Boe-Wiegaard wins NCAA title

Will Boe-Wiegaard could not have had a better ending to his collegiate tennis career. The 2002 Joel Barlow High graduate played four years on the men's tennis team at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. During this time he was named to the All-New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) team all four years.

The league's rookie of the year his freshman season, he was singles champion his first two years, and the runner-up as a junior. But the biggest achievement for the four-time All-American came at the NCAA Division III championships last month.

Advancing to the finals of the men's singles tournament for the second straight year, Boe- Wiegaard defeated Middlebury College senior Brian Waldron in the last collegiate match for both to capture the championship at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va., on May 22.

"I'd been there before," said Boe-Wiegaard, who lost in the finals a year ago. "I didn't want to lose again."

He became the first Bates male athlete to win an NCAA championship since 2003. He is also the school's first NCAA champ in a sport outside of track and field.

Finishing with 26-6 record in singles play this season, Boe- Wiegaard was the number three seed from the eastern region but was unseeded in the 32-player tournament when it began. Once it got underway he defeated several seeded opponents, several of whom had beaten him earlier in the season.

His first victory in the threeday tournament came against Yoji Masuoka. Although Masuoka had helped Emory University win the team title in the tournament, he could not hold up against Boe- Wiegaard, a 6-3, 6-3 winner.

Later that day came what Boe- Wiegaard considered his toughest opponent of the tournament - top-ranked Matt Seeberger of the University of California at Santa Cruz. The two-time defending national champ, he had beaten Boe-Wiegaard in last year's finals.

Although he lost the first set, Boe-Wiegaard settled down, eventually taking the next two for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.

He still had some tough competition ahead of him, however. The next day he met eighth-seeded Evan Tindell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who had defeated him 6-3, 6-2 earlier in the year.

Boe-Wiegaard easily won the first set 6-1 but trailed 3-0 in the second before closing the gap in a 6-4 loss. Confident, Boe- Wiegaard took the third 6-3 to advance to the semifinals.

There he met Middlebury's Nate Edmunds, to whom Boe- Wiegaard had lost in the ITA tournament semifinals in the fall. Making use of the entire court for his shots, as well as hitting often to his opponent's backhand, Boe- Wiegaard prevailed 6-3, 6-2 to reach the finals again.

He was determined to not have the same result as last year's title match. Facing Waldron, Boe- Wiegaard soon took control for a 6-4, 6-3 win to take the title.

Pleased with his performance, Boe-Wiegaard also felt his win was a big boost for Bates' tennis program and a help to its recruiting process. Although Boe-Wiegaard is now moving on, Bates has already has some incoming talent.

"Next year we're going to really be strong," he said. "There are six guys coming in who are really good."

For Boe-Wiegaard, the end of his collegiate career also marks the beginning of his professional one. Currently training in California, he returns for the International Scholar-Athlete Games in Rhode Island this weekend and after that he will probably remain in the area to train.

In July he will help teach tennis camps before competing abroad at various levels of professional tournaments and will return to California in September to train again.

"It's a lot of traveling, living out of your suitcase," he said. "We'll see how this goes in the next couple of years."