University of Minnesota Athletics
Bonin, Wernet Named to All-Big Ten Team
4/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Wernet, who was also recognized as the Sportsmanship Award Honoree for Minnesota, was a unanimous selection. This is the second All-Big Ten honor for the Mainz, Germany, native, as he was also recognized in 2009.
After a sluggish fall campaign where he posted a 6-5 singles record, Wernet has emerged as the top player for Minnesota. He is 22-9 in singles on the year, which includes a 16-4 record in dual-match play and an 8-2 Big Ten record.
Wernet, who started the year at fourth singles against Marquette on Jan. 22, has played No. 1 singles in the last five matches for the Gophers. He is 4-2 at first singles, 5-1 at the second position, 6-1 at the third slot and 1-0 at fourth singles this season. Wernet is 6-0 in three-set matches this year and is 3-3 against ranked competition. He earned wins against No. 10 Dennis Nevolo of Illinois, No. 50 Enej Bonin of Denver and No. 57 Jason Jung of Michigan. Wernet was unranked for most of the year, but is now ranked 67th in singles by the ITA.
This is the first All-Big Ten selection for Bonin, who was a perfect 10-0 (6-0 with Julian Dehn and 4-0 with Wernet) in Big Ten doubles play this year. Bonin partnered with Dehn to win the top doubles flight at the Lakewood Ranch Clay Court Classic last November.
The Koper, Slovenia, native was 11-2 in singles in fall tournament play and won the Denver Pioneer Invitational. He is 21-13 on the year and is 10-11 in dual-matches and 4-6 in the Big Ten. Bonin, who has been a stalwart at the top of the lineup all season, is 6-8 at No. 1 singles and 4-3 at the second position. His 14 matches at No. 1 singles were eight more than Wernet played at the same position.
This is the first time that Minnesota has had two players named All-Big Ten since Wernet and Ishay Hadash in 2009. The Gophers have had at least one player recognized every year since 1998.
The 19th-ranked Gophers play No. 71 Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Friday. Minnesota received a first-round bye in the event after finishing the regular season in third place.
MEN'S TENNIS ALL-BIG TEN TEAMS
First Team All-Big Ten*
DENNIS NEVOLO, Illinois
Santiago Gruter, Indiana
Jeremy Langer, Indiana
JASON JUNG, Michigan
EVAN KING, Michigan
Rok Bonin, Minnesota
TOBIAS WERNET, Minnesota
Matt Allare, Ohio State
CHASE BUCHANAN, Ohio State
Balazs Novak, Ohio State
BLAZ ROLA, Ohio State
Ille Van Engelen, Ohio State
MAREK MICHALICKA, Wisconsin
Second Team All-Big Ten
Johnny Hamui, Illinois
Josh MacTaggart, Indiana
Marc Bruche, Iowa
Josh Graves, Northwestern
Devin McCarthy, Ohio State
Mark Kovacs, Purdue
Szymon Tatarczyk, Purdue
Unanimous selections in CAPS.
* - Additional honorees due to a tie.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Athlete of the Year: Chase Buchanan, Ohio State
Freshman of the Year: Blaz Rola, Ohio State
Coach of the Year: Ty Tucker, Ohio State
SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD HONOREES
Connor Roth, Illinois
Stephen Vogl, Indiana
Will Vasos, Iowa
Shaun Bernstein, Michigan
Clark Richardson, Michigan State
Tobias Wernet, Minnesota
Andrew McCarthy, Northwestern
Matt Allare, Ohio State
Bryan Welnetz, Penn State
Szymon Tatarczyk, Purdue
Marek Michalicka, Wisconsin
