Everything was perfect with the NJSIAA Group Championships originally planned for June 2.
Then came the rain.
The public semifinals and finals to go along with the Non-Public finals were pushed back to June 3 due to the weather. It rained some more Friday morning which delayed the start time of the matches plus the Bears were mixed in with the late batch of matches.
Houston, we have a problem.
East Brunswick seniors Jack Wong, Siddharth Srinivasan, and Carson He were starting to worry. Were they going to make it time?
That it is prom.
Finishing before the clock struck 5:00 p.m., East Brunswick, No. 2 in the NJ.com Top 20, defeated No. 8 Westfield, 5-0, in the Group 4 final at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. The win gave East Brunswick its fourth group championship in team history and second in a row. It also gave Wong, He, and Srinivasan time to spare to make it back to East Brunswick for photos and then to the venue for dancing and good times.
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6/3 - 3:00 PM Boys Tennis Final East Brunswick 5 Westfield 0
Some of them even cleaned up and got dressed in their tuxedos inside the Mercer County Tennis Center next to the courts.
“A little bit,” Srinivasan said when asked if he was nervous if he was going to be late. “It was in the back of my mind. I was playing well until the second set. Thoughts started coming to my mind more and more. I got ahead of myself. But I stayed the course and it worked out in the end.
“It feels amazing. This team has worked so hard. We knew what we could do, and we just had to put it all together. It’s all coming together. It feels amazing.”
Srinivasan edged Adam Contract, 6-0, 6-7, (10-7) in a tiebreaker. His match in the semifinals earlier in the day also went to a 10-point breaker as did his sectional final match on Tuesday in the Phoenix-like heat.
Does he have enough gas left in the tank to enjoy himself at prom in his gray tux with a flower design on the inside?
“Physically I think I’m OK,” he said. “I’m in good shape. Some of these matches I definitely think I could have finished them earlier. But, that’s tennis. It’s just how it goes.”
Wong also topped Tristan Wroe at first singles, 6-0, 6-2, while the tandem of He and Andrew Cui won 6-2, 6-2 at second doubles over Cole Hornbeck and Eshaan Khera. Tanuj Chandekar won 6-4, 6-1 as well against Zander Ainge at third singles while first doubles Nathan Bernadskii and Ryan Val beat Jordan Cafiero and Ben Duan, 7-5 ,6-2, in what could be a preview of the state doubles tournament final.
Only the seniors were going to prom, but knowing they had big plans put added pressure on their teammates to close out their matches quickly too.
“it was a little bit of an issue honestly. It was stressful and they were talking about playing super fast, but we just wanted them play like themselves and win,” Bernadskii and Val said. “They were upset that we didn’t play yesterday.”
All is good though as now the Bears, who won the Central Jersey, Group 4 sectional crown in addition to the Greater Middlesex Conference championship, now heads into the Tournament of Champions as the No. 2 seed. After a bye, East Brunswick will meet the winner between third-seeded Pingry, the Non-Public A champs, and sixth-seeded Bernards, the Group 1 champs, on Wednesday afternoon.
“The goal is to go all the way and to beat every team,” Val said. “We’ve done that so far. We’re pretty happy.”
East Brunswick made the T of C final in 2021, and will look to repeat that feat and then some this time around.
“It would mean the world to me to win it all,” Srinivasan said. “Going into college, this is probably the one thing I want really badly. As a team we are in a good spot. It’s been a goal of ours since the beginning of the season, and now we have to get it done.”
East Brunswick defeated No. 3 Bergen Tech in the semifinals, 4-1, and Westfield topped No. 9 Cherry Hill East, 3-2.
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