Silver lining: Dunlap finishes second statewide at IHSA Class 1A boys tennis finals

The Dunlap boys tennis team found plenty of silver linings on Saturday.

The Eagles doubles team of senior Shaan Kashyap and junior Ethan McRaven lost the Class 1A Illinois High School Association championship match on Saturday, but led the Eagles to second place statewide.

"They responded to the coaching, the work put in by the players, the coaching staff, everyone bought in," Dunlap coach Pat Gornik said. "It's fun to watch this team play."

Dunlap scored 26 points to finish in the team race behind only champion Chicago University (35 points). The Eagles join the program's 2017 state champion as the only teams around Peoria to finish in the top two statewide in the last 73 years.

"We won the state title in 2017 and finished third in 2022, and now we're second," Gornik said. "So we've filled the trophy case with every state trophy you can have, and we're proud of these guys."

Friday's prelims: How Dunlap played its way into contention at the IHSA boys tennis state finals

Dunlap's doubles team had rolled to the championship match Friday before losing to junior Krish Khanna and freshman Arjun Sawhney of Chicago University, 6-1, 6-2, on Saturday at Palatine High School.

Kashyap and McRaven join the Dunlap's doubles tandem of Steve Chacko and David Wu , which finished runner-up in Class 1A in 2016-17. Metamora's Brian Lelm and Harry Hawbaker were runner-up in Class 1A in 2020-21.

The last Peoria-area doubles team to win a state title was the Richwoods pairing of Scott Batterson and Matt Maris in 1987-88. Two years before that, McRaven's father, Steve, teamed with Maris to finish fourth in state doubles for Richwoods. Steve McRaven is now an assistant coach at Dunlap.

"He's been a mentor to me and Shaan all year," the younger McRaven said. "We're a team that jokes around, has its fun, but when it's time to go on the court we block everything out and focus on our goals."

Ethan McRaven will return next season, while Kashyap is headed to the University of Illinois next season and might play club tennis.

"I was a little sad when it was all over today. I didn't want to end the season with a loss," Ethan McRaven said, "but I've got perspective. We reached almost all our goals, and we had a great season."

Peoria tennis: Every Peoria-area tennis player to advanced to the IHSA boys state finals

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Silver lining: Dunlap finishes second statewide at IHSA Class 1A boys tennis finals