Zach Bengtson capped off an amazing high school athletic career last week by playing in the MSHSL Class AA State Individual Tennis Championships.

Bengtson drew a difficult opponent in the first round in Aaron Beduhn, from Wayzata, who went on to lose a very close contest in the Class AA title match.  Bengtson fought with determination before falling 0-6, 1-6.

In the consolation bracket, Zach bounced back and won an impressive match by identical 6-1 scores over Henry Boese from Elk River.

“It was a great run for Zach,” said Coach Hokan Bengtson, Zach’s dad.  “It is really tough to get into this tournament, then to win a match is something that I am very proud of for him.” 

That win put Zach into the Consolation semi-finals, where he lost to the fifth best player in the tournament, Lakeville North’s Anthony Scheglowski, 0-6, 0-6.

Despite the loss, Bengtson cemented himself as one of the very best boys tennis players to ever don the Bulldog blue and white.

“He is only the fourth player in Becker tennis history to make the state tournament in singles, and to go win a match is impressive,” Coach Bengtson said.

Zach finished his career 97-54 in five seasons of varsity tennis.  For four of those seasons, Bengtson manned the #1 singles spot, drawing the top player from the opposing team.  With lesser competition, Bengtson easily would have eclipsed the 100 career win mark in singles play.

Congratulations to Zach Bengtson on a fine varsity athletic career.