SNOHOMISH — For Jackson boys tennis, it was business as usual at Glacier Peak High School from Tuesday to Thursday.
The Timberwolves followed up their 16-0 regular season by winning the Wesco 4A District 1 championship, their fourth consecutive team title and 17th overall in 32 years of program history. Sophomore Samuel Song won the singles championship, while senior David Song and junior Andy Stark won the doubles title.
“We’re pretty used to it at Jackson,” Stark said. “…We’re just glad to keep it consistent, really give ourselves a chance at state.”
The Jackson players credited coach David Hutt, in his 28th season leading the program, for setting the standard with his consistency, knowledge of the sport and his efforts to bring the team together through bonding activities.
Hutt, however, threw it right back on the players, who come in with prior tennis experience and helped build up a culture that not only expects success, but creates internal pressure to improve based on the quality of talent across the roster.
“When you get kids with a tennis background, I guess my feeling is that it’s just competitive by nature within the program,” Hutt said. “Because you get guys like these guys, and these guys here, they come in really good, and then other kids will see it and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I gotta get better or I’m not gonna play.’”
Samuel Song dropped just one game across the entire tournament en route to the singles title, defeating Kamiak’s Chris McCullough 6-1, 6-0 in the quarterfinals before taking down Cascade’s Nathan Kim 6-0, 6-0 in the semis. By the time he went up 2-0 in the first set against Kamiak’s Levi Seslar in the finals, he could feel the momentum carry him to another 6-0, 6-0 victory. Hutt labeled Samuel as the “best player all year” in singles, and it wasn’t a shock to see him torch through the bracket.
“My feet were moving better,” Samuel said about his progression through the finals. “And I was seeing the court better, I feel like, and moving towards the ball.”
Meanwhile, David Song and Stark didn’t lose a set on the way to the doubles finals, where they squared off against Jackson teammates Ashton Bergman and Arhan Sinha. After picking up the first set 6-1, Bergman/Sinha battled back to make it closer in the second, but ultimately fell 6-4. The fact that the teammates knew each other’s tendencies made for a more competitive matchup, according to the winning pair.
“It’s comfortable, for sure, because we’ve played them so many times,” David Song said. “But at the same time … we still need to be competitive because we’re still going for a district title. So kind of finding that balance is pretty important.”
Bergman and Sinha still earned a state qualifying spot, winning the second-place consolation match 6-3, 6-4 against Glacier Peak’s Nathan Olson and Marcus Xu on Thursday after the end of Wednesday’s slate was postponed due to rain. The Timberwolves pair took early leads in both sets, but the Grizzlies battled back each time, cutting a 4-1 Jackson lead into a 4-3 match before Bergman and Sinha recovered to win the next two games. Olson and Xu pulled together a comeback effort once again in the second set, going from down 4-0 to tied 4-4 until the Timberwolves once again regrouped to finish off the next two games with strong serves and improved volley shots.
“We were focused on staying more aggressive, and we ended up not doing that,” Bergman said. “But we ended up pushing through, and we finished the match strong.”
With sweeping success at districts, Jackson will have to wait until spring to compete in the state championships. In the meantime, the players will focus on staying on top of their training and ramping up their weekly activity through the winter into the spring. The Timberwolves have won two of the past four state championships, but Hutt cautioned against any of his players resting on their laurels.
“The reality of it is that if they don’t do much, they’re going to get their butt kicked,” Hutt said. “They’re going to be two (sets) and out. We’re going home. … The better the players are, usually the more time you have to spend, where sometimes people think it’s the opposite. ‘They’re so good, you don’t have to do much,’ but I find that I have to do more. I have to spend more time and provide more opportunities for them, because they want to be good.”
That message has resonated with the players all season.
“Even if we’re winning in games, he’ll still talk to us, and if you listen to how he talks to us, you’ll think we’re losing,” Sinha said. “But it’s just his mindset that you have to be as good as you can even if you’re winning.”
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Kamiak senior Levi Seslar earned the final state qualifying spot, earning second place with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Glacier Peak freshman Ishan Prabhune.
Prabhune advanced to the second consolation game after getting past Jackson’s Rajveer Lahankar in a marathon match, winning 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7). The third set remained airtight throughout, with each player opting for more conservative shots and waiting for their opponent to make a mistake. After the set was tied up 6-6, Prabhune took a 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker game before Lahankar battled cut it to 6-5. On match point, the two players exchanged 174 total volleys before Lahankar managed to tie it 6-6.
Ultimately, Prabhune took it 9-7, but not before some of the players that stayed around to watch called it “the greatest match (they’ve) ever seen.”
“That match comes down to neither one wants to come to the net, try to finish points,” Hutt said. “But not surprising that was a long match. (Lahankar) is a good player. We’re fortunate to have some really solid players, which is really cool.”
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