NYC transplants lead Lake Highland to title
Bart brothers are undefeated this season in singles play
Lake Highland Prep’s boys tennis team got a whole lot better when young brothers Aidan Bart and Andre Bart joined the lineup this season.
The two native New Yorkers migrated from Manhattan to Lake Nona last March and enrolled at the downtown Orlando private school after their family decided to make its move away from New York City due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Both are undefeated in singles play this season for a Highlanders team that cruised to the Class 2A District 7 championship at Sylvan Lake Park this week.
Aidan is Lake Highland’s No. 1 singles player as a 13-year-old eighth-grader, and he beat Bishop Moore’s Nick Santiago 6-3, 6-1 in the top-line final to earn an automatic state tournament berth.
Andre, a 12-year-old sixthgrader, won the No. 5 singles final to help the Highlanders remain unbeaten for the season going into region play next week.
Aidan also teamed with Bradley Peterson to win the No. 1 doubles bracket.
Lake Highland will be one of eight Orlando-area boys teams, including unbeaten Class 4A power Olympia, which will host region semifinal matches Tuesday.
Girls region semifinals are the same day, with unbeatens Olympia, Lake Mary and Winter Park all set to play at home after claiming 4A district tournament titles this week.
Winter Park won both the boys
and girls titles on its home court in District 3.
Edgewater, led by No. 1 singles champs McKay Shafer and Veronica Tong, won boys and girls titles in 3A-5. Shafer, a junior, lost a first-set tiebreaker against Zip Parel of East River but leveled the match by winning the second set and then a super tiebreaker 10-4 to claim the title.
Windermere Prep swept the boys and girls championships in the 1A District 5 tournament in Lakeland. Erik Harter on the boys side and Christian Wu on the girls side were individual No. 1 singles champs for the Lakers.
The Lake Nona boys team worked overtime to capture the 4A District 10 title at the USTA Center. The Lions tied Vero Beach with 17 points each at the conclusion of two days of bracket play, which forced the two teams to return Wednesday for a tiebreaker.
The Lions topped Vero 5-2 in that head-to-head match to claim the championship.
The Lions are led by district No. 1 singles champ Harrison Michalowski and No. 2 winner Diego Martinez.
Lake Nona, Kissimmee Osceola and Treasure Coast finished in a three-way tie for second behind Vero Beach in the 4A-10 girls tournament. That required another series of tiebreaker matches. Lake Nona won 10 of those pro set matches to top Osceola (6) and Treasure Coast (3) and qualify for the region semifinal round.
In a roller-coaster No. 1 singles final in 4A-3 at Sanlando Park, Lake Mary sophomore Jessica Maras topped previously unbeaten Apopka ninth grader Alyssa Novoa in a super tiebreaker after the talented friends split sets. Maras won the tiebreaker 11-9 after dropping the first set 2-6 and bouncing back to win the
second 6-1.
Maras also teamed with Jill Nieman to win the No. 1 doubles title and lead the Rams to the team victory.
Seminole, led by its doubles duo of Liam Chelkowski and Josh Edlund, won the 4A-3 boys title over previously unbeaten Hagerty. Lake Howell ninth grader Jacob Giambalvo was the top line singles champ.
Bishop Moore swept all five singles lines and both doubles lines for a perfect score of 21 points in wrapping up the 2A-7 girls title.
Two days later, the Hornets’ two top players — senior Dani Galeano and ninth grader Olivia Denney — switched to track shoes to run in Thursday’s Class 2A District 7 track and field meet at Titusville Astronaut.
Denney was on winning 4x800- and 4x400-meter relays. Galeano ran on the victorious 4x100 relay.
Undefeated Geneva School ninth grader Mary Boyce Deatherage, arguably the area’s top girls college prospect, cruised through the 1A District 6 tournament at Red Bug Lake Park. She also teamed with teammate Meeta Desai to win the doubles title.
The First Academy girls, with twin sisters Reagan Parker and Reese Parker atop their lineup, won the team title.
Line 1 doubles champs Julian Sealy and Lachlan Bill helped Trinity Prep take the 1A-6 boys title. Cornerstone Charter ninth grader Pete Tran won the boys No. 1 singles title in that tournament.
Olympia’s unbeaten senior Alexey Timokhine won the 4A-9 boys No. 1 singles title and teamed with Luis Leon to win No. 1 doubles.
Boone sophomore Nicole D’Angelillo was the girls No. 1 singles winner and also captured the district doubles with ninth-grade teammate Grace Schultz. They topped Victoria Belisario and Ana Varas of Freedom in a 10-point tiebreaker
after splitting sets.
West Orange junior Maanya Pradeep won the No. 1 singles final and teamed with Eugenia Lavieri to win the top doubles line in 4A-4. The Warriors also had the district’s boys No. 1 singles winner in senior Lucas Mach.
All district No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles winners are secured slots in the FHSAA state tournaments, which will be played April 26-30 at three sites in Seminole County.
Region title teams will also qualify.
Region matchups
Here are Tuesday’s region semifinals involving Orlando-area teams: