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Bison senior seeks another state tennis meet gold medal
A brilliant high school tennis career will come to an end this week at the Nebraska State Class B Championships in Lincoln.
Hopefully that career will see another gold medal hanging from Connor Larson's neck after the final Friday, Oct. 15.
The McCook senior is the top seed in No. 1 singles at the Class B state meet that opened Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Nebraska Tennis Center in northeast Lincoln. Larson enters the state meet unbeaten in 34 singles matches this fall, and the defending Class B state No. 1 singles champion is looking to wrap up another perfect season with a second state title Friday afternoon.
With the top seed, Larson drew a first-round bye Thursday morning. He won his quarterfinal match later Thursday with a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Zachary Kinsella of Omaha Gross Catholic.
Friday morning semifinals
Larson is scheduled to face fourth-seed Patrick DeWald of Mount Michael Benedictine Friday at 9 a.m. in a semifinal match.
If Connor wins Friday morning, he should have a tough foe awaiting in the championship match Friday at 1 p.m. Second seed Pierre Verdon of Adams Central and third-seed Trevor Milburn of Lincoln Pius X will square off in the other semifinal. Verdon is 23-1, with his only loss to Larson, while Milburn brings a 22-5 record to Friday's semifinals.
Larson will be the heavy favorite to repeat his state title. Connor has not lost since the state championship finals his sophomore year. He finished 25-1 as a sophomore -- his only loss coming to senior Michael Sambol of Omaha Skutt Catholic in the state meet finals.
Larson has just seven losses in his Bison singles match career. That includes a 34-6 mark as a freshman, when he also lost in the state meet finals to senior Josh Raymond of Elkhorn. Then a perfect regular season as a sophomore before the finals loss to Sambol.
He went 38-0 as a junior last season and finally claimed that coveted state meet gold medal. Including this year's 34-0 mark entering state, Larson has a career singles record of 131 wins and 7 losses.
No bragging
The Bison senior, one of the top players on the McCook basketball team, is pretty modest when discussing his career accomplishments.
"Obviously I'd be upset if I didn't win it (state)," he said. "I've been lucky enough to have a good career -- I don't want to sound cocky or anything. Only seven losses, I guess, is pretty good.
"I don't want to go out and lose the championship because I would feel that I would be getting worse than last year. That would be a disappointment. I'll just go out and try to do my best in the state tournament."
Larson was retrospective when asked about his outstanding prep career coming to a close.
"It's crazy to think about it -- I can still remember everything from my freshman year," he said. "It's weird to think that four years of high school tennis has went by so fast. It's been a good time and I've been lucky enough to do well in my career. So hopefully I can finish it well, too."
Larson couldn't recall facing any of the players in his top half of the state meet bracket yet this season. But he knows he will have a big target on his back.
"I'm sure there will be good competition all around. With the one seed, I'm sure everybody's going to be aiming for me," he said.
Staying cool
Larson is pretty loose most of the time -- anyone around town would recognize the kid with the ball cap slightly askew atop his head. That cool attitude helps him on the tennis court.
"I just try to keep all my shots deep to be in control of all of the points," he said. "If I lose a point -- a lot of people get upset and get mad at themselves, but I try and keep my cool because if I'm mad, I'm not going to play my best tennis. I just try to stay cool all the time."
With the stellar career record and the two-year singles match win streak, it might be hard to find flaws in Larson's tennis game. He was quick to make a list.
"I have plenty of weaknesses -- my serve's not that good, my volleys, my backhand," Connor said. "I just try and stay positive. That's what helps me through all my matches. I guess I'm just average, nothing's terrible, terrible."
Omaha youth competition
Larson said he really started playing tennis in the fifth grade when he started attending the Omaha Competition Training Center.
"The best players in Nebraska (there), that's what helped me improve a lot," he said.
Improve would be an understatement.
"When I was in Omaha the first couple years, I was probably in the top 20 or 30 (age group)," Larson said. "That's not terrible but it's not good by any means.
"The last two years I made the top 10, then the top five. I started thinking I could possibly be good at tennis later on in life.
"My freshman year, during the school year, I didn't know what to think. I won the majority of my matches, lost five in regular season. That's all right. Then I started thinking, 'I should start working harder at this, becasue I could probably go somewhere with this.' From then it's just gone up."
Larson would love to take a step up and compete against the state's Class A high school players.
"I think it would be really cool to play Class A," he said. "It's like in every sport, Class B doesn't get as much respect as Class A, even though they really can't compare the two classes because they don't really play each other.
"There's phenomenal players in Class A, but I think it would be fun to play them just for a lot of competition. Even if I couldn't beat them, I think I could get closer than some people would think I could get to them."
College choices
Larson talked earlier this fall about possibly not playing tennis in college. Apparently that has changed, as he said earlier this week that he is "95-percent sure" he will extend his tennis career. His list is narrowed to a handful of schools, possibly at the NCAA Division I level at Creighton University in Omaha. But after talking to several college players, he said the competition level is high no matter which school he would attend.
The college decision will wait for awhile. First things first, with Connor's hopes for another golden performance at state and another perfect season.