U. City's Kaczkowski Shines at State Tennis Tournament

SPRINGFIELD, MO—It could have been a perfect weekend for boys tennis power Pembroke Hill High School of Kansas City. Two days after Pembroke Hill claimed the Class 1 state team championship, the Raiders had a chance to win titles in both the state singles and doubles tournaments on Saturday, May 28 at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.

But that’s when St. Louis-area players took a stand. In the final match of his high school career, MICDS senior Charlie Curtis wrapped up an undefeated season when he beat Pembroke junior Will Welte in the state singles championship.

Curtis dropped the first set, but won the next two sets, 6-1 and 6-3, to finish the year 28-0. Welte, like all of Curtis’s opponents, had a difficult time figuring out how to play against Curtis. His devastatingly accurate two-handed, topspin-heavy forehands and backhands were too big of a conundrum to solve.

In doubles, Clayton’s Jake Lee and Joe Dulle squeaked by Pembroke’s Chandler McCray and Josh Girson in a third-set tiebreaker to take home the championship.

The Clayton duo played in some of the most entertaining matches of the tournament, including a heart-pounding 7-5, 7-6 (12-10) quarterfinal win over Pembroke’s Christian Nagy and James Helzberg. Lee and Dulle lost only once in their trek to the state title.

Curtis, Lee and Dulle weren’t the only local Class 1 players to have impressive showings at state. University City junior Alec Kaczkowski won his first-round match, lost to Curtis, then reeled off three consecutive two-set victories to earn a fifth-place medal. It was Kaczkowski’s second state medal.

Clayton freshman Mac Rechan upended Osage junior Jacob Hader (26-2) and 33-0 Excelsior Springs senior Eric Dailey to reach the semifinals. Rechan bounced back from a loss to Welte by beating Barstow’s Christopher Frye 6-1, 6-1 in the third-place match.

Two Westminster Christian Academy doubles teams made runs to the state semifinals. Seniors Timothy Miller and Stephen Lillenberg teamed up to beat Joseph Richmeyer II and Jon Wilson of St. Pius X in the first round. The Westminster pair then knocked off a Salem team in the quarterfinals before falling to Lee and Dulle in the semis.

On the other side of the bracket, Westminster freshman Bailey Merkel and senior Cameron Smith beat a 17-3 Salem team in the first round and defeated a Hannibal pair in the quarterfinals. McCray and Girson bested Merkel and Smith in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Merkel and Smith topped Miller and Lillenberg, 6-2, 7-5, in the all-Westminster third-place match. The third and fourth-place medals for Westminster came two days after the Wildcats finished second to Pembroke in the team portion of the state playoffs.

Other local Class 1 players to qualify for state included Lutheran South senior Sam Ranzetta and MICDS junior Teddy Jones, who just missed medaling. John Burroughs sophomore Matthew Wong and senior Brent Westbrook qualified in doubles.