Central Region ITA preview

Match play is upon us and that gets me pumped to talk Div-3 tennis. In this article I am going to discuss both Central ITA Regionals. I will be completely honest and give the Indianapolis site ITA a whole lot more attention because the Gustavus/Whitewater ITA is exactly that. It will be won (in all likelihood) by a player from those schools. The Indianapolis ITA is one of the best in the country. Am I saying that it has the most talent? Absolutely not. However, it is an absolute marathon of a weekend (Friday-Monday) and anyone can win it. To my knowledge, it is the only 128 draw (32 seeded players) in the country and no one gets a bye. I believe there will be 33 schools represented. So that means in order to win it, you have to win 2 matches on Friday, 2 matches on Saturday, 2 matches on Sunday, and the final on Monday. That is bordering on ridiculous! That doesn’t take into consideration any of the doubles matches happening. If someone were to make a run in both draws, they could play up to 13 matches (singles and doubles) in just 4 days. Last year Sam Geier from Kenyon got hot at the right time and won the whole thing so there is proof that anything can happen. For this preview, I have a little bit of alliteration to cover all the basics: Favorites, Freshmen, Foreigners, and the Forgotten/Fallen. The previous use of music inspired the theme for this post so enjoy!

 

The FAVORITES:

top 40

Nothing like a little America’s top 40 to hit up the favorites! It is pretty easy to figure out who the favorites are for this tourney as the top teams typically have the top players. To me, there are two guys that stick out from the rest and then everyone else is real close behind them. Chris Krimbill from Case Western and John Carswell from Wash U more than likely will come in the top two players although Carswell may not be seeded 2 since he didn’t finish ranked as high. Both had phenomenal seasons. Krimbill lost in the elite 8 at individual nationals and won a national championship in doubles. Carswell went undefeated for Wash U in the regular season at 2 singles and won the UAA conference player of the year award. He stumbled at nationals, but I have no doubt he will be at the top of Wash U’s lineup this season as he is no longer a freshman. At the last ITA, Carswell came in a bit unknown and beat Krimbill in three sets. Outside of those two, there are quite a few potential players that could make a splash in this tourney. Wash U has two guys in senior Ross Putterman and sophomore Jeremy Bush. Neither played in the one warm up match Wash U had this fall so I am not sure what the deal is there, but if they are playing, they are dangerous. Krimbill’s teammate in Will Drougas is just as dangerous and has the type of game that if he makes a deeper run, tired legs of opponents would hate to come up against. Speaking of a grinder, Wade Heerboth from Kenyon will undoubtedly play a couple of three setters and probably at least make the quarters. This is unconfirmed, but I think defending champion Geier is overseas this semester and not in the draw. Deepak Sabada from Chicago made it to the finals last year and could do it again, but I think I am more looking forward to seeing how other players from Chicago do. More on them in the next section. I will mention Brandon Metzler from Kzoo because he finished high in the year end rankings, but I honestly don’t see him making it past the quarters. He is good, but probably a bit overrated and not fit enough to run this race. As you can tell, there are a lot of players on this list with chances to take down the title, but also some new faces that look to make a name for themselves. In the Gustavus/Whitewater ITA, Jake Humphreys will look to defend his title. His sister successfully did so this past weekend which is pretty cool to mention. Jack Michael and Ben Shklyar look to make a run as well. Shklyar needs to rebound from a sub-par season last year.

 

The FRESHMEN

TheVervePipe-TheFreshman

The title to this section makes me think of the Verve Pipe, but unlike them, these newbies are hoping to not be a one hit wonder. There are plenty of freshmen to talk about coming into this tournament and it’s impossible to not notice the top recruiting class in Chicago and then #3 on that list, Wash U. Chicago played in a D1 Invitational this past weekend and it is clear that freshmen will play a big role in their season. Peter Leung, Nicolas Chua, David Liu, and Luke Tsai (in that order) all can be legitimate contenders for this tourney. Leung will have the best chance and I think each of them will probably pull an upset to open some eyes. I would never peg a freshman as a favorite because they probably don’t realize how grueling this ITA is, but I can see one making a deep run. Wash U has a couple of freshman as well, but I would give the nod to John Wu as the most dangerous. Jason Haugen and Shaun Berman could also factor in. Case Western has a couple of freshmen 3 star players that may make some noise, but I doubt they will do too much. There will be another Drougas in the draw for Oberlin as Michael will make his debut, but I think he may be a bit overrated after I initially thought he may be a top contender. Kenyon has a solid freshman in Hazlett. Outside of those, it’s hard saying if there will be a freshman surprise. There are a few others, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself for the next category! At Gustavus, Coe’s Brady Anderson might be the only freshman of note along with another Entwistle at GAC (that I know of!).

 

The FOREIGNERS

Foreigner-band-05

Sticking with the music reference, I could listen to Cold As Ice all day every day! This is probably the hardest section to discuss because a lot of times a foreign player is a complete surprise and you have no idea how good they may be until they start to put up some results. This time around is no different. I think the biggest question mark on my mind is a freshman from Wittenberg in Martin Mora. The Ecuadorian has a solid ITF ranking, but those can sometimes be inflated. If a foreign player has a lot of money and can pay to get into tournaments, they can get a better ranking. Wittenberg has a couple other foreign players as well. Outside of Witt, Anton Bartashevich is a dangerous player from Earlham that no one wants to see in the draw as he took Putterman to three sets last spring. Earlham typically has a couple of foreign players each year so I expect much of the same this year. Kzoo has a freshman from Spain in Guerillemo Domiguez that is a big unknown. In the other ITA, I am looking forward to seeing the other Al-Houni (Mohaned) brother to see what he brings to the the table. Big brother Motasem could be a factor as well.

 

The FORGOTTEN/FALLEN

ninja

I couldn’t do a music theme without pointing out Vanilla Ice as one of the greatest musician’s of all time. I mean everyone knows about Ice Ice Baby, but how can you forget the best song of his career, Ninja Rap? Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go! Like Vanilla Ice, this is the sad story of the Central Region. It seems outside of the big four (Wash U, Case, Chicago and Kenyon) no teams are primed to be on the national level. I think Gustavus will be solid once again, but not quite as good as last year. They should remain in the top 25 though. Depauw and Denison lost players to graduation at the top of the lineup and you never know what you will get with Whitewater. For the Indy ITA, Denison’s best chance is Casey Cempre. He isn’t good enough to win the whole thing, but he isn’t a fun player to play. If you aren’t playing well, he will beat you. Depauw has last year’s number 4 singles player as their top chance in Chris Bertolini. Patrick Farrell and D1 transfer (Bradley) Dan Rodefeld have potential, but not to win it. In previous years, some of the lesser known schools would have a stud that would be a tough opponent, but they all graduated. Allegheny’s Cole, Elmhurst’s Harbert, and Wheaton’s Kreis are all gone.NCAC players Ian Paik (Oberlin), Titus Bera (Wooster) and Aadil Kohari (OWU) could be players to watch along with Otterbein’s top player Will Wilson. Wilson was up a set on Alla from Carnegie at Nationals last year. Sprinkel from Coe and Karki from Luther are gone in the other regional. Coe does return Riley Glabraith and he could be an issue to the top guys at the other site. What this says to me is the Central region is very much top heavy and hopefully other teams step it up to fill the holes or else Central will go from having the deepest region with a high volume of solid teams to having a few good teams and everyone else being average. I have to add to this section a bit as Chicago’s Sabada and their new freshman are getting all the attention. Don’t count out Kranz, Bhargava, or Sun as threats. The latter two will probably be unseeded which could be a tough first round match! Anyone remember the Tyler Cempre (Casey’s brother) upsetting top seed Will Zheng from Chicago many years ago? Or John Watts barely getting past a young Kevin Wu from Kenyon? Both were first round surprises that make the Indy ITA all that much more exciting.

MY PICKS

Well of course you have to make predictions and as difficult as that may be with so many potential winners, here are my picks. At Indy, I think both top seeds will be victorious. Chris Krimbill had a great performance last weekend and should follow that up with a win at ITAs. I would expect Putterman and Bush to be the top seeds in doubles and definitely are my pick. Heerboth and Turlington won this thing two years ago with Turlington serving underhanded so they are a threat. I look for Humphreys to win his region and whomever Gustavus’s top team is to take down the doubles. I realize this is all boring because I picked all the top guys, but let’s be honest. The best players usually win!

5 thoughts on “Central Region ITA preview

  1. diegodichiellini@gmail.com

    young Drougas just beat Cempre 1 and 4 over the weekend

  2. anonymous

    Sprinkel is a senior.

    1. D3CentralTennis

      That is my mistake. I didn’t see him playing in their flighted conference tourney this past weekend and for some reason I thought he was a senior last year. Any idea why he didn’t play? If he is healthy and in the draw at Gustavus/Whitewater ITA, he will be a factor and very well could win it.

      1. mike

        Sprinkel’s coming back for the spring semester. Humphrey’s an animal, but he tends to leave his crosscourt forehand short. I’d like to see a rematch of Humphreys and Galbraith in this draw. Galbraith matches up well against Humphreys and was up a set and a break two years ago before he cramped…. Hopefully he has worked on his cardio since then.

  3. KzooKid95

    The #1 Jordan Verbauwhede is no longer at Adrian College as he transferred to Carthage, should be a boost to the Red Men’s lineup.

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