Fifty-two weeks after breaking via and capturing the York Metropolis-County Tennis Event males’s open championship, Jonathan Arbittier has gone back-to-back.
Arbittier reclaimed his title Wednesday night on the courts at York School, which served as a brand new host for the 104th version of the annual occasion. The Dallastown Excessive College graduate, who will play for NCAA Division I Binghamton this coming college 12 months, defeated Peter Landis 7-5, 6-3 within the males’s ultimate.
The Metropolis-County match capped off a summer time of laborious work for Arbittier, who transferred to Binghamton in June after taking part in two seasons at Rider. The suitable-hander has centered on taking part in extra aggressively, particularly together with his forehand, and the extreme coaching appears to be paying off.
“I’m utilizing this summer time so much as preparation for this upcoming college season,” Arbittier mentioned. “It’s an awesome confidence increase to finish on a excessive notice proper earlier than I’m going again to high school.”
One other school tennis participant, Millersville’s Lauren Hayes, took dwelling the ladies’s open singles title Wednesday in York. The Jasper, Indiana, native defeated Crimson Lion graduate and 2021 champion Lexi Lakatosh 6-3, 6-4 in her first look on the match.
Arbittier additionally took dwelling the trophy final 12 months in his first time competing within the open division, though he had beforehand competed within the intermediate singles bracket. With a championship already below his belt and the No. 1 seed to his identify, Arbittier cruised via the 20-man bracket, dropping simply eight whole video games in opposition to Victor Suarez, Joel Oetliker and Cooper Wheeler earlier than taking down Landis.
“I felt fairly assured all through this 12 months,” Arbittier mentioned. “Final 12 months I used to be very nervous for a few matches, and this 12 months I didn’t actually really feel these nerves in any respect. … I used to be taking part in fairly free all through the match. My first-round match was fairly robust in opposition to Victor (Suarez), and I began out sturdy in opposition to him and simply type of stored the ball rolling.”
Phil Myers, the match organizer and seven-time males’s open singles champion, noticed his streak of six straight titles snapped by Arbittier final summer time. His bid for a rematch was halted by Landis, because the Lewisberry native and 2019 Millersville graduate pulled out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory in Tuesday’s semifinals.
Myers has recognized Arbittier for years and labored with him at numerous camps and clinics at Wisehaven Tennis Heart, which Myers owns. Whereas the previous York Excessive and York School standout continues to chase titles, Myers is at all times thrilled to see high native gamers develop their video games.
“His sport continues to mature annually and he turns into a harder participant,” Myers mentioned of Arbittier. “I used to be actually hoping to be the one to get a shot at him within the finals, (nevertheless it) simply wasn’t within the playing cards for me. He will get higher yearly, so it’s been a number of enjoyable to look at his tennis journey.”
Hayes defeated defending champion and top-seeded Alisa Steele within the girls’s open semifinals, dropping the primary set earlier than dominating down the stretch and prevailing 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. The rising sophomore at Millersville started her match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Summer season Antkowiack.
Lakatosh, a rising freshman at Towson, bested New Oxford standout Kaelyn Balko 6-1, 6-2 and dealt with York School’s Hannah Sult 6-1, 6-0 earlier than working into Hayes. The previous Crimson Lion star has been in three of the final 4 girls’s open finals, profitable all of it in 2021 and taking second to Steele in 2023.
“She’s at all times proper there,” Myers mentioned of Lakatosh. “It’s like loss of life, taxes and Lexi being within the finals of this match.”
Lakatosh took dwelling loads of {hardware} in doubles, pairing with Heather Myers to win the ladies’s open doubles crown and becoming a member of forces with Phil Myers to assert the blended open doubles title over the weekend.
Phil Myers additionally received his fourth consecutive males’s open doubles draw with Matt Taylor — and was a part of the profitable tandem for the fifth straight 12 months — on Sunday. He additionally repeated as a blended open doubles champion after profitable with Rachel Haupt in 2023.
The Metropolis-County Event started its doubles attracts final Wednesday, Aug. 7. Final week’s rain compelled early-round motion to maneuver from York School to Wisehaven’s indoor facility, however the gamers had been again outdoors by the weekend and the match stayed largely on schedule. That set the stage for singles play this week.
This 12 months’s occasion featured the return of the boys’s 50+ singles draw, which was a part of the match in its early years however had been absent for a number of a long time. York’s Steve Steele defeated Mechanicsburg’s Gary Spangler in Wednesday’s ultimate.
“If we went again and did the analysis, they used to have a senior draw within the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s … so it was fairly the occasion,” Myers mentioned. “Issues type of ended up getting simplified over time, however we’re making an attempt to get again to giving choices to each degree of participant, all ages group, for them to really feel like they’ve a spot to belong within the match.”
Additionally on Wednesday, 2024 Susquehannock graduate Derek Baughman received the boys’s intermediate singles title in 6-2, 6-2 vogue over Delone Catholic’s Collin Kuhn. Robin Treider, the pinnacle coach of Central York women’ tennis, took the ladies’s intermediate crown with a 6-2, 6-1 sweep of Annie Sew.
Over the weekend, Jim Anderson and James Anderson IV paired to win the boys’s 7.5 doubles draw. Balko and Ella Knox took the ladies’s 7.5 doubles title, whereas Antowiack and Nick Jones received the blended 7.5 doubles crown.
