It was a one, two, three sweep by Palisades High School in the City Section individual tennis finals at the Balboa Tennis Center on May 11 as senior Lucas Bellamy took first, defeating fellow Dolphin, Diego Huttepan 5-7, 6-1, 7-6, in the finals of the 52-player tournament.
Pali senior R.J. Sands defeated Christian Ponce from Grant, 6-1, 6-3, for third. Going into the tournament, Sands was ranked third, Bellamy fifth and Huttepan seventh.
Last year’s individual champion, Ryan Nuno of Granada Hills, was upset by Huttepan in the semifinals, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Palisades will have most of its team back next year, losing only two seniors: R.J. Sands will attend Penn University and Bellamy will enter UCLA.
On the doubles side, out of 32 teams, Pali’s Henry Lovett and Lincoln Bellamy, who were seeded first, won the tournament with easy two-set wins in every match. They swept the No. 2-ranked Granada Hills team, Daniel Lin and Sebastian Prokic, 6-4, 7-5.
One of the most competitive matches in the tournament came when Lin/Prokic outlasted PaliHi’s Danilo Milic and Jack Harrington, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.
With that loss Milic/Harrington went into the consolation round against Granada Hill’s Shaan Londhe and Diego Camarillo, who had lost to Lovett/Bellamy 6-1,6-1. The Pali duo beat them 6-3, 6-5.
Going into the tournament Millic/Harrington were seeded third and Jason Freedland and Alex Strohmeier, who lost to Londhe/Camarillo in the quarter finals were seeded fourth.
Palisades Captures Griggs Cup
Palisades boys tennis once again left its mark by winning the 117th Ojai Valley Interscholastic Griggs Cup Team Championship April 26-30. The Ojai tournament, where more than 1,500 players compete annually, allows 64 singles players in the CIF division and 64 doubles teams (selected by a CIF Committee).
Representing the Dolphins in the CIF boys singles was junior Jake Sands, who beat Stefan Dostanic from Woodbridge
High School 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, in the finals. The doubles team of seniors Lucas Bellamy and R.J. Sands took third place.
With those wins, Palisades earned 10 points to top San Marino, which had seven points, and Peninsula with six. This was Pali’s first Griggs title in 20 years and its fifth overall. PaliHi boys tennis has swept four major tournaments this year: the California Tennis Classic, L.A. City Section, All American National Team Championship, and now the Ojai Griggs title.
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