Tennis
Register Star All-Area Boys Tennis: Check out the 2024 team, player of the year
Ben Temple may have earned his biggest victory at the wrong time.
It’s not just that it was the week before state. The player he beat also wound up in the spot Temple wanted to be at.
Temple was probably good enough to become only the third Rockford-area tennis player to win a state singles medal in 28 years, all of them in Class 1A, but the Rockford Lutheran senior couldn’t make it through an especially tough draw. Still, by finishing 3-2 at state and beating a state semifinalist at sectionals, Temple is the Register Star’s pick for our 2024 boys tennis player of the year.
More: How this Rockford sectional tennis champion has gotten so much better in one year
Temple also had a tough draw at sectionals, losing in the finals to three-time state champion Nicholas Patrick, a junior from Rock Island Alleman. To even get to the sectional finals, Temple had to get past Sterling senior Brecken Peterson. He had lost to Peterson in three sets earlier in the year but won this time 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7). That earned him a 9-16 seed at state.
But because he finished second at sectionals, he was placed in the opposite bracket of Patrick at state. Brecken stayed in the lower half of Patrick’s bracket and didn’t lose a set in his first four matches, en route to finishing fourth. Temple lost in the very first round and had to scramble just to make the second day coming out of the state’s toughest quadrant. Even his first consolation win had to go to a super-tiebreaker for a third set against Mascoutah’s Wyatt Jurgensmeyer, who had gone 3-2 at state the previous year in doubles.
“If he could have been in a better position, it would have helped him,” Lutheran coach Nick Born said. “We were in a very tough spot. Even the Mascoutah player, who was all-state last year in doubles, was commenting to Ben and I how tough this quadrant in singles was that first day.
“But that win over Brecken at sectionals really does say a lot. That’s a match and a rivalry that will stick with Ben for quite awhile. He is proud of his efforts he put into achieving that.”
More: Inside Guilford boys tennis player Santiago Herrera’s return from a broken neck
The slender 6-foot-4, left-handed Temple improved dramatically before his senior year. His Universal Tennis Ranking climbed from 4.75 to 6.5 in less than a year after he started entering top junior tournaments around the Midwest. He has a big serve and a lot of power, power that he still hasn’t quite harnessed. Born expects Temple to keep getting better as he plays NCAA Division III tennis for the next few years.
“I am really excited to see him grow in college,” Born said. “His movement on the court is really going to develop. His serve is going to become even more of a weapon. And he will develop a much more aggressive game, with topspin in particular and his serve, which is already pretty big.”
Here are the other four players on our All-Area Boys Tennis team:
Braden Monson, Hononegah
Monson, only a sophomore, is already a two-time NIC-10 champion. He never lost a set in conference play this year. He also won his first sectional title, winning all three matches in straight sets, before finishing 1-2 at state in Class 2A.
Austin Altangerel, Auburn
Altangerel, a sophomore, finished second to Monson in both conference and the Class 2A sectional. At state, he was the only local player in either singles or doubles to win his first-round match. He did so easily, winning 6-2, 6-0. He then lost his next two matches, including 10-4 in a super-tiebreaker in his final match.
Santiago Herrera and Altan Griffeth, Guilford
Herrera, a junior, broke his neck after getting elbowed from behind in a hockey game in November, yet made it back to play No. 1 singles for Guilford, where he finished fourth in the NIC-10. Coach David Woosley paired Herrera with Griffeth, a senior, as his top doubles team in the state playoff series and they finished 1-2 in the Class 2A state tournament. Not only that, but both of their losses were by identical 12-10 scores in the super-tiebreaker for the third set.
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