St. Mary Catholic boys tennis team makes first trip to WIAA state
4 min read
FOX CROSSING – The St. Mary Catholic boys tennis group is fairly an eclectic forged of characters.
There’s a budding phenom who’s battled by harm to turn into one particular of the state’s leading players, international exchange pupils who essential a very little coaxing to be part of the roster, and players for whom tennis is not their No. 1 sport but have turn out to be integral components of a winning team.
They all came with each other this time to do some thing no Zephyrs staff has finished in program history — advance to the WIAA state workforce tournament.
“It’s actually interesting. This is all some thing that when I to start with began coaching, it’s a perception that I had in just the young ones that we could do one thing like this,” mentor Tate Whitlinger stated. “For me, it’s incredibly unique mainly because the state tournament is anything that I went to as a sibling with my sisters, as a participant, as a training professional numerous young children have performed there that I have coached, and now an genuine significant faculty mentor.”
The Zephyrs are the No. 4 seed and will engage in leading-seeded Brookfield Academy in a Division 2 semifinal at 9 a.m. Saturday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison. The winner will encounter either Catholic Memorial or Aquinas in the championship match at 2 p.m.
St. Mary Catholic sophisticated by successful the Kohler sectional May perhaps 25 with 43 factors, just one a lot more than second-put Xavier.
“We went in there with this quiet, humble angle which is how we form of do items at St. Mary’s,” Whitlinger mentioned. “I experienced the perception and coach Lizzy (Bergstrom Auth) had the perception that we could do it. We understood some items experienced to arise for it to transpire, and those items kind of did and then our fellas took treatment of their part.
“The whole day it was just type of trying to continue to be peaceful and retain control of what we could, and that’s our side of the court docket. At the end of the day, we came as a result of by a single stage, so it was a seriously amazing working experience for everyone.”
Freshman Wesley Auth performs No. 1 singles for the Zephyrs. He’s performed USTA tournaments considering the fact that he was 9 and although he’s dealt with elbow agony off and on due to the fact 2020, he concluded fifth in Division 2 singles Saturday at the personal point out tournament.
Taking part in at the workforce event this weekend is one more level of enjoyment for Auth, who has a 24-1 record.
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“It usually means a great deal to me,” stated Auth, whose teammates contain cousins Grant and Harry Bergstrom. “It’s incredible. To go to sectionals and then do as perfectly as we did as a workforce, specifically currently being these types of a younger workforce, is remarkable.”
It was Auth and his cousins who assisted recruit foreign exchange pupils Felipe Gaztelu, Gonzalo Carrasco, Juan Sebastian and Javier Ravina-Amador to the team.
“I was excellent close friends with a single of them and the rest of them I’d never ever talked to just before, so it was definitely appealing chatting to them and getting used to them but at some point we grew to become fantastic friends and we had fantastic chemistry since of it,” Auth mentioned. “We were being able to get them to occur out and we gained our sectional, so it worked out seriously nicely.”
Grant Bergstrom, whose most important activity is soccer, plays No. 1 doubles with Gaztelu. They state-of-the-art to the personal point out tournament very last week and gained two matches. Carrasco, Sebastian and Ravina-Amador round out the singles lineup for the Zephyrs.
Senior Ethan Campbell, who will participate in soccer in college, plays No. 2 doubles with Michael Fairweather, who is also a proficient basketball participant. Their athleticism arrives in handy on the tennis court docket. Freshmen Harry Bergstrom and John Osland engage in No. 3 doubles.
It’s a lineup that discovered instant achievements on the court, even if it took some time to turn into relaxed with each individual other.
“At very first it was certainly a system for the reason that we weren’t communicating ideal absent,” Campbell mentioned. “I was not genuinely familiar with the foreign exchange college students at first, so that took a tiny bit of time. But swiftly I was equipped to get to know just about every and every a person of them and now they’re 1 of my closest friends, all of them. So that certainly helps when it arrives to matches and having prepared for matches.”
Getting the initially to symbolize St. Mary Catholic at the condition crew event is not one thing the Zephyrs are using flippantly.
“My heart’s full of pleasure and gratitude that we have this prospect to go down there and show what we have and just the exhilaration for the total St. Mary Catholic households and community and college procedure,” Whitlinger claimed.
Get in touch with Mike Sherry at [email protected]. Adhere to him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
