The Macomb High boys tennis brother duo of Marc and Alex Simmons finished third in Illinois High School Association Class 1A Tennis Sectional competition at Dunlap that wrapped up Saturday.
The finish gave the Bomber pair a berth in this week’s Class 1A State Tennis Finals in Palatine.
Marc and Alex Simmons, the No. 3 seed, started play with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Limestone’s Grant Kocher and Noah Hoffman.
In the quarterfinals, the brothers downed No. 6 seed Kace Tyler and Crew Hardin of Peoria Richwoods, rallying for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
In the semifinals, the Simmons were defeated by the No. 2 seeded team of Dunlap’s William Song and Ethan Klemens 6-3, 6-1.
The MHS pair rebounded in the third place match, defeating Peoria Christian’s Ian Durst and Samuel Loeb, the No. 4 seed, 6-4, 6-2.
Also in doubles play, the team of Cohen Green and David Simmons won their first match, defeating Noah Meyers and Baylon Birkel of Limestone 6-0, 6-0.
Green and Simmons, who entered unseeded, lost their next match to No. 5 seed Ryan Klopfenstein and Joal Larson of Morton 6-2, 6-3.
In singles play, unseeded Jaydn Glaue defeated Galesburg’s Ethan Oxley 6-4, 6-2. In his next match, Glaue lost to No. 5 seed John Onderko of Peoria Notre Dame 6-4, 6-2.
Also playing singles for Macomb, unseeded Jun Yoshimura lost his one and only match to No. 2 seed Andrew Choy of Dunlap 6-0, 6-1.
In the team competition, Macomb placed third out of nine teams with 11 points.
Host Dunlap won the title with 32 points, followed by Richwoods with 23 and MHS.
Peoria Notre Dame (8 points) was fourth, with East Peoria (7), Morton (6), Peoria Christian (6), Galesburg (4) and Limestone (4) rounding out the team standings.
The top four singles players and top four doubles teams from all 16 sectionals around the state advance to the Class 1A State Finals, scheduled for May 29-31.
