UTICA – It proved to be close to a clean sweep for the Cazenovia boys tennis team as it rolled to the Section III Class C-1 championship Wednesday at Utica Parkway Courts.
The Lakers claimed all three singles titles, with Traian Cherciu leading the way in first singles. Cherciu did not drop a set as he beat Kenny Relyea (Canastota) 6-2, 6-1 and Jassim Zaman (Manlius Pebble Hill) 6-0, 6-1 to reach the finals, where he topped Holland Patent’s Jeff Dewar 6-3, 6-4.
Moving to second singles, Garret Lounsbury was also a top seed – and also rolled to victory, getting past Lincoln Pelc (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) 6-0, 6-4 and Nick Hetzner (Lowville) 6-0, 6-1 on his way to a 6-0, 6-2 sweep of MPH’s Alex Fung in the championship round.
Gabe Reagan completed the sweep in third singles, also without surrendering a set. Reagan blanked Errol Fern (Marcellus) 6-0, 6-0 and beat David Fayle (Lowville) 6-4, 6-0, leading to a final and a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Holland Patent’s Chris Kelly.
On the doubles side, Cazenovia took second doubles thanks to Cy Laurie and Ethan Camp, who as a no. 2 seed claimed straight-set wins over teams from Lowville and Marcellus before a big comeback in the final.
Trailing by a set to MPH’s Andy Lurvey and Sam Lurvey, and facing a second-set tie-breaker, Laurie and Camp roared back to win it 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Only in first doubles did Cazenovia not prevail, but the team of Evan Molloy and Max Reger got to the final before Skaneateles’ Max Karpinski and Jake Salzhauer beat them 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
Not stopping here, Cazenovia then went into the sectional state qualifying tournament and, against Class C-2 champion Sauquoit Valley, put together a 5-0 victory to advance.
Lounsbury, in singles, blanked Quincy Slayton 6-0, 6-0, with Cherciu routing Bryan DeGironimo 6-1, 6–0 and Reagan working past Lucian Thompson 6-0, 6-4.
Then, in doubles, Molloy and Reger beat Colin Jones and Zack Murphy in three sets, with Camp and Laurie handling Bryce Petteys and Vitaly Chmukh 6-4, 6-3.
Up in the sectional Class B tournament, Chittenango had one strong showing following an 8-5 regular season.
The Bears’ Seth Boulter reached the finals in third singles, helped by a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 win over Jamesville-DeWitt’s Dean Bratslavsky, before he lost in the final 6-0, 6-0 to Oneida’s Ryan Lusher.
Logan Bronner finished fourth in first singles, with Micah Alpuerto falling in the second singles quarterfinals. Seamus Gardner and Vincent DiNatale lost in the first doubles quarterfinal round, as did Noah Edwards and Kyle Wehrlin in second doubles.
