Moore Second at IHSA Championships

Herrmann Tennis Academy Standout and Glenbrook South Senior Michael Moore finished his tremendous high school career with a second place finish at the Illinois High School Association Boys Tennis Championships. Moore, a Notre Dame recruit, was the top seed in the 128 player draw and one of twelve HTA players at the tournament
Moore dominated his first three matches, beating Lake Forests’ Peter Wolniak 6-0, 6-1 in the first round, Collin McWethy of Oswego 6-1, 6-0 in the second, and Ben Quazzo of Latin 6-0, 6-2 in the third. Day two was more challenging, but Michael took two more matches in straight sets, including a 6-1, 6-3 over academy classmate Andrew Scholnick.

In the semifinals Moore took out defending state champion Denis Bogatov 6-1, 6-7(3), 7-6(3) in a three and a half hour battle. Less than two hours later Moore was back on court and facing #2 seed Blake Bazarnik. Bazarnik took the first set 6-4, before Michael bounced back with a 6-3 win in the second. The two players went stroke for stroke in the third set and were dead even at 6 all. Ultimately Bazarnik took the tiebreak 7-4 for the match and the title.

Moore placed in the top eight at state each of the last three seasons.

“Michael has been such a huge part of our academy for the past six years and I am extremely happy that he could be a state finalist,” said HTA Owner Ken Herrmann. “Although he didn’t finish the season with the results he wanted, he had an incredible high school career.”

Helping Glenbrook South take fourth were two other HTA stars, Junior Ben Hoogland and Freshman Michael Sellitto. Hoogland received a top eight seed for the tournament and won each of his first three matches in straight sets to advance to day two. In his fourth match Moore was upset by Lake Zurich’s Michael Redlicki 6-2, 6-4. Redlicki became one of the biggest stories of the IHSA event as he finished fourth as a freshman.

Hoogland got back on track in the consolation draw and won three more matches to advance to the Consolation semifinals where he fell to HTA sophomore Robert Stineman 6-1, 6-3 to tie for seventh place in the tournament.

Sellitto finished an outstanding freshman season with a third place finish in the doubles draw. Sellitto teamed up with Tommy McNichols to win their first five matches of the tournament. On day one the duo won each match in three sets, but the competition picked up on day two and the Titans pulled out two tight three set matches. In the semifinals they lost to eventual second-place finishers Ross Putterman and David Packowitz 6-0, 6-4. In the third place match Sellitto and McNichols bounced back from a first set loss to beat New Trier’s John Beam and Branter Jones 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(1). This was the fourth New Trier-GBS meeting of the year and Glenbrook South won on three occasions.

Stineman (sixth place), Scholnick (7th place) and Jones were a part of the HTA contingent that lead New Trier to third in state.

“The level of play at this event was incredible and it was especially rewarding to see the impact that many of our players had on the teams that were at the top of the standings at the end of the tournament,” said Herrmann.

Also representing the academy and their high schools were: Bill Angel (Fr., Glenbrook North), Marcus Ampon (Sr., Highland Park), Etham Frenkel (Sr., Stevenson), Kevin Prescott (Sr., Chicago Latin), Jooho Yu (Sr. Glenbrook North), and Vova Zverkovskiy (Jr., Niles West).

To qualify for the state tournament players must finish in the top four at their respective sectional. Moore, Scholnick, Jones, and Sellitto were each sectional champions and six of the top sixteen seeds at state were academy members.