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By Jim Wieners

Hazelwood Central Boys Tennis has dominated the Suburban North Conference in 2010 and that includes winning the Suburban North Conference Tournament held April 30-May 1 at Riverview Gardens High School.

Hazelwood Central scored 35 points and was only challenged by two of their seven SNC rivals. Hazelwood West took second with 29 points while Pattonville scored  24. Two Ferguson-Florissant  high schools, McCluer North and  McCluer, each scored 12 points, Hazelwood East had five while Ritenour and Riverview went scoreless.

Hazelwood Central had four singles players and two doubles teams reached the championship finals. Marcus Holmes and Egor Antipov each won their singles flight titles over singles players from Pattonville while in doubles Kenneth Sanders and Stephen Hamilton defeated a team from Pattonville. Meanwhile Steven Benedict and Karl Faust each took second in singles while Phillip Craig and Luke Seppelt were doubles runner up.

Hazelwood West, despite a second place finish, had three winning finalists. Adam Heligenstein  defeated Faust in singles. In doubles Corey Richards and Brendan Rowberry defeated Craig and Seppelt while James Bell and Justin Thompson defeated a team from Pattonville.

In dual meets Hazelwood Central was 6-0 in the Suburban North, 9-1 overall prior to their season finale, May 5 at home against Hazelwood West.  Hazelwood Central’s only dual meet loss was April 8 to Francis Howell Central and there was no result available on the scheduled April 16 match at Wentzville-Timberland. A win would have wrapped up the Suburban North Conference title outright but a loss and the Hawks would have to share the title with Pattonville— if the Pirates defeated Hazelwood East on May 4, and/or Hazelwood West, if the Wildcats defeated the Hawks and Hazelwood East on April 28.  (There was no result on the West-East match available at press time)

Prior to the Suburban North Conference Tournament last weekend (records unofficial) Hazelwood Central’s top singles players include Faust (10-0), Benedict (9-1), Holmes (8-2) and Adante Gardner (5-0). In doubles play prior to the SNC Tourney (individual records unofficial) the top players include Craig (10-0), Sanders (10-0), Hamilton (8-0) and Seppelt (9-1). Central, prior to last weekend, had won 57 out of 70 matches.

Hazelwood West, prior to May 4, was 4-1 in the Suburban North, 7-5 overall and West’s only conference loss was to Pattonville, a team Central defeated. Players’ records were not available.

McCluer (4-3, 7-5 prior to May 3) had reported their players records (unofficial prior to last weekend) and they include Matt Weigman (8-3), Cang Pham (7-3) and Chase Dzierwa (7-4) in doubles as well as Scott Jost (6-2) and Culan O’Keefe (6-3) in singles.

Seven of the eight Suburban North Conference teams — including the three Hazelwood Schools (Central, East and West), McCluer North, McCluer, Ritenour and Riverview — will compete in Class Two, District Two, an individual district next week (dates unavailable) at Forestwood Park, Ferguson, (Riverview hosting) along with Gateway Tech, Roosevelt and St. Louis University High. Pattonville, the only other Suburban North team, will be in Class Two, District Three at Cadet Park Tennis Courts hosted by CBC while Lutheran North will be in Class One, District Two at ABC League rival John Burroughs.

This will be the last year for individual districts feeding into team state tournament play. Starting in 2010-2011 individual districts will qualify only singles and doubles players for regionals while team state districts will send the top team(s) to sectionals.

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