This week marked the start of the state playoffs for four Chatham County boys tennis teams.
Leading the pack is Seaforth, which entered its first-round match against East Carteret on Wednesday (occurred after press time) as the No. 1 seed in the east region of the 2A tournament. The Hawks came into the playoffs with a 13-1 overall record, their only loss coming to Franklin Academy, 8-1, on April 3.
Head coach Peter Petrides’ team is headlined by junior Walker Magrinat, who has a 12-1 record in singles play and a 6-1 mark in doubles. Magrinat’s only loss of the season came against Northwood’s Jio Sumogod in the team’s season-opening match back on Feb. 27.
Fellow juniors Felton Burleigh and Owen Strom are a combined 15-4 in singles play, while sophomores Matthew Bowser (11-2), Henry McFall (9-2) and Wakeland Branz (10-2) have also played well.
In doubles play, Seaforth’s top duo is made up of Burleigh and Strom (5-3 at No. 1). Also playing well together are Bowser and Branz, who are 3-0 at the No. 2 spot.
Petrides also led the Seaforth girls tennis team to a No. 1 seed in the 2A tournament this past fall, but the Hawks lost to Triangle Math & Science in the first round. Earlier this spring, the Hawks’ coach told the News + Record that he used what he learned while coaching the girls team while leading the boys this season.
“I took a lot from the girls season,” Petrides said. “That schedule, we tried to make it a little easier toward the end before playoffs to try and get some momentum going. That didn’t work out for us, unfortunately. This season with the boys, we’ve done things differently ... This time around, we hope having some difficult matches at the end of the season will help us figure out how we might fare going forward.”
The other Chatham County team competing in the 2A tournament is Jordan-Matthews (8-5), which earned the No. 13 seed in the east and played its first-round match on the road at No. 3 Franklin Academy on Wednesday. The Jets came into that matchup as underdogs, but they have had a solid season overall under head coach Nia Marsh-Pope.
Heading into the playoffs, Jordan-Matthews’ was led by a core group of seniors. Weldon Thornton (5-4), Paul Lujan (8-5), Ricardo Rocha Benitez (9-4) and Angel Gonzalez Suarez (10-3) are a combined 32-16 in singles play. In doubles, the Jets’ top duos have been Lujan and Thornton (4-2) and Gonzalez Suarez and Rocha Benitez (9-4).
Last spring, Jordan-Matthews lost to Washington in the first round of the state playoffs.
Chatham Central and Chatham Charter both earned bids to the 1A tournament. The No. 9 Bears (3-8) played on the road Wednesday at Clover Garden, while the Knights (1-15) faced Southern Wake Academy.
During the regular season, Chatham Central’s top singles player was junior Jacob Gilliland, who was 9-2 at the No. 1 spot. Fellow Juniors Jonaven Martin and Gage Backman have combined to go 10-12 in singles play. In doubles play, twins Jacob and Seth Gilliland were 5-1 at the No. 1 spot.
The Knights, meanwhile, struggled during the regular season. The team’s lone singles player with a record over .500 were freshmen Thomas Bjork (8-4) and Eli Christenbury (3-3). In doubles play, Bjork and Noah Hayhurst are 6-1.
Luckily for Chatham Charter, they only have one senior on the team, right-hander Ben Pickens. The rest of the Knights’ roster is expected back next spring, including junior captain Colton Todd.
Sports Editor Jeremy Vernon can be reached at jeremy@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @jbo_vernon.