“It was definitely really special”

MOSES LAKE – Marwan Warnick brought home several awards on the tennis court for the Mavericks last season, setting himself up for a strong senior season with Moses Lake.

Warnick left the 4A Boys State Tennis Singles tournament with a seventh-place finish, earning Player of the Year, first team and sportsmanship honors in the Columbia Basin Big-Nine.

“It was definitely really special,” Warnick said.

After finishing two matches shy of qualifying state in Big-Nine doubles districts last season, Warnick returned to playing singles in 2023.

“I definitely wanted to be a district champion,” Warnick said. “Last year I played doubles at districts, and we did okay. We weren’t able to go to state. This year in singles, it was a little bit less competitive than it was last year. I was able to be the first-ever district champion for the boys.”

At this year’s Big-Nine district singles tournament, Warnick found himself across the court from a familiar opponent: West Valley senior Alexander Garcia-Widmer.

“I was definitely pretty nervous,” Warnick said. “I played (Garcia-Widmer) twice during the regular season, I won the first time and then lost the second in three sets. It definitely wasn’t an easy or guaranteed win going into it.”

The two players traded the first two sets, with Warnick winning the first before Garcia-Widmer won the second. A 5-1 lead in the third set helped Warnick ride off to a win, bringing home a district title.

“It felt really nice coming out of that, getting that win,” Warnick said. “There was quite a few people cheering me on out there.”

The district championship qualified him for a berth in the 4A state singles tournament in Seattle, where he said he approached the tournament with middling expectations.

“I wasn’t expecting too much,” Warnick said. “I know that a lot of Seattle kids get their private coaching, professional coaching, so I thought I’d be able to do okay and maybe place.”

Warnick matched up against Skyview’s Aiden Bucerzan, where he won 2-0 with scores of 6-0 and 6-3.

“The first two games of that match were definitely really tense, but after that, I started to get more loose,” he said.

After a second-round loss to Bellarmine’s Vasanth Ramachandran, the eventual state runner-up, Warnick’s first match in the fourth/seventh-place bracket was forfeited by his opponent. From there, Warnick played Redmond’s Andrew Zhao in the fourth/seventh-place match, where Zhao won 2-0.

A seventh-place finish at state shined a light onto goals for 2023, and the work it’ll take to get there.

“I definitely want to get district champion again, I’d love to get that two times in a row,” Warnick said. “I definitely over the summer need to work on my serve, work on my backhand, and just be able to return these big serves from these players. They can really smack them over 100 miles an hour.”

Tennis runs in the family for Warnick, whose father played tennis at Moses Lake when he was a student.

“He’s been playing for quite some time, and he got me and my sister into it,” Warnick said.

Warnick said his successful 2023 season was the result of a life-long participation in tennis, as he began playing when he was seven years old.

“(It took) a lot of time,” Warnick said. “I think, compared to all the other people in the district this year, it was me, (Garcia-Widmer) and (West Valley sophomore Axel Fulton) that had been playing our whole lives.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.