Park makes Boone County tennis history

Belvidere North's Anderson Park became the first boys tennis player in Boone County history to medal at the IHSA 1A Boys Tennis Tournament.
And he came oh so close to making a bunch more history.

On Saturday, Park rallied from being down 1-4 and 0-5 in the first and second sets to top the No. 2 seed Nic Meister of Chicago Latin, 7-5, 7-5, in the semifinals. In the final, he narrowly lost to the No. 1 seed, Victor Spolidorio of Chicago Dunlap, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3).

In the long history of the NIC-10, West's Dan Wikse remains the only boys tennis state champion, winning when it was a single class tournament in 1965.

Since then, Guilford's Tracy Fenelon lost in the finals in 1978 and 1979 and then Kevin Park, also of Guilford, in 1996. Park becomes the third NIC-10 player to take second in an IHSA state tournament.

Auburn's two star players, Tytus Metzler and Quinten Nevenhoven lost their first matches in 2A Saturday, finishing two wins shy of earning a top-7 state medal.

Player, School, Year, Place
Julian Bruening, West, 1953, 5th
Julian Bruening, West, 1954, 5th
Dick Johnson, Auburn, 1962, 5th
Dan Wikse, West, 1964, 5th
Dan Wikse, West, 1965, 1st
John Torrence, West, 1972, 5th
Tracy Fenelon, Guilford, 1978, 2nd
Tracy Fenelon, Guilford, 1979, 2nd
Derek Rasheed, Freeport, 1995, 7th
Derek Rasheed, Freeport, 1996, 4th
Kevin Park, Guilford, 1996, 2nd
Tytus Metzler, Auburn, 2016, 7th
Brandon Park, Belvidere North, 2017, 2nd

Belvidere's Eva Marcial remains the only female Boone County girls state medalist. Marcial finished second in 1996.