Boys Tennis: Marian Catholic’s Julian Childers advances to state semis; Hinsdale Central holds team lead

Updated: May 25, 2012 7:07PM

Marian Catholic senior Julian Childers hasn’t been working out lately. You would never know it by the results of his match against Deerfield’s Toby Ma. Childers vaulted into Saturday’s final four with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Ma during Friday’s state finals at Hersey.

‘‘I’m not quite playing my best tennis,’’ Childers said. ‘‘I haven’t been in the gym lately and I feel out of shape.’’

Childers is attempting to become the first person from the south suburbs to win a tennis state title in singles play. He started his day with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Joey Leto of Downers Grove South, and is spearheading the Spartans team effort. Marian Catholic, which has never been in the top ten before, is currently in fifth place.

‘‘I’m very proud to represent my city and my school,’’ Childers said. ‘‘I think the singles are wide open and anyone in the top eight can win it.’’

Hinsdale Central has maintained its lead with 40 points but the Red Devils finally tasted defeat in the quarterfinal round. Sam Bloom, who was a No. 2 seed, was upended by Jeremy Bush of Stevenson, 6-3, 6-1.

‘‘I wasn’t playing tentative at all,’’ Bush said. ‘‘I wanted to move him around and get him coming to the net on the short balls. That worked pretty well today.’’

It was a bad day all-around for No. 2 seeds. The Highland Park doubles team of Zacko Brint and Danny Wynbrandt lost to the Edwardsville tandem of Justin Leskera and Cameron Randall 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Edwardsville will face the Hinsdale Central duo of Alex Hagermoser and Peter Heneghan on Saturday. Hagermoser and Heneghan had little difficulty in dispatching Alton’s Patrick Logan and Patrick Spain 6-1, 6-3.

‘‘We really played one of our best matches (against Alton),’’ Heneghan said. ‘‘Our first match wasn’t as good. It started at nine and we woke up at nine-thirty.’’

‘‘We figured it out that we needed to be more aggressive,’’ Hagermoser said. ‘‘We have height and long arms. It’s pretty hard to get it by us.’’

Hinsdale Central freshman Martin Joyce easily dispatched New Trier’s Alex Galoustin 6-1, 6-1. Joyce will face the top seed in Jason Brown of Deerfield in Saturday’s first match. Brown lost the first two games to Gordon Zhang before prevailing 6-3, 6-1.

The top-seeded doubles pair of Michael Sellitto and Michael Levin of Glenbrook South had a workman-like, 7-6 (2), 7-5 victory over Urbana U-High’s Alex Mestre and Edo Roth. They will take on New Trier’s Alex Mang and Arthur Ozga after that duo downed the Hinsdale Central team of Michael Lorenzini and Chase Hamilton, 7-6(5), 6-4.

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