AKRON — Heartland Christian junior Cooper Grim is headed back to the Div. II state singles tournament for a third time.

Grim knocked off two of his opponents on Friday at the Div. II district tournament on Friday at the Springside Athletic Club.

The district tournament qualifies four to the state tournament set for May 28-29 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason near Cincinnati.

In the opener on Friday Grim beat Gates Mills Hawken sophomore Matthew Chu 6-0, 6-0. In the quarterfinal, Grim dispatched Canton South senior Blayten Young 6-0, 6-0 to reach the quarterfinal.

The semifinals and final will be played on Saturday. Grim will face Pepper Pike Orange’s Ilya Shcherbakov in the lower bracket, while Coventry’s Ivan Vasich and St. John’s Kenton Zheng square off in the upper bracket.

Grim was the winner of the district last season, while Shcherbakov finished third at state as a sophomore.

Grim was eliminated in the quarterfinal round in both of his state appearances.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has Grim ranked as the 205th best junior in the country and seventh best junior in Ohio.

In Columbiana County, East Liverpool’s doubles team of Brady Dawson and Garrett Cooper also qualified for state.