Wilson 13th U.S. National High Schools

Daily Site Reports & Final Results

The Wilson 13th U.S. National High School Championships, presented by Penn Racquet Sports, returned to its roots this year by coming back to St. Louis after a one-year stint in Portland. But the return to Missouri didn’t deter a strong contingent of 52 of Oregon’s high school athletes from making the Midwest trek in search of gold. At the same time, participants in the St. Louis High School Racquetball League hoped that the return to the Concord Athletic Club would give them a home-court advantage.

A Grueling Boys’ Singles Draw — One of two U.S. Junior National Team qualifiers, the high school event offers team appointments to winners of the boys and girls’ gold singles divisions, and the graduation of ’99 champion Stephen Lewis left the boys’ division wide open. Several of the top juniors came looking for their first high school title, including current team members Jack Huczek, Mitch Williams, Bart Crawford and Matthew McElhiney, who picked up the top-four seeds, respectively.

Coming out of a grueling draw of 133 athletes, the winner of the boys’ gold division would not only become the event’s best player, but also have the most endurance, since they were faced with seven rounds of singles play in three days. Due to the size of the draw, play kicked off Thursday evening with no upsets among the top seeds. Williams and McElhiney made quick work of hometown favorites Andy Habben and Chris Meyers, respectively, while Crawford topped Beaverton’s Eric Platt.

After a travel nightmare that almost cost him a forfeit in the first round of last year’s event, top-seeded Huczek did not begin play until Friday morning. And after playing his three singles matches that day, Huczek established himself as the dominant player in the draw by allowing only one point to be scored against him, which occurred when he was hit with his own ball.

“I don’t mind playing three matches back-to-back. That’s how I would rather play them,” Huczek commented while waiting for a court to become available so that he could play his third match of the day. “I would rather play 12 or 15 matches in a row, because I can go all day long. Most of these kids can’t do that, so it’s definitely in my favor.”

All the top-16 seeded players advanced easily, with the exception of 15th-seed Justin Nordine, who was upset in the round of 128 by St. Louis University High’s (SLUH’s) Tom Wyrwich in a tiebreaker match, 9-15, 15-0, 11-5.

In Saturday’s Sweet Sixteen, the top-four seeds continued to advance, but with a bit more trouble. McElhiney snuck past Philip Hammond in a tiebreaker, 15-0, 13-15, 11-4, while both Crawford and Williams topped their opponents in two games. Even top-seeded Huczek’s opponent, Ben Croft, was able to put up more points than all of Huczek’s previous opponents combined, with a 15-1, 15-3 match. Eleventh-seed Hal Rutherford scored the only upset in the 16s when he knocked off sixth-seeded Rey Garcia, 14-15, 15-8, 11-7.

Saturday evening’s quarterfinals pitted doubles partners against each other when McElhiney took on doubles partner Zack Miller. Miller won the first game, 15-12, but McElhiney battled back to take the second, 15-10, forcing a tiebreaker. McElhiney was unable to carry his momentum from the second game into the tiebreaker, dropping the match to Miller, 11-9. Huczek, Williams and Crawford continued to roll through the draw into the semifinals, setting up another match between partners: Williams vs. Crawford.

Washington High School senior Mitch Williams was determined to advance to the finals, although junior Crawford gave him a fierce battle. After winning the first game, 15-9, Williams ran out to a 6-1 lead in the second before Crawford fought back to take a three-point lead at 12-9. Williams regained the lead and looked to put away the match at 14-12 when errors began to plague his game again. Crawford tied the game at 14-14 with a rollout, and was hoping to force a tiebreaker when Williams regained the serve and hit a pass down the right sidewall just out of Crawford’s reach for the win and a shot at the national title.

In their semi, Miller offered Huczek his toughest competition thus far in the tournament. Huczek took the first game with ease, 15-3, and looked as though he would do the same in the second when he took an 8-0 lead, but Miller quickly jumped back into the game, rattling off five straight points. But it wasn’t enough to trip up Huczek, who won 15-6.

The finals pitted Huczek, a two-time bronze medalist finally seeking gold, against Williams, a senior hoping for a title in his final year at the championships. To a packed gallery, the two took the court and dished up far more excitement than anticipated. Despite Huczek’s previous dominance in the tournament, Williams managed to keep pace. With Huczek at game point, Williams pulled to within three at 14-11, but lost the serve on an avoidable hinder. Taking advantage of the avoidable call, Huczek quickly put away the game, before his opponent could regain his focus. Williams dove for the game’s final pass down the right sidewall, but was unable to get there in time to return the shot.

The second game proved to be far less dramatic, as Huczek jumped to an 8-0 lead before Williams managed to hit a rollout to score his one and only point of the game. Huczek, whose shots to the front right corner were Williams’ downfall, captured the match and boys’ singles title, 15-1.

“I was really tired in the second game,” Williams (pictured at right) said following the match. “I played that tight semifinal match this morning against Bart (Crawford), and then we played our doubles match before this one. I think I could have forced a tiebreaker if I could have just kept my energy against him in the second game. It just wasn’t there.”

Huczek extended his appointment to the U.S. Junior National Team by a year, in addition to becoming the third player from Michigan to win a U.S. National High School Championships singles title, the only state to claim more than one high school singles titleholder.

Freshman Bests Senior Defending Champ — With its 66 players, the girls’ singles gold division was not as large as the boys’, but its final did hold just as much excitement. Defending-champion Kristen Walsh came into the championships seeking not only to defend her own singles title in her senior year, but also hoping to aid Skyline High School in its bid for the overall team title. In doing so she entered three divisions — girls’ singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Unlike the boy’s division, the girls team qualifier featured only two U.S. Junior National Team members: top-seeded Walsh and 14-year-old Adrienne Fisher (left), who despite her number-two seeding was discounted by several due to her young age. Fourth-seed Jane Rombach of Nenrix Hall High School was the local favorite, while third-seed Jenny Cary of Aloha High School drew many of the Oregon fans.

The round of 64 held little excitement for the girls’ singles division as all but one of the top-eight seeds captured easy wins, each allowing their opponents less than five points per match. Cary was the only top-seed who struggled slightly in her match against Nerinx Hall’s Emily Schumert, before winning in straight games of 15-8, 15-9.

The top seeds continued to advance with ease into the round of sixteen. It was there that fifth-seed Mary Martin was forced into a tiebreaker against St. Joseph High’s Molly Keegan. After winning the first game 15-3, Martin dropped the second game to Keegan 10-15, but quickly rebounded to take the match in an 11-0 tiebreaker. Both Walsh and Fisher continued their dominance through the draw, both allowing their opponents to total three points or less in the first three rounds.

Rombach met her first major challenge in the quarterfinals against Martin. Rombach took the first game 15-7, but Martin overpowered her opponent to win the second game, 15-13. Despite a strong Oregon contingent backing Martin, Rombach was the hometown favorite and her teammates cheered her through the 11-4 tiebreaker victory.

Fisher’s dominance began to waver a bit in the quarterfinals when she met Wakefield High’s Kris Alatorre-Martin. Fisher pulled out the 15-9, 15-10 win, but made many wonder how she would match up against her semifinal opponent Cary, who had breezed past quarterfinal-opponent Amy Hollingsworth, 15-1, 15-1. Walsh also continued to roll, knocking off Colorado’s Erica Beaudry, 15-1, 15-4.

The semifinals continued to prove easy for Walsh, who made quick work of Rombach, 15-0, 15-4, while Fisher’s struggles continued. Although she did advance to the finals, 15-9, 15-9 over Cary, it was not by as large a margin as her finals opponent had done.

Many spectators had their doubts concerning the freshman’s ability to take on Walsh confirmed when Fisher dropped the first game of the finals, 15-4. But with the coaching of her father Rex, Adrienne came back to turn the tables on Kristen, taking the second game with an answered score of 15-4. Suddenly the crowd chatter shifted from Fisher’s talent being able to earn her a title in her sophomore year to the possibility of an upset over the defending champion and setting a record by becoming the first-ever freshman to win the national high school title.

The two girls battled back and forth for the lead in the tiebreaker, and tied at 6-6 before Fisher began to pull ahead. With a 9-6 lead, Fisher took a blow to the side of her face from Walsh’s racquet. In extreme pain from the hit, she took an injury timeout. Some fans thought this would be Walsh’s chance to jump back into the match, but Fisher returned to the court following the timeout and rattled off two additional points to win the national high school title in her first attempt.

“I sacrificed for my team today, and it ended up really coming back to bite me in that match,” Walsh (shown above left) said after losing her title. “I played five matches today, and I was just worn out. Adrienne played great, and I just couldn’t keep up.”

Interesting Doubles — The doubles divisions proved to be among the most interesting stories of the tournament. From the North Salem High Cinderella teams to players traveling from Germany in search of gold, the doubles rounds had it all.

The top-seeds in the boys’ doubles division definitely earned the award for traveling the farthest to the championships [see below]. But the main story of the boys’ doubles division was the Cinderella duo of Blake Bower and Tyler Hollingsworth. The pair from North Salem High came into the draw of 32 teams seeded 11th and powered their way through the draw to the finals where they topped Rey and Marco Garcia, 15-8, 15-9.

North Salem produced another Cinderella pair in mixed doubles, where unseeded Bower and Amy Hollingsworth dominated the draw from day one. The pair topped fifth-seeds Lynne Berg and Stuart Doyle in the first round, 15-3, 15-3, before moving on to shut out 12th-seed Charity Barnes and Eric Hanson the 16s. Fourth-seeds Dan Costello and Laurie Fisk proved to be no competition for the North Salem pair, which breezed into the semifinals with a 15-4, 15-2 win. It was in the semifinals that Bower and Hollingsworth met their first major challenge on the court against Skyline High’s top-seeds Pete Jass and Kristen Walsh. The pairs battled back and forth for the lead, but the underdogs continued to advance with the 15-12, 15-13 upset. They met the Colorado brother-sister pair of Dan and Erica Beaudry in the finals, and finished out their run with a gold medal, winning 15-4, 15-11.

Defending girls’ doubles champions Lynne Berg and Mary Martin almost had their quest for back-to-back titles tripped up in the first round, when they went into a tiebreaker against Kirkwood High’s Laurie Fisk and Sarah Ulmer. The defending champs managed to pull out the 15-5, 14-15, 11-7 win to advance. In the semifinals, Berg and Martin met yet another North Salem duo, Amy Hollingsworth and Kaylee Pfennig, but the Cinderella story would end for the high school in the girls’ doubles division, as Berg and Martin won 15-3, 15-5 to advance to the finals against second-seeds April Watson and Kristen Walsh. It was in the finals that the Skyline High duo put an end to Berg and Martin’s quest for a repeat title by winning the gold, 15-8, 15-7.

The victorious partnership of Watson and Walsh defied all the rules of successful doubles play. Although Walsh is known for her talent on the court, Watson had not picked up a racquet in years. She played several years ago for brief time, but gave up the sport to pursue other interests. But Walsh was the only female from Skyline High planning to attend the championships. In an effort to help her school’s chances of capturing the overall team title, she looked to her friend for help.

“I asked her if she had plans for the weekend, and she said no. So I asked if she wanted to go to St. Louis with me,” Walsh said.

Despite Watson’s lack of racquetball experience and being flu-stricken during the finals match, the pair overcame the odds to bring home the gold.

Bart Crawford and Mitch Williams captured the boys’ non-championship doubles title over Matt McElhiney and Zack Miller, 15-7, 15-7, while Ryan Maher and Emily Schumert took the mixed non-championship doubles gold medal over Todd Barrett and Heather Backes, 15-12, 15-9.