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KENOSHA NEWS STAFF

Dominating sectional performances are turning into a spring tradition for the Tremper boys tennis team.

Even with one championship match still to be decided, the Trojans cruised to a first-place finish in Thursday’s WIAA Division-1 sectional at the Four Lakes Athletic Club in Elkhorn.

The eight sectional champions qualified for the State Team Tournament June 12-13 at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison.

It was the third consecutive sectional title for the Trojans, who have qualified for Team State six times since the WIAA began playing a separate team tournament in 1995. Tremper has qualified four times in the last five years.

“Pretty good day,” Tremper coach Chuck Werve said. “It was a good team win. It really shows how hard they’ve worked during the season.”

Jake Humphreys (No. 2), Willie Horn (No. 3) and Andrew Fields (No. 4) all won singles championships.

At No. 1 doubles, Tremper’s Tomas Goldsmith and Connor Hildebrandt will resume their championship match against Chris Besaw and Andy Bjerregaard of Racine Case 4 p.m. today at the East Side Tennis & Fitness Club. The match will be entering the third set.

Tremper has already collected 46 points to secure first place. Badger is a distant second with 33 points. Bradford tied for 10th with eight points.

Humphreys, David Carswell, the runner-up at No. 1 singles, and Goldsmith and Hildebrandt also qualified for the WIAA Individual State Tournament June 4-6 in Madison.

The top four finishers in flight 1 singles and doubles and the champions in flight 2 singles and doubles qualified for State. A maximum of 16 additional singles players and doubles teams will also be added to the field by the WIAA.

In their championship matches, Humphreys (27-2) breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Dean Schwefel of Badger, Horn (16-7) took care of Matt Knutson of Janesville Parker, 6-4, 6-2, and Fields (12-6) cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Johnny Hart of Beloit Memorial. All three also scored easy straight-set victories in their first matches.

Carswell won his first two matches, including a three-set triumph over Badger’s Augie Geldermann. Facing nemesis Jeff Lotz of Racine Horlick in the final, Lotz prevailed over Carswell, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3. On Saturday, Lotz knocked off Carswell in the No. 1 singles championship at the Southeast Conference Tournament.

Goldsmith and Hildebrandt won their first two matches in straight sets to advance to the final.

At No. 3 doubles, Tremper’s Zach Cooper and Jake Larson opened with a three-set victory over Badger’s Spencer Hartz and Dimitri Chironis before losing to Milton’s Dalton Miatke and Travis Morrison in the final, 6-2, 6-3.

At No. 2 doubles, Tremper’s Adam Gagliardi and Jake Riley lost both of their matches, but dropped two sets by 7-5 scores.

Bradford’s Anthony Greco and Ron Palmen dropped their first match at No. 1 doubles. Milton’s Taylor Bahn and Tyler Bahn prevailed, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. The Bahns then lost in three sets to Besaw and Bjerregaard, 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-5.