Men's Tennis names three ITA All-Americans
AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas senior Callum Beale (Adelaide, Australia), sophomore Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) and freshman Miguel Reyes Varela (Cuernavaca, Mexico) officially earned All-America status Friday from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), and the Longhorns also garnered a No. 3 national ranking in the final ITA team rankings release. Beale became a first-time singles All-American last week when he reached the round of 16 at the NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships. Beale, who finished the season ranked No. 38 by the ITA, earned singles All-America status by defeating Middle Tennessee State's Andreas Siljestrom in the NCAA round of 64 and Rice's Robert Searle in the round of 32. Beale was eliminated by California's sixth-ranked Conor Niland in the round of 16 and ended his season at 21-12. Beale also collected his first doubles All-America honor alongside Reyes Varela, a first-time All-American. Beale and Reyes Varela, who finished the season as the nation's eighth-ranked doubles tandem, earned All-America status by advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Men's Tennis Doubles Championships. The Texas tandem defeated the Mississippi duo of Erling Tveit and Eric Claesson in the round of 32 before knocking off the Michigan tandem of Brian Hung and Matko Maravic in the round of 16. Beale and Reyes Varela fell to Illinois' Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe, the eventual National Champions, in the quarterfinals, but not before satisfying one of the three criteria - reaching the NCAA quarterfinals - to become doubles All-Americans. Helgeson needed to either enter the NCAA singles tournament as one of 16 seeds, reach the NCAA singles round of 16, or finish in the top 20 of the ITA singles rankings to become a singles All-American, and he satisfied all three criteria, making Texas one of only three schools (Georgia, Stanford) with two singles All-Americans. The two-time singles All-American knocked off Pacific's Arnar Sigurdsson, LSU's Ken Skupski and Illinois' Ryler DeHeart to reach the NCAA quarterfinals, where he fell to Mississippi's Tveit. Senior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas), who ended his Longhorn career tied for fifth on UT's all-time singles wins list, ended the season with a No. 45 national singles ranking. Texas fared exceptionally well in the ITA South Central region rankings. UT finished the season ranked No. 1 in the region ahead of Big 12 foe Baylor. Helgeson came in at No. 2 in the region singles rankings, while Beale followed at No. 6, and Gubser came in at No. 8. Sophomore Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia) finished at No. 21, while Reyes Varela ended his freshman campaign ranked No. 28 in the region. Beale and Reyes Varela took the top doubles ranking, while Helgeson and freshman Michael Venus (Orlando, Fla.) came in at No. 8. Gubser and junior Hubert Chodkiewicz earned the region's No. 9 doubles ranking.
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