BELLEVILLE - Colton Hulme qualified for the state tournament in singles, while the doubles teams of Jade Dynamic and Michael Karibian and Jace Ackerman and Adrian Norcio went through to state as Edwardsville won the IHSA Class 2A boys tennis sectional tournament this weekend at Belleville West High School.
The Tigers won with 20 points, with O'Fallon coming in second with 18 points, Quincy and Belleville East tied for third with 10 points each, Alton and the host Maroons tied for fifth with two points each, and both Collinsville and Granite City failed to score.
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In the singles competition, in the first round, O'Fallon's Evan Potter won over Granite's Nick Medlin 6-0, 6-0, while Edwardsville's Ben Blake defeated Collinsville's Brad Lentz 6-0, 6-0, Quincy's Caleb Vonderheide won over Alton's Victor Humphrey 6-0, 6-0, the Redbirds' Chance Linnefelser won by default over Collinsville's Nathan Weil and Hulme defeated Chase Boushard of Granite City 6-0, 6-0. In the quarterfinals, Potter won over Blake to qualify for state 6-0, 6-1 and Hulme defeated Linnefelser 6-0, 6-0 to also qualify for state, as the top four in both singles and doubles advance to next week's state tournament.
In the semifinals, Potter won over Vonderheide 6-1, 6-1, while Gavin Sohn of the Panthers defeated Hulme 6-4, 7-6, 7-2 in the tiebreak. Hulme won the third place match over Vonderheide 6-1, 6-3, while Potter defeated Sohn n the final 6-1, 6-1.
In the doubles, Dynamic and Karibian received a first-round bye, while the Blue Devils' Jaydon Nguyen and Preston Trinh defeated the Warriors' Evan Pulliam and Isaiah Wing 6-0, 6-2, O'Fallon's Kaden Vollmer and Nick Strobel defeated Alton's Parker Mayhew and Xavier Carter 6-4, 6-0, Ackerman and Norcio eliminated Granite's Noah Brinker and Caleb Blair 6-0, 6-0 and Will Hanlin and Allen Oakley of Quincy defeated the Redbirds' Luke Boyd and James McKeever 6-3, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, Dynamic and Karibian won over Nguyen and Trinh 6-0, 6-0 and Ackerman and Norcio defeated belleville West's Jonah Blanquart and Jake Buettner 6-1, 7-5 to qualify for state.
In the semifinals, Dynamic and Karibian defeated Vollmer and Strobel 6-4, 6-0 and R.J. Miksell and Ben Harris defeated Ackerman and Norcio 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. In the third-place match, Ackerman and Norcio won over Vollmer and Strobel 7-5, 6-3 and Dynamic and Karibian won the final over Miksell and Harris 6-4, 6-4.
The top four finishers in both the singles and doubles move on to the IHSA Class 2A state tennis tournament, which will be held next Thursday through Saturday, June 10-12 in and around northwest suburban Chicago, with tournament central being Arlington Heights Hersey High.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
