WATERVILLE, Maine — Graduation at Camden Hills Regional High School of Rockport for the Class of 2017 came Friday evening, but for the seniors on the school’s boys tennis team there was one more final exam to take before their interscholastic experience was fully complete.
That came Saturday afternoon, when the Windjammers capped off an undefeated season by defeating Yarmouth 5-0 at Colby College to capture their second consecutive Class B state championship.
All three seniors in the Camden Hills starting lineup, singles players Matt Morse, Colby Arau and Josiah Krul, joined their two doubles tandems in winning in straight sets during the program’s fourth consecutive state final appearance.
“We knew that graduation wasn’t complete until we completed our tennis season,” said Krul, who played third singles in each of his four years at Camden Hills. “We obviously wanted to finish off on the best possible note and here we are, and now that we just accomplished it it really feels official and it feels that much sweeter because we got to do it playing the sport we love.”
Coach Noah Capetta’s Camden Hills club (16-0) was the lone North region boys titlist to emerge as a state champion, as Falmouth shut out Lewiston 5-0 in the Class A final and Waynflete of Portland defeated George Stevens Academy by the same score to win its 10th consecutive Class C crown.
The sweep began with Cooper Russell and Henry Cooper scoring a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Ravi Patel and Henry Coolidge at first doubles.
The ’Jammers then clinched the title barely a minute apart, Arau with a 6-0, 6-2 margin over Shepard Shutkin in a battle of left-handers at second singles, and Krul 6-2, 6-0 over Matt Clinton.
Camden Hills completed its sweep as David Poutasse and Noah Heidorn topped Max Allen and Andrei Lougovtsov 6-1, 6-3 at second doubles and Morse outbattled Igor Nikolic 6-4, 6-4 at first singles.
“One thing I thought everybody did really well was they took the first two or three games and really sized up their opponents and made some early adjustments to take control of the first set,” said Capetta. “They were able to continue that strategy throughout the match and I was proud of them for playing so intelligently.”
Yarmouth, which entered postseason play as the No. 4 seed in the South and upset top-ranked Morse of Bath and defending regional champion Cape Elizabeth on route to states, finished with a 10-6 record.
“We knew Yarmouth would be tough and we’d been training hard since the start of the season, for 10 weeks really,” said Capetta. “This is the culmination of a lot of hard work.
“We won in convincing fashion today and I think having been here before definitely worked to our advantage.”
In Class C, Waynflete and George Stevens met for the eighth straight year in the state final but the result remained the same.
“Coming in here there’s not a bad amount of pressure but a nice amount of pressure to be part of that legacy,” said Waynflete senior Brandon Ameglio, a four-year varsity player who first singles for the Flyers the last two seasons.
“For me personally and I think with our other players, there is pressure but we’re also confident in what we do.”
Ameglio, a semifinalist in this year’s state singles tournament, paced a blitz of the singles matches for coach Jeff Madore’s club. Ameglio dropped the opening game of his match against Ben Politte but quickly regrouped for a 6-2, 6-0 victory.
That came just after second seed Thorne Kieffer defeated Boris Chin without losing a game and just before third seed Jacob Greene topped Bryant Hsuing 6-0, 6-3 to give Waynflete an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
The Flyers added straight-set doubles victories from the tandems of Shuhao Liu and Nick Wagg and from John Van Dyke and Cooper Sherman.
Waynflete finished its spring with a 15-1 record — the lone loss a 4-1 defeat at Falmouth on May 5.
“I think our regular season is a mixed bag,” said Ameglio, whose team also played Class B South contender Cape Elizabeth. “This year I was actually impressed with the level of some of the teams we played that in previous years weren’t as strong. … and we also play schools like Cape and Falmouth that are very good and prepare us well.”
The GSA boys finished their season at 15-1.
