CENTRAL NEW YORK – Unbeaten in the regular season, Liverpool boys tennis singles standout Justin Barrett took that mark into last week’s Section III Division I championships and went straight to the title.
Not once did Barrett, the top seed, drop a set in four matches. He started by taking out Soren Kang (Christian Brothers Academy) 6-0, 6-0 and got a similar shutout over Baldwinsville’s Nathan Smith in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal against Auburn’s Riley Fitzgerald brought another 6-0, 6-0 win. Only Fayetteville-Manlius’ Cameron Lukasik, in the final, offered up real resistance, but in two tough sets Barrett topped him 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).
Aside from Barrett, Liverpool had Joey Ciotti and Patrick Clancy. in the singles bracket. Ciotti edged Auburn’s Brody Wagner 10-8 before a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to B’ville’s Mason Doan, while Clancy lost to F-M’s Colin Byer.
Cicero-North Syracuse had its best singles showing from Ryan Keil, who as the no. 5 seed beat Byer in the round of 16, only to run into Fitzgerald in the quarterfinals and take a defeat there.
Mike DeGroat beat Thai Ryfun (Central Square) in a 10-5 single-set opening-round match before falling 6-2, 6-2 to CBA’s Chanu Yang, while Parker Cook handled Larry Bevilacqua (Rome Free Academy) 10-2, but took a 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Lukasik in in the nexr round.
Over in doubles, C-NS had Austin Fosberg and Tom Christou win their opening-round match 10-2 over Syracuse East’s A Athian and B So, then beat Jayce Domres and Jacob Harmon (East Syracuse Minoa) 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 16.
A quarterfinal win would get Fosberg and Christou to the state qualifier, but F-M’s Xavier Sul and John Gilligan got in the way, prevailing 6-0, 6-0.
Liverpool had two of its doubles teams in the tournament, too. Andrew Wadie and Kasey Maher won, 10-6, over Baldwinsville’s Kai Wilson and Nick Fogu before a 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Sul and Gilligan in the round of 16, with John Ioannidis and Daniel Haynes taking a 10-7 loss to West Genesee’s Dan Alvaro and Joe Paoli.