Winchester Thurstons Daniel Goldblum Wins 2nd AA Title While Will Nesbitt of Butler Surprise Winner of AAA Gold in 2011 WPIAL Boys Singles Tennis

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, April 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM

The 2011 WPIAL Boys Singles Tennis Championships produced two very different types of champions at the end of a blustery day at Norwin High School. In Class AA, Winchester Thurston's Daniel Goldblum picked up where he left off in 2009, cruising through the AA bracket and defeating Mount Pleasant's David Cenkner 6-2, 6-4. In AAA, Butlers Will Nesbitt became a surprise champion on Friday when he defeated Bas Van Lent of Pine Richland 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the longest match of the day.

In 2009, Goldblum won the AA Championship as the top seed. In 2010, he decided to take a year off of WPIAL competition to compete in the USTA. However, the Winchester Thurston senior returned to high school competition this spring and won his second WPIAL Championship in his career. He will compete at LeHigh University next year.

In the AAA finals, Nesbitt and Van Lent battled for two hours on the hard court, fighting tremendous wind and fatigue the whole day. However, Nesbitt got up in the final set and was able to pull away for the gold. Nesbitts appearance in the finals was a bit of a surprise, as he had knocked off the top seed, Vivek Nimgaonkar of Shady Side Academy, in the semifinals. Nesbitt will return to Butler in 2012 for his senior year in hopes to defend his title.

In the AA Consolation match, Tanya Timko, the lone lady in the boys championship field, completed a remarkable career at Chartiers-Houston with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory over Hamptons Brad Cisek. Timko, who has won four different championships in her high school career, has committed to IUP where she hopes to work her way to All-American status.

In the AAA Consolation match, Shady Side Academys Vivek Nimgaonkar won the shortest match of the day, making light work of Bethel Parks Caleb Troy 6-1,6-1. Nimgaonkar was the top seed in the AAA field, but was upset by eventual champion Will Nesbitt. Nimgaonkar will look to finally capture that coveted gold medal to wrap up his heralded career.