Wow! What an all-around incredible ITA weekend throughout the country. We witnessed the upsets, the drama, the tears (I really hope nobody cried), and of course, the hooking. But, I’ll only be talking about one of those four things (the tears…just kidding).
The format of this recap is going to be a bit different than the one I wrote for the Central ITA. Instead of listing 10 takeaways, I’ll provide team-by-team analyses for the nationally-ranked squads and give special mention to one other team that performed well, before taking a look at our singles and doubles champs. Speaking of champions, congratulations to Gustavus Adolphus’s Mohanad Alhouni for capturing his second singles title in as many years and the University of St. Thomas tandem of Luke Elifson/Marty Beck for garnering the doubles hardware.
You can find the full results at https://gustavus.edu/athletics/mt/ITA16/Brackets/index.php.
Let’s get to it…
The Teams
Gustavus Adolphus
The Gusties had the best tournament of any team in the Midwest ITA. As I mentioned, Mohanad Alhouni won the singles title, while his teammate Patrick Whaling took 2nd place. Let’s take a moment to admire Whaling’s run. The man beat the 5-seed and projected UW-Whitewater #1 Rithwik Raman in a quarterfinal three-set thriller and followed that up with a marathon win over #2 seed and Coe #1 Brady Anderson. That’s huge for Gustavus given the graduation of Andres Saenz. Whaling is probably going to be slated at the 2 or 3, but either way, he’ll be successful. Chase Johnson also made the quarters, which was a nice surprise. Of course, it wasn’t all glamorous for the hosts. Zach Ekstein, the 4-seed, fell in the first round to unseeded Sergiy Tyhonenko of St. Thomas. If you read my ITA preview, you’ll recall that my insider had Ekstein on upset alert for this match, and I’m still shocked he called it correctly. Nevertheless, I’m not too worried about Ekstein, especially looking at his results from last year. Overall, the reason the Gusties weren’t a “top tier” team last season was due to singles, so my prediction about Gustavus’ season in my kickoff article is further affirmed by their performance last week; Gustavus is a better team this year. As far as doubles, I’m sure GAC would’ve loved to have taken home the title, but two teams in the semis is more than solid. Alhouni and Whaling lost to the eventual champs in a tiebreak and Ekstein/Entwistle continued their superb play from last year. You’ve got to be pleased if you’re Coach Valentini at this point.
UW-Whitewater
Well, recapping UW-Whitewater’s performance isn’t as fun as Gustavus. Unfortunately, the Warhawks didn’t have the most desirable weekend. No singles players advanced past the round of 16, and while two doubles teams made the quarters, neither moved on to the semis. Look, we know Whitewater is rebounding a bit this year, but they need a couple guys to step up at the top. Those guys should be Raman, Grant Thompson, and Zane Navratil. All three were in the doubles quarters, but Raman fell to Whaling in the round of 16, Navratil lost to unseeded Evgeny Pakhomenko of Coe in the second round, and Thompson fell to Alhouni. Thompson’s result is nothing to worry about, but for UW-Whitewater to build upon last year’s historic season, they’ve got to turn the results from ITAs around. Of course, as we always say, and I’ll repeat it again, ITAs doesn’t mean much. Coach Barnes is one of the best in developing these players, so I still have full confidence in Whitewater come January. I can’t sugarcoat the results, though. Whitewater didn’t have the best weekend, to say the least.
Coe
The Kohawks’ weekend was somewhere in between that of Gustavus and that of Whitewater. First, most notably, and most importantly, Brady Anderson fell in the quarterfinal to GAC’s Patrick Whaling. I thought Anderson had the easiest rode to the final out of the top three seeds, so I was a bit shocked at the loss. I’m sure Anderson would’ve loved to face Alhouni again, but Whaling just had an impressive tournament. The last thing I’ll say about Anderson is that he’ll be on the cusp of receiving a bit to NCAAs this year. With the new qualification format and the addition of Herman Abban, Anderson will need to perform at his best all season long. Of course, Coe’s showing isn’t just defined by Anderson in singles. Alex Bernt’s semifinal run and newcomer/transfer James McManus’s quarterfinal showing were unexpected, Pakhomenko’s upset win over UW-Whitewater’s Navratil came out of nowhere, and the Coe top team of Anderson/ Pudlo fell in the quarters to the eventual champs. I don’t think that Coe can be very upset with the team’s showing as a whole, and I have my eye McManus to make a huge contribution.
Carthage
You’re probably wondering why the heck I’m recapping Carthage’s performance, considering the Red Men were ranked 16th in the Central Region last year. Under normal circumstances, I’d agree, but after advancing Herman Abban to the semis and a doubles team to the final, the Red Men deserve special recognition. I don’t think that Carthage will be ranked nationally this year because they’re just not deep enough, but Herman Abban is putting this team on the map. I can now say with certainty that the JUCO transfer is going to be good. Up until the semifinal, Abban didn’t drop a set. In the semi, he gave All-American Alhouni a scare after taking the first set 7-6. The transfer feeds off crowd support and is quite the showman, so if you’re a Carthage fan reading this, go support Abban this season! I’m also impressed with the fight that Abban and Pawel Jaworski displayed in the doubles final. After dropping the first set and going down 5-2 in the second, the Red Men came back to force a second set tiebreak, but it wasn’t enough. I was also impressed with their 8-6 win over the UWW projected #1 pair of Thompson/Raman. There’s a term I hate a lot because I always hear it, but it’s so applicable for Abban; the dude is a program changer. Don’t be surprised if he qualifies for NCAAs in both singles and doubles.
The Champs
Singles: Mohanad Alhouni (GAC): Mohanad was my favorite to win this tournament, so I’m glad he didn’t disappoint. Regardless of what you think of the Midwest ITA’s competition, winning 6 matches in a row in a span of a few days is extremely difficult. To do it two years in a row shows great mental toughness. Having a lock against lower-ranked teams at the #1 spot is so important, and Alhouni proved again that he’s not slowing down.
Doubles: Marty Beck and Luke Elifson (St. Thomas): I owe Luke Elifson an apology. In my preview, I talked about how I never heard of him, but I sure won’t forget his name now. Anyway, the St. Thomas duo did not have an easy draw by any stretch of the imagination. In the round of 16, Elifson/Beck went past GAC’s Gabe Steinwand/Mason Bultje before beating Coe’s top team of Anderson/Josh Pudlo in the quarters. In the semi, the two edged past GAC’s top team of Alhouni/Whaling. And, as I explained earlier, Beck and Elifson defeated Carthage’s top pair and #1 seeds Abban and Jaworski in the final. A couple weeks ago, I said that there was a good chance of a surprise NCAA doubles qualifier from the central region. Beck and Elifson could very well be that team. Congrats to them and St. Thomas on the title!
There you have it. ITA Regionals are over, and I can’t wait for…what do they call it now? The ITA Oracle Cup next week. Vamos.
Correction, Carthage dubs win over UWW Thompson and Raman was 8-6, not 8-1
Inexcusable error on my end – was looking at the previous match’s result on the bracket. Fixed it. Sorry!