SF Tennis Finishes Season - Alonte places 7th in State

Danny Alonte, junior at St. Francis High School, placed 7th in the WIAA Division 2 State singles competition completed June 4th. Alonte defeated Brian Zak from Green Bay Notre Dame 4-6, 6-1, (10-7) in a first round match. Then, against 7th seed Rishi Karri, from University School of Milwaukee, Alonte played superb tennis in winning 6-4, 7-6(4). In the quarterfinals, he lost to last last year's state champion, James Stark from Racine Prairie, 6-2, 6-3. Alonte is the only public school player to reach the quarterfinals in Division 2 singles this year. Finally, in a consolation match, he lost to Madison Edgewood's Austin Papenthein 7-6(8), 6-2. Alonte's overall record is 28-5 for the Mariners, with all five losses coming against ranked seniors in this year's tournament. Also, Alonte now has 69 career victories for the Mariners at #1 singles.

St. Francis graduates 8 seniors this year, including their entire doubles lineup. Mike McGeary and McClain Lyles battled at first doubles all year. Second doubles players Tony Hoffman and Evan Seymer were a match away from sectionals and finished the year 16-12. And Josh Barker and Lukasz Kowalik rounded out the lineup at 3rd doubles. In addition, seniors Dean Apollon, Austin Cronin, and Josh Czarnecki saw time in the Varsity lineup.

Also earning a varsity letter for the Mariners was junior 2nd singles player Greg Boknevitz with 10 victories. Boknevitz and Alonte set a new Mariner record for most wins by the #1 and #2 singles players at 38. They had 35 last year.

Other letter-winners for St. Francis were singles players Ryan Deck and Ray Geshrick.