairbanks/Nick Charlton-Perri (third place) extended their seasons in doubles.
Marino got seeded 3-4 at state, and Wu received a 5-8 seed. Riad/Park enters the state meet as a 9-16 doubles seed.
North Shore Country Day
The Raiders placed third (10 points) at the Class 1A Carmel Sectional in Mundelein on May 20, with a pair of entrants — freshman singles player Evan Fedin (third place) and the doubles team of Trace Hefner/Jack Pierre (fourth place) — advancing to state.
The Illinois High School Association had held a single-class state tournament in boys tennis every spring until this year.