Tykhonenko takes third Player of the Year award to top UMAC men's tennis awards
ST. PAUL, Minn.---The College of St. Scholastica won the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) men's tennis regular season championship for the 23rd-consecutive year, but will advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. Following another successful season, the Saints headline the postseason conference awards as Serhii Tykhonenko was named the UMAC Player of the Year for the third-consecutive season and Wells Patten was selected the Coach of the Year, it was announced Tuedsay.
Despite decades of success, the Saints have never competed in the national tournament but finally get the chance after Patten and Tykhonenko led the Saints to a UMAC tournament title and the UMAC automatic qualifier after misisng out in 2018 – the first year of the AQ for the UMAC. The Saints enter the tournament Thursday with a 14-7 overall record after going 7-0 in UMAC play. Under Patten's leadership, the Saints dropped just three points against UMAC teams all season and went 20-1 in UMAC doubles matches.
Tykhonenko was among 13 players who recorded a UMAC singles win for the Saints, and was one of thee who had four or more singles win in conference matches. Collectively, the Saints' lineup went 40-2 in conference singles matches. All three points surrendered came against runner-up University of Northwestern and third place University of Wisconsin-Superior.
Junior Tykhonenko becomes the second-consecutive St. Scholastica player to win the conference Player of the Year award in three-straight seasons (Josh Stainer, 2014-16). Tykhonenko and Stainer are also the only two players ever to achieve such feat since the UMAC became a Division III member conference. At No. 1 singles, Tykhonenko went 11-3 overall and 4-0 in the UMAC. In doubles, he was 12-3 and 4-0, respectively, from the No. 1 doubles position.
The Saints tied with Northwestern and Bethany Lutheran College for the most all-conference selections with three each. Wisconsin-Superior boasted two selections while postseason participant Martin Luther College had one.
Landon Ridpath of Northwestern was the lone player on the All-UMAC list to have been selected in each of his four seasons of competition. Four other were picked All-UMAC for the second time in their careers including Laine Larson (Bethany Lutheran), Josh Koelpin (Martin Luther), Elliot Schneider (St. Scholastica and Dalton Werckman (Bethany Lutheran).
Each year the UMAC recognizes the team sportsmanship award, an accolade that is selected by the UMAC coaches and awarded to the team that best represented sportsmanship throughout the entire season. Crown College earned the honor for the first time. Each team also had one representative on the individual sportsmanship award list.
Player of the Year Award* – Serhii Tykhonenko, Jr., St. Scholastica
Coach of the Year Award – Wells Patten, St. Scholastica
First-Team UMAC All-Conference
| Name |
Year |
School |
Hometown/High School |
| Josiah Borst |
Sr. |
Wisconsin-Superior |
Becker, Minn./Becker |
| Austin Bricker |
Fy. |
Northwestern |
Arroyo Grande, Calif./Arroyo Grande |
| Carter Dahl |
Sr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Albert Lea, Minn./Albert Lea |
| Rafa Gonzalez |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
La Libertad, El Salvador/FESA |
| Josh Koelpin |
Sr. |
Martin Luther |
New Ulm, Minn./Minnesota Valley Lutheran |
| Laine Larson |
Sr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Long Prairie, Minn./Long Prairie-Grey Eagle |
| Leo Paredes |
Sr. |
Wisconsin-Superior |
Uberlandia, Brazil/Colegio Sao Paschoall |
| Davis Pfaff |
So. |
Northwestern |
Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove |
| Landon Ridpath |
Sr. |
Northwestern |
St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Tech |
| Elliot Schneider |
So. |
St. Scholastica |
Duluth, Minn./Duluth East |
| Serhii Tykhonenko* |
Jr. |
St. Scholastica |
Kiev, Ukraine/Lyceum #100 "Podil" |
| Dalton Werckman |
Sr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Foley, Minn./Foley |
UMAC Sportsmanship Awards
Team Award – Crown
Bethany Lutheran – Carter Dahl, Sr., Albert Lea, Minn./Albert Lea
Crown – Caleb Baumann, So., Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls
Martin Luther – Nic Gartner, Sr., Redwood Falls, Minn./Minnesota Valley Lutheran
Minnesota Morris – Gannon Youakim, Sr., Hopkins, Minn./Hopkins
North Central – Micah Peterson, So., Reedsburg, Wis./Reedsburg
Northwestern – Colton Paskewitz, Sr., Browerville, Minn./Staples-Motley
St. Scholastica – Rafa Gonzalez, Fy., La Libertad, El Salvador/FESA
Wisconsin-Superior – Anthony Michels, So., Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie