MADISON – Brookfield Central and University School of Milwaukee, two schools with rich histories in tennis, added to their legacies June 14 by bringing home some major hardware.
Central won its second straight WIAA Division 1 boys championship. The top-seeded Lancers defeated No. 2 seed Middleton, 5-2, in the final at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
University School, meanwhile, captured its first championship since 2015. The Wildcats, the No. 1 seed in Division 2, beat No. 3 seed Altoona, 5-2, in the championship.
The victories marked the fifth straight season that the state champion of both divisions came from the Milwaukee area.
Here is a look at how it happened.
Brookfield Central shuffles deck, still comes up aces
Last year the storyline for the Lancers was the 23-year wait they had between championships. This year, the team will be remembered for its 26-0 record, a run in which all but one of the duals were decided by scores of 5-2 or better.
Five players returned from the 2024 team, but only senior Jacob Smith (No. 1 doubles) held the same spot in the lineup.
“They worked a lot. They worked in the offseason. They worked in the summer. They worked in the winter so on the scorecard it looks like a different lineup, but they’ve been playing with each other for a lot of years,” Central coach Jon Vogt said. “It just happened that this group came together that way, but they’ve been working incredibly hard.”
At state Central swept Menomonie in the quarterfinals June 13 and defeated Neenah, 6-1, in the semifinals on the morning of the 14th.
In the final, sophomore Henry Hyde (No. 4 singles), sophomore Sam Lodes and junior Tyshi Olveda (No. 3 doubles) and Smith and junior Michael Li (No. 1 doubles) won the first three matches.
The Lancers clinched the title at No. 2 doubles, where senior Viraj Bhagat and freshman Diogo Trevizan scored a 7-5, 6-4 win over Middleton senior Blake Gibson and junior Zander Endres.
That would have been the best match of the day if not for Central sophomore Noah Weitzer’s 6-4, 6-7 (7), 12-10 win over Middleton freshman Preetham Peddireddy.
Completing the lineup for Central was junior Andrey Semin – who lost to individual state runner-up Alexander Bo – and sophomore Austin Tilkens at No. 3 singles.
The victory extended the Greater Metro Conference’s streak of Division 1 state championships to 18. Central went 5-0 in duals against the GMC that included a 33-2 record in matches.
“It feels amazing,” Vogt said. “Last year it was kind of a first. This year we were wondering what it’s going to feel like, be like, what are expectations and we just kept going match by match and the streak kept going. It feels really cool because the guys earned all those wins.”
University School returns to state, finishes the job
The Wildcats won their 11th title after unfulfilled trips to state in 2016, ’18 and ’23. Twice they reached the final, falling, 4-3, to Madison Edgewood in 2018 and, 7-0, to Brookfield Academy two years ago.
Six players on that 2023 team were in the lineup at state. All but one of them won in the final.
Junior Oliver Boyd won in straight sets at No. 1 singles as did seniors Jack Gilpin and Miles Gourlay (No. 1 doubles) and senior Beckett Stratton and Will Merluzzi-Hitler (No. 2 doubles).
Meanwhile senior Hayden Baum, the other player left from the 2023 team, had to retire at No. 3 singles ahead one set and tied 6-6 in the second.
Key to University School development this season was the emergence of three freshmen: Henry Ji (No. 4 singles) and Matteo Gaggion and PJ Heiny (No. 3 doubles).
Ji split his matches at state, beating Edgewood freshman Alex Cataldo in straight sets before falling to freshman Jonah Oldenkamp, 6-2, 6-2, in the final. Gaggion and Heiny overcame slow starts to win both of their matches to help set the tone in each dual.
“Their mental toughness is what this is about,” Wildcats coach Matt Flack said. “They have the tennis game, but it’s can you overcome the mental part of it. The crowd’s yelling. You miss a shot you should make. We talked a lot about that this season. How do you deal with mistakes. How do you deal with it when you miss a shot and they invoked those strategies and did great.”
The other spot in the Wildcats lineup belonged to sophomore Deven Sharma, who beat junior Carter Drescher, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 2 singles.
The Wildcats finished 13-2. Since the WIAA adopted the team format in 1995, only Marquette (15) has won more championships than University School (11).
“This the first time I’ve won a title for boys,” said Flack, who has led the University School girls to four state titles. “It’s special for that. It’s also special because this group of guys is particularly special to me. They’re particularly memorable. They’re such a good group of boys.
“It means everything to me as a coach to have them work so hard and reach this goal.”
This story was updated to correct an error.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brookfield Central, University School of Milwaukee win WIAA state team tennis titles
Reporting by Mark Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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