It may have proven the greatest stretch in the history of the West Genesee boys tennis program.
Just a few days after a 4-3 win over long-time nemesis Fayetteville-Manlius broke the Hornets’ 287-match win streak, the Wildcats went to F-M last Saturday and, accumulating points in all five divisions, claimed the team portion of the Section III Class A championships.
Ryan Joyce earned a dramatic victory in first singles, dropping the first set to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Ryan Hill in a lopsided 6-1 manner, but rallying to win the next two sets by 6-2, 6-3 margins.
Prior to that, Joyce rolled through the early rounds, defeating Joseph Yoxall (Rome Free Academy) 6-0, 6-1, and then topping Baldwinsville’s Eric Smith 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals.
Stefan Atanasov and Max Mekker added a victory in second doubles. In the quarterfinals, Atanasov and Mekker handled CBA’s Hunter Burton and Max Lewis 6-0, 6-2, and in the semifinals topped Syracuse East’s Kyle Giardine and Devin Murphy-Stanley 6-1, 6-2.
The final had Atanasov and Mekker against F-M’s Ben Farber-McEntee and Andy Sun, and it only lasted two sets, the Wildcats’ duo prevailing by scores of 6-2 and 6-4.
In first doubles, the Wildcats’ Matt Mannara and James Plunkett lost in the semifinals 6-1, 6-1, to F-M’s Rohan Dhawan and Riley Ma, but finished third when they swept C-NS’s John Corl and Brandon Millias by those same 6-1, 6-1 scores.
Ben Paoli added a third-place finish in third singles, rebounding from a semifinal where, two games from victory, he could not hold on in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 loss to C-NS’s Wyatt Dupell, but then won third by sweeping B’ville’s Leonardo Vona 6-4, 3-0.
Meanwhile, Westhill was making waves in the Class B sectional tournament at Utica Parkway, where in first doubles Jackson Bradley and Ryan Rolince made a comeback to claim the championship.
Bradley and Rolince blanked Gerard Hough and Ryan Kahle (Carthage) 6-0, 6-0 and, in the semifinals, topped Matt Chiffy and Matt Nerber (New Hartford) 6-2, 6-0.
The final pitted Bradley and Rolince against Oneida’s Drew Hicks and Seth O’Connell, and the Westhill pair dropped the first set 6-3, but rallied to take the title by claiming the next two sets 6-3 and 6-1.
Tom Chaddock and Mike Ferrara lost in the second doubles semifinal to Jamesville-DeWitt’s Essex Glowaki and Dhruv Nanavati 6-0, 6-0, but recovered to finish third, beating New Hartford’s Ray Burynski and Sam Ward 6-3, 6-0.
Kyle Hagrman beat Sachin Johri (New Hartford) 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 to get to the third singles semifinals before taking a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to J-D’s William Guisbond, Hagrman finishing third over Indian River’s Erron Breedlove.
In second singles, D.J. Caloia dropped a close semifinal to another J-D player, Mark Bratslavsky, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, but like Hagrman earned third place with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Homer’s Spencer Rusnyiak.
Skaneateles and Marcellus both were in the Class C-1 sectional championships at Liverpool High School, with both Lakers doubles teams reaching the finals.
In first doubles, Nate Fouts and Andrew Neumann handled Ethan Ellis and Jack Mahanna (Holland Patent) 6-0, 6-2 and then, in the semifinals, made a stirring comeback to beat Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Anthony Pitts and Harry Xu 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The final pitted Fouts and Neumann against Cazenovia’s Teddy Coughlin and Liam Flannery, and the Skaneateles pair would push it to three sets, only to fall just short as Coughlin and Flannery prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Chris Burgher and Jack Panaschi, in second singles, beat Jaden Beck and Sean Green (Little Falls) 6-0, 6-0 and then handled Holland Patent’s Tom Breil and Carter Williams 7-6, 6-1 in the semifinals, but in the championship round ran into another Cazenovia duo, Dan Gavilondo and Teddy Williams, and lost, 6-3, 7-6.
Luke Lynn finished fourth in second singles, dropping his semifinal 6-3, 6-1 to Holland Patent’s Alec Helmer, Trevor Knupp lost in the third singles quarterfinals.
As for Marcellus, Andrew Kammer contended for the first singles title, beating Zach Blanchard (Canastota) 6-0, 6-1 and topping Jared Orteib (Lowville) 6-0, 6-0 to reach the finals, only to lose to Holland Patent’s Chris Gaige 6-4, 6-2.
Chris Barbaro was in third singles, falling 7-5, 7-5 to Cazenovia’s Traian Cherciu, who went on to three-set wins in the semifinals and finals to take the division. Tyler Guerrina, in second singles, lost to Lynn 6-2, 6-4.
