High school tennis: Vermilion's Severin Kretchmar cruising into postseason

While the postseason might look a little different in the Northeast, Severin Kretchmar continues to be a constant in the Northwest. Vermilion's junior ace is on another record-breaking trajectory heading into the postseason. He's already amassed 20 wins and could break the school record he set last season. The record was 22 wins until Kretchmar broke it with a 28-6 season. He recently ended a drought for Vermilion, becoming the first boys tennis player to win a conference title since 2012. Kretchmar defeated Huron's Mason Schindley in the championship. "It feels very good because last year I was very disappointed that I did not win," Kretchmar said. "I was very happy about winning this year. Last year I really had confidence going in, but I was really disappointed how I played attitude-wise. And I got really angry and self-destructed on myself. This year, I kept a positive attitude and stuck with it." After losing the conference final last year, Kretchmar won a sectional title and finished district runner-up before losing in the opening round of the Division II state singles draw. He was the school's first boys tennis state qualifier in 60 years. But those last two losses served as motivation during the offseason, and he made it a point to strengthen his backhand while refining his serve. The results have served him well in the regular season, positioning him for another deep postseason run. Kretchmar earned the No. 1 seed at the Port Clinton sectional singles draw and while won't have to rematch Schindley, who elected to compete in doubles, he will likely have to get by No. 2 Chase Young (Perkins) to defend his title. Last year, the pair split. Young won the SBC Lake final, but Kretchmar won the sectional final. "It's mostly the mental side of tennis for me right now," Kretchmar said. "Just focusing on what I need to do game-planwise, and just enjoy it and have fun. That's the biggest thing I have to do, is just have fun and realize that it's just a game. I really do care, but at the end of the day I just move on to the next match." The Northwest landscape went largely unchanged, but the same cannot be said in the Northeast district as it adopted a new rule in an effort to help spread out the top teams. The top 16 teams in each division were allowed to select which among the four sectional sites they'd compete at. Oberlin, Lake Ridge and Elyria Catholic in Division II stand to be the biggest beneficiaries. Orange, Hawken and University School — the district's top three Division II teams — elected to compete at other sites. Last year, they all competed at Strongsville and every district qualifier went on to reach the state tournament. Lake Ridge's Oscar de Boer enters as the No. 2 seed. Unfortunately, Oliver Knijnenburg — Oberlin's top player — will not compete in the postseason because it falls at the same time as the International Baccalaureate final exams. He concludes his career as a two-time district qualifier in doubles with more than 50 wins. Knijnenburg would have been a contender to receive a sectional seed this year. In Division I, most of the area teams will remain at the Magnificat sectional. It's easy to see why Avon was voted No. 1 in the district as the Eagles earned the top three seeds in the singles draw — A.J. Sidoti, Luke LeMaster and Jay Kneiss, respectively. All are returning district qualifiers with LeMaster and Sidoti back-to-back state qualifiers in doubles. St. Edward's Sean Curran, an Avon Lake resident, was the No. 4 seed in the singles draw while the Elyria duo of Landon Knepper and Tim Rader earned the fourth seed in doubles. Avon Lake, however, elected to move to a new site and will compete at the Solon sectional. This is good news for Aidan Weisman and David Ivan, who earned the No. 2 seed in the doubles draw. One surprise was Avon Lake's top player, Marc Grozav, not earning one of the four seeds in the singles draw. But he qualified for the district tournament as an unseeded player last season. "I hope they fine tune the process a little bit and get some feedback from a lot of the schools that participated," Avon Lake coach Grey Kennedy said of the team selection process. "We ended up choosing a different sectional just because nobody was there yet when it was our chance to make an election. We'll get to play some new teams in a new part of town, so we'll see how it plays out." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter.