Oak Park holds high expectations

Updated: May 24, 2011 6:25PM

Oak Park-River Forest has high expectations again entering today’s state tournament.

The last time the Huskies won back-to-back state trophies was 1953-54, when OPRF won consecutive state titles. After finishing third last year, the Huskies are looking for more hardware when the state meet begins at Northwest suburban schools this weekend.

Behind defending state singles champion Robert Stineman, New Trier is favored to win its 20th state boys tennis championship.

But the Huskies will be looking to land one of the top three trophies with a veteran lineup, which features five returning state qualifiers.

OPRF earned its first state trophy since 1997 last season. The Huskies will be searching for their 26th state trophy this weekend.

The Huskies won their 26th sectional title and have won 22 consecutive sectional titles after winning their own sectional Saturday. OPRF beat Fenwick 36-23 to win Saturday.

The only newcomer among OPRF’s state qualifiers is Jeremy Dixon, who lost to teammate Jake Wilson, 6-3, 6-0, in the sectional singles championship. Wilson returns to State as a singles player after competing at last year’s state meet with graduate Alex Gebert in doubles. Wilson and Gebert were fifth in the state meet last year.

Perhaps the strongest combinations for the Huskies this weekend is on both doubles teams. Luke Trinka and Devin Jones played singles in last year’s state meet, but combined to win the sectional 6-3, 7-5 over teammates Eric Bruynseels and Tim McAdam.

Trinka and Jones have lost only two matches as a doubles pairing this season and expect to receive a top-eight seed when the state pairings are announced Tuesday.

Trinka and Jones’ losses have come against Lyons’ top doubles team of Jake Elliott and Danny Schuster and Barrington’s Greg Coll and Ben Knuckles.

Trinka and Jones have not played the state’s projected No. 1-seeded doubles team of David Packowitz and Ross Putterman of Stevenson.

“It’s a somewhat different feeling than singles last year. In doubles, there is one tough team this year (in Stevenson),” Trinka said. “It’s always a plus to get a good seed. It doesn’t really matter, you have to play the tough teams at one point or another.”

OPRF’s top doubles team has experience. Trinka is making his second state tournament appearance while Jones has gone 4-for-4 in his career.

Trinka knows the Huskies must be ready to play in the tournament’s first day when some players could participate in as many as four matches in a day. OPRF must also be careful about being too overconfident.

“We’ll try to keep it cool. We’ll go out and play our best; doing what we can. We think we’re one of the top teams,” Trinka said.

Bruynseels and McAdam is the only OPRF doubles team intact from last season. The duo went 4-2 at state last year and are looking to go further this year. Bruynseels and McAdam enter the state meet with only seven losses on the season.

OPRF’s No. 2 doubles team has been together for two years, a fact that Bruynseels feels could help during the three-day tournament.

“If you don’t get along with your partner, (Thursday) could be a long day,” Bruynseels said. “Tim and I do not have that problem. We have fought through some tough matches.”

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