Men's tennis team earns top ITA state rankings across the board

Men's tennis team earns top ITA state rankings across the board

After winning its third straight CCCAA State Championship, the Irvine Valley men's tennis team was once again ranked No. 1 in the state in The Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association California Community College Athletic Association final rankings for 2017.

Irvine Valley won its third straight state title with a 5-1 win over American River on Apr. 26 in Ventura.

It was a rematch of last year's state final between the two No. 1 seeds and the score was the same.

Irvine Valley (19-0) completed an undefeated season for the first time in school history. The Lasers have won 35 straight matches and are 58-3 in the last three years with all three losses coming to four-year schools.

This was their fourth straight appearance in the California state final and they're 3-1.

Irvine Valley is the second straight men's team to win three straight State titles, following in the footsteps of Fresno City in 2012-14. College of the Desert holds the all-time record with six straight State titles from 1998-2003.

After Irvine Valley, Cypress finished second, Cerritos was ranked third, American River was fourth and Foothill was ranked fifth.

Irvine Valley also had the top-ranked singles player in the state. And it was an easy call.

Sophomore Javier Callejo won his second consecutive state singles title.

Callejo earned the triple crown this year in men's tennis, winning the singles, doubles and team titles for Irvine Valley. Callejo, the No. 9 seed, beat No. 6 Vincent Reynaud of Cypress, 6-3, 6-4, in an All-Orange Empire Conference final. He's the first repeat State champion since Dan Omaboe of Marymount in 1994-95 and only the third back-to-back winner all time.

He was the first player to win the Triple Crown since 2002 and the 10th Triple Crown winner since State Championships began in 1960.

Irvine Valley had three other players finish in the top 10 singles rankings in the state. Freshman Wyatt DeMulling was fifth, sophomore Lucas Lesoeur was ranked sixth and freshman Chris Politiek came in at seventh.

Freshman Leszek Mirecki was ranked No. 19 and sophomore Luis Castillo was ranked No. 35 for the Lasers.

In the doubles state rankings, Irvine Valley had two teams in the top five and three in the top 20.

The state champion duo of Callejo and Lesoeur were ranked No. 1.

It was the third year in a row that an Irvine Valley team had won the state title in doubles. Callejo and Lesoeur were seeded No. 2 in doubles. They beat No. 10 Thomas Kyle and Ingmar Remmerswaal of Cypress, 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, then swept past top-seeded Nikita Katsnelson and Sasha Krasnov of Cerritos, 6-2, 6-4 in the final in Ojai.

The IVC team of DeMulling and Politiek was ranked No. 5 in the state. DeMulling and Politiek were named co-doubles team of the year in the Orange Empire Conference.

And the team of Mirecki and sophomore Gavin Lynch was ranked No. 19.