Above: Lars Scannell finished third in the Section 7A Individual Tennis Tournament, missing a trip to the state tournament by one place. Just a ninth-grader, Lars will be a strong favorite to make state next year. Left: Senior David Bergstrom finished second in the Section 7A tennis tournament to earn his second trip to play in the Class A Individual State Tennis Tournament. Bergstrom plans to play tennis for the University of North Dakota next year.
The Cook County High School boys’ varsity tennis team traveled to Duluth, May 22, to participate in the Section 7A Individual Tennis Tournament. Each of the eight teams had two singles players and two doubles teams competing in the tournament. The top two singles players and doubles teams in each section qualify for the state tournament.
Going into the section tournament, Joey Kronzer, the defending section champion from Marshall, David Bergstrom (Cook County) and Lars Scannell (Cook County), were the top 3 seeded players, respectively. Some of the other teams in the section decided to put their best players in doubles, figuring they had a better chance of making it to the state tournament that way.
Two rounds of competition were played on Tuesday, May 22 and the semifinals and finals were played on Wednesday, May 23. Intermittent showers caused some of the matches to be played indoors on Tuesday and all of the matches were played indoors on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, senior captain David Bergstrom won both of his matches defeating Derek Taylor (Mora), 6-0,6-0, and Joey Skaudis (Virginia), 6-3,6-1.
Freshman Lars Scannell also won both of his matches defeating Jack Reeves (Aitkin), 6-3,6-2, and Jack Dodd (Marshall), 2-6,6- 3,6-0.
In doubles, CCHS juniors Justin Goldstein and Collin Berglund lost their first round match to Nick Robillard and Myles Everson (Eveleth-Gilbert), 6-4,6-2. Ninthgrader Jamie Wick and eighth-grader Pete Summers had to play the 3rd seeded team in the first round. The young players lost to seniors Blair Seitz and Marc Krebsbach (Virginia), 6-2, 6-0.
On Wednesday, teammates David Bergstrom and Lars Scannell had to play each other in the singles semifinals. It was a great match, especially the first set which ended up going to a tiebreaker. Lars Scannell showed everyone what he is capable of doing, playing the best tennis of his career and playing even with David. David won the first set tie-breaker 7-2 and ended up winning the match, 7-6 (2), 6-0.
Losing the first set was a heartbreaker for Lars, but he continued to play well, despite the 6-0 second set score. Lars went on to easily win the 3rd place match, defeating Lyle Nyberg (Aitkin), 6-0,6-1.
The much-anticipated finals pitted David against top-seeded Joey Kronzer of Marshall. These same two opponents played against each other last year in the section finals, with Kronzer coming out on top, after David had beaten him earlier in the team section competition. There was more riding on this final result for the Vikings than David winning the section title. If David won, Lars would get a shot at playing Kronzer for the right to go to state. This match turned out to be the best final singles match that coaches had seen in a very long time! Every game was close and every point was a battle!
Joey Kronzer came out on top, defeating David in three exciting sets, 4-6,6-2,6-3. The match was much closer than the score indicated because one point here or there could have reversed the outcome. David left it all on the court as he gave his best effort.
We can’t always control the outcome of a match, but we can control our effort, and both David and Lars represented Cook County very well, as they gave it their best. Lars’ only loss during the season was to David and he will be a strong favorite to win the section title next year, with David, Joey Kronzer, and a few other strong players graduating.
David Bergstrom’s first round match in the Class A Individual State Tennis Tournament will be Thursday, June 7, 8:00 a.m. at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis. Good luck, David!
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