Marc and Alex Simmons represented Macomb High School at the Illinois High School Association Class 1A State Tennis Finals this past week.
Opening play Thursday at Schaumburg, the brothers faced No. 4 seed Tommy Sopko and Weston Lange of Metamora in the opening round, losing 6-4, 6-1.
Sliding into the consolation bracket, the brothers won their next three matches.
They started by defeating Josh Alcantara and Zak Kosanovich of Lemont (H.S.) 6-3, 6-1. The brothers went on to beat Divya Patel and Het Patel of Oak Forest, 6-3, 6-1 before defeating Morton’s Tate Darcy and Joal Larson 6-2, 6-0.
On Friday, the duo returned to the court at Hoffman Estates, losing to Theodore Schlater and Jakob Kohn from perennial power Chicago Latin 6-2, 6-2, finishing the tournament with a final record of 3-2.
The two losses for the brothers came to the No. 4 and No. 16 seeds, respectively.
Sopko and Lange reached the semifinals before losing their final two matches to finish in fourth place.
Meanwhile, Schlater and Kohn reached the consolation quarterfinals before being eliminated.
The brothers qualified for this year’s state tournament by finishing second in sectional competition the previous week at Jacksonville.
It was the second consecutive trip to state for the Simmons brothers.
A year ago, they posted a 2-2 record.
They qualified for state by finishing third in sectional competition at Dunlap.
As sophomores, the unseeded brothers posted a 1-1 record in sectional play, losing to No. 5 seed Tate Darcy and Larson of Morton 6-2, 6-0 in the second round.
