Freshman Alexis Haselwanter continued his streak as he played to the finals in the Singles #4 court during the MHSAA Regionals last Thursday at Rochester.
He ended up walking away with a loss to Michael Ciraci from Brother Rice, 6-1, 6-0, as the Wolves took fifth place at the tournament out of the ten teams there.
“I was pleased,” said Clarkston Boys Varsity Tennis Coach Chas Claus. “We played well. You always wish you won more. We won most of the matches we had a chance to do it.”
He noted Haselwanter had a good day as well as Doubles #3, junior Daniel Agnew and senior Jeff Zittel, as well as Doubles #4, junior Sean McNeil and senior Tyler Socin, also had good matches.
“Everyone played well,” he said. “In some of our draws we didn’t have much of a shot of winning based on the opponent.”
Brother Rice were the regional champions after taking first place with 30 points. Rochester took second with 22 points; West Bloomfield in third, 16; Stoney Creek in fourth, 15.
Haselwanter broke a new record for the team after finishing the season with the most wins. He ended his freshman season with a 24-3 record. The previous record was set in 2010 by J.P. Budzinski with 22 wins.
The team bids farewell to four seniors – Socin, Zittel, Josh Goolsby and Scott Schultz.
“This senior class had a lot of strong personalities,” said Claus. “They were very good leaders and exuberant players that kept the energy of the whole team up. There were four very unique personalities. I have a hard time picturing what next year would be like without those four personalities around every day.”
The team brings back 12 players to next years team – freshman Haselwanter, Josh Rosche, Ian Stuart; sophomores, Ray Coyle, Brendan Greenlee, Mitch Rogowski; juniors Agnew, McNeil, Matt Dahl, Randall Toll, John Whall and Joseph Whall.
“I am excited to bring back so many contributors to next year’s team,” Claus added. “It is something we have talked about a lot lately. We were a very good team this year. With off season work in the next ten months we will be a great team next year and challenge for league and regional titles.”
The team finished in third place in the OAA White and with a 8-5 overall record.