The Saint Louis U. High racquetball team won its 21st state title in the program's history this past Saturday. After winning a total of four out of the seven brackets, SLUH clinched the win with a total score of 545 points, topping both Lindbergh and Parkway West, who got second and third place respectively.

“I think the team did very well,” exclaimed Coach Hoffman. “We won most of our divisions and went to tiebreakers in many matches but luckily we were able to come out on top."

Having already made it past the first couple of rounds of the tournament earlier in the week, SLUH players made the championships for six of the seven brackets. Junior Jared Thornberry kicked off the day with a tie breaker win against one of his most skilled opponents of the year, Connor Sims of CBC. He beat Sims  in the best two out of three matches 15-13, 11-15, 11-9. Thornberry was down for most of the first two games but was able to build up comebacks to take home gold in the varsity four division.

Conversely, senior Oliver Allen came in 2nd place after he lost a tight match to Adam Lancia from Parkway West. Lancia held the number one seed over Allen in this bracket, but Allen entered the day ready for the challenge. Unfortunately, he fell short, losing the first two games 15-10, 15-12. Oliver earned second place in the varsity two division.

“I think getting second place in the two bracket is something I wouldn’t have expected coming into the year,” said Allen. “I kind of struggled in fall racquetball and was pretty streaky throughout the year, but really put it together at state.”

In the fifth division, junior Danny Philips earned the state title after a slow start to game one. Phillips , the top seed, played Max Wolkey of Chaminade, who held the two seed in his bracket. After losing the first game 15-13, Phillips found his groove and went on to only let up three points the rest of the match, winning the second game 15-2 and the tiebreaker 11-1.

In the sixth bracket, senior Nick Peterson went up against Sam Neunreiter from Kirkwood. Earlier in the season, Peterson lost to Neunreiter in his only loss of the year. After a close match, Peterson came up short and lost in the tiebreaker game, earning silver in his bracket. All of Peterson’s matches were close with the highly ranked Kirkwood opponent, showing the evenness of this matchup. The final scores were 11-15, 15-8, 8-11.

The final singles match of the day was junior Max Telken. After earning the number one seed in the varsity three bracket, Max Telken moved through the first two rounds easily after beating opponents he had played earlier in the season. In the final, Telken played junior Spencer Keith from CBC. After three hard fought games Telken came out on top, winning his matches 15-6, 8-15, 11-7.

“I think working hard all season and continuously playing allowed me to feel comfortable in the state tournament and trust in my abilities,” said Telken.

In the doubles bracket, juniors Will Shorey and Ben Harmon advanced to the finals after two quick wins over Desmet and Chaminade earlier in the week. On Saturday, Shorey and Harmon started off slow in their match against Alec Weatheby and Jonathan Bell from Lindbergh High School. After losing the first game 8-15, Shorey and Harmonto turned it around, letting up only five total points the next two games. They went on to win their next two games 15-5 and 11-0. 

“It feels very rewarding,” said Harmon. “We have been working hard since the fall and to cap off the season with a first place trophy is pretty awesome.”

The SLUH racquetball program as a whole had a very successful season. The JV1-1 and JV2-1 also earned state titles this past Saturday and the JV-3 won their title the week prior. The team is graduating 12 seniors this year, but, fortunately for the varsity team, there will be five out of the eight players returning next season. 

“I can’t thank the seniors enough for the passion and enthusiasm they have brought to our program, especially during this pandemic season,” said Coach Deves. “They have shown us all how to work hard, dedicate yourself to success, and still have fun in the process. They’re influence will live on through the example they have set for all the returning players.”

The SLUH varsity racquetball team hopes to continue to work hard this off season for next winter. Programs such as CBC and Lindbergh have multiple returners coming back to their programs next year so SLUH will have some tough competition ahead of them if they want to repeat as champions again next year.