East sends two doubles teams, one singles player to state

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Peter Zuzga

Wauwatosa East No. 1 doubles player Mike Rankin and his partner, Peter Conis, qualified for this week's WIAA Boys Individual State Tennis meet. They took second at the

Peter Zuzga

Wauwatosa East No. 1 doubles player Mike Rankin and his partner, Peter Conis, qualified for this week's WIAA Boys Individual State Tennis meet. They took second at the

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The Wauwatosa East tennis team qualified two doubles teams for the WIAA State Boys Tennis Championships - being held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nielsen Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - during the Brookfield Central Sectional on May 26.

No. 1 singles player Nick Skanavis had to wait a few more days to find out he made it as a special qualifier.

Brookfield Central won the sectional with 49 points, but the Wauwatosa East Red Raiders finished an excellent postseason by scoring 29 points to beat out Brookfield East (28) for second.

Senior Rory O'Sullivan/sophomore Tracy Johnson won Flight 2 to qualify for state for the first time, while the senior doubles team of Peter Conis/Michael Rankin finished second in Flight 1 to qualify for the second year in a row.

The top four individuals/teams in Flight 1 and the top team in Flight 2 make it to state. Skanavis was chosen among the special qualifiers at a meeting Friday. It will be his second trip to state.

"Overall the sub-sectionals and sectionals went well," Tosa East coach Glen Slonac said. "I was very happy to see that we placed ahead of Brookfield East in sub-sectionals in points and that we were in second place. We could have placed higher in sectionals if we weren't in such a hard sub-sectional. Overall, I was pleased with the effort of everyone on the team."

Qualifying play

Slonac also was pleased with his state-tournament contingent.

"We had five individuals qualify for the state tournament, which is excellent," he said. "We have not had that many people qualify in probably 10 years."

O'Sullivan talked about making it to state for the first time.

"It's really great," the lanky senior said. "We worked hard all season long, and I think we really deserved it. We played our way into a position where we didn't have to worry about being a special qualifier. We just get an outright bid."

Playing in the Greater Metro Conference also helped the Red Raiders, O'Sullivan said.

"We believe we play in the toughest conference in the state," he said. "We're happy how we played. We were a couple matches here and there from moving up and finishing in a better spot. We feel playing well in a tougher conference has helped prepare us."

Johnson/O'Sullivan beat Greendale (6-4, 6-2) and then beat Brookfield Central (6-1, 6-4) in the finals.

"They played really good tennis in the sectionals and won," Slonac said. "I was really pleased to see them playing their best tennis of the season at sectionals. They controlled the whole match against Central and played really good."

Conis/Rankin took second at sectionals, beating Oak Creek (6-2, 6-4) and Franklin (7-6, 6-2), but then lost to Greendale in the finals (6-0, 6-1).

"They ran into the Greendale team that just played a really good match against us and played better than us on the day," Slonac said.

Skanavis lost to Greendale (6-4, 6-4).

"Nick was disappointed with the loss, but his opponent played really smart and put a lot of pressure on Nick," Slonac said. "He also didn't hit his passing shot as well as he can."

Team shows confidence

No. 2 singles Tom Krug won his first match and then lost his second to Brookfield East; No. 3 single Sam Ingrilli won both his matches in sub-sectionals and beat Brookfield East, which he lost to earlier in the year.

"I was glad to see Sam win that match. Sam then placed fourth in sectionals. Sam has been doing an excellent job of playing really smart tennis and hitting the proper shots."

No. 4 singles Steven Knoll won his first match and then lost his second match to Brookfield East, and the No. 3 doubles team of Logan Wedel and Leon Gillman qualified to sectionals and placed third.

"I know they were a little disappointed in placing third," Slonac said. "The team they lost to (Franklin) in the semifinals, and they didn't play their best tennis (7-5, 6-3). They then came back and beat a stronger team from Greendale for third place (7-6, 6-4)."

Slonac was pleased not only with his players' results, but also with their effort.

"Overall the team played good," he said. "We just had a couple matches where we could have played better, but that is to be expected with any team. The thing I was most pleased about was the effort-level of my players.

"They're also starting to show confidence that they can win big matches against top players."