Pa. Boys: Lower Moreland wins tennis crown

The first leg of

Lower Moreland

's tennis hat trick has been completed.

The Lions won two of three singles matches and a doubles match to beat

Sewickley Academy

, 3-2, and win its second straight PIAA state Class AA team championship at the Hershey Racquet Club yesterday.

Drew Hoffman clinched the title when he walked off the court with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles. Taylor Cohen won at No. 1 singles and Lower Moreland got a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles from Matt Rounick and Anthony Marakov.

"It was good," Cohen said of his singles match. "I was just playing really well and took care of business. It's awesome. [The team title] felt good the first year, but even better this year."

Cohen will attempt to defend his Class AA singles title and Rounick and Marakov will try to return the doubles title won by Cohen and Samuel Harmatz in 2006 when the state singles and doubles tournament takes place on May 23-24 in Hershey. "We're going to take it," Cohen said.

Class AAA.

Ben Bar-David and Matt Savran along with Julian Eisner and Brian Maisland won their doubles matches

for Lower Merion

, but

Upper St. Clair

swept the singles competition and edged the Aces, 3-2, to win the state Class AAA team title.

Lower Merion had beaten Upper St. Clair for the state title the previous two years.

Bar-David and Savran won at No. 1 doubles, 6-4, 6-0, while Eisner and Maisland won at No. 2 doubles, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Germantown Friends

broke four meet records and cruised to the Friends Schools League title with 137 points at Friends' Central.

Jake McKenzie won the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 56.53 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 1:57.7 set by Zack Malet of Friends' Central in 2005. Max Kaulbach broke his own record year-old record of 4:21.57 in the 1,600-meter run with a time 4:14.7 and Isaac Ortiz posted a time of 9:45.15 in the 3,200-meter run, breaking his own record of 9:45.73 set last season.

Luke Sand established a record in the discus with a toss of 140-6. That broke the old mark of 138-2 set in 1996 by Rashon Thorne of George School.

Inter-Ac.

Matt McCullough of

Malvern Prep

accounted for 15 points and helped his team to the championship with 70 points at Penn Charter.

McCullough won the 1,600 in 4:32.63 and the 3,200 in 10:01.60 and finished third in the 800 with a time of 2:02.06. For his efforts, he was given the George Greenwood Award.

Mike Barsotti struck out 13 and held visiting

Friends' Central

to four hits as

Germantown Friends

claimed the Friends Schools League title with a 6-3 victory.

Barsotti, who walked two batters, was backed on offense by Noah Goodman, who went 3 for 4.

Inter-Ac.

Mike Mattei belted a three-run homer in the second inning and led

Chestnut Hill Academy

past visiting

Episcopal Academy

, 11-7.

Steel Russell added a solo shot in the second inning when the Blue Devils took an 8-1 lead. Russell went 4 for 4 with three runs scored and three runs batted in, while winning pitcher Brandon Sady collected three hits and scored twice.