Forest Hills Central Ends Dow D2 Run
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2014
KALAMAZOO — Senior Andrew Fox said he knew winning his No. 2 doubles final would clinch the MHSAA team title for Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, snapping Midland Dow’s string of five consecutive Finals championships.
His doubles partner, senior Carson Schmidt, looked at him in surprise, saying he didn’t know it until they defeated fourth seeds Louis Wyre and Joey Wilson, 6-3, 6-0, in the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final.
“I’m kinda glad I didn’t know,” third-seeded Schmidt said, laughing. “That would have made me even more nervous. I feel we probably played the best tennis in that match that we’ve played all year. We really played well.”
Forest Hills Central won the championship with 27 points, followed by Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern with 22. Midland Dow and Portage Central tied for third with 21 points and University of Detroit Jesuit rounded out the top five with 20 points.
Forest Hills Central’s first-year head coach Dan Bolhouse said his players played their best tennis at the right time.
“We worked hard all year and when the guys came in, our goal was to win a state championship,” he said. “We just took it match by match. It was extremely close, and the guys fought hard and pulled out wins.
“Our singles players are young, doubles have a lot of experience, a lot of seniors, a lot of leadership. Winning three of the four doubles flights showed experience definitely does help.”
Talking about Midland Dow, Carson said: “They’re always competitive every year, so it feels good to beat them. It’s a great way to end high school.”
Neither FHC nor Midland Dow had players in the No. 1 singles final, where Northern senior Steward Sell won the battle of the Portages.
The top-seeded Sell defeated Central freshman Bill Duo, the second seed, 6-3, 6-4, for the fourth time this year, ending his senior season undefeated.
“It gave me a little confidence, but I knew I couldn’t let anything in because he’s a great player,” Sell said. “I had to keep it up.
“The last two times I played him, we went to three sets. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. This is definitely the best season, being undefeated and winning the state title. That’s big.”
Sell had one of the biggest serves in the tournament, but Duo scrambled to return every shot.
“You’ve got to be aggressive first and take your chances before he does,” Duo said of Sell. “But Stew played really well today. He overpowered me. He’s a big guy.
“I was hoping to upset him this time. It’s the most important spot. I thought it would be really cool to win states as a freshman, but he played really well today. He overpowered me.”
Portage Northern coach Melanie Remynse-Pepper said just because Sell had the advantage, winning states wasn’t a given.
“Obviously, it’s nerve-wracking because Bill’s a great player,” she said. “They did have a couple of three-set matches, so in the back of our minds we knew that if Bill showed up and Stew was having a bad day it might not have gone our way.
“Stew came out to play today and brought it home. He’s a good player, but more importantly, he’s a good person and he’s been a great leader for the kids.”
Although Midland Dow finished third, it had individual champs at Nos. 2 and 3 singles.
Midland Dow coach Terry Schwartzkopf said finishing third isn’t so bad.
“There are many teams in this state that would love to be where we’re at, and we’ve got to put it in perspective,” he said.
Schwartzkopf said there are two main reasons his team saw the title slip away.
“Number One, the amount of talent we lost last year,” he said. “We had five guys that left that had maybe a cumulative 11 individual state championships. Then our No 1 decided to play ITF instead of coming back to the team.
“We were replacing an immense amount of talent. I don’t think that was the whole reason, because our guys were up to the challenge. We’ve been ranked No. 1 most of the year. Ironically we beat the state champions in a dual, 6-2, and we beat the runner-up 5-3.”
He added that inexperience and first-round performance were the difference this year.
“I’ve always told these kids, if everybody makes it through the first round, we win,” he said. “If you run the numbers and you look at it, had we done that, we would have won outright. The fact that they were young, by losing so much experience and having so much inexperience come in, they weren’t able to handle the mental pressure.”
At No. 2 singles, Midland Dow junior Colin Angell, the top seed, defeated Portage Central junior Ben Orwin, the second seed, 6-3, 6-4.
Action was moved inside from Kalamazoo College’s Stowe Stadium to the Markin Racquet Center because of inclement weather, which was fine with Angell.
“It’s a lot faster, but it’s a little easier to hit the ball because it’s cleaner,” he said. “Today I thought I played really well. Won 7-5, 6-1 both times (against Orwin) this year. It’s always a tough match.”
Angell won a title at No. 2 doubles last year, but “this one’s probably the biggest because 2 singles is the highest I’ve played. Really hard match.”
Said Orwin: “He was just the better player today. He put a lot of pressure on me. I thought I played my hardest, but I just didn’t come out with the win.”
Portage Central coach Erik Anderson said his players met their goal.
“Overall, I thought it was a good tournament for Portage Central,” he said. “Altogether, we had a chance to catch the champions in the final day. We just didn’t get it done. I’m pleased with our result.
“We gave it our all. It just wasn’t enough today. I expected top four. I expected to be in contention for a championship the final day, and we were.”
At No. 3 singles, Midland Dow’s top seed Michael Szabo, a junior, defeated No. 2 Justin Minzlaff, Forest Hills Northern senior, 6-4, 6-1, to finish his season undefeated.
“States is a whole different thing,” Szabo said. “You have to come with your best game and I did today, I guess.
“I was more focused on every point because you have more eyes on you. It’s more important in the finals.”
Minzlaff said this isn’t the first time the two have faced off.
“I played him my sophomore year in the Okemos quad and lost, played in state finals and he beat me 6-4, 6-1. Earlier this season, I took him to three sets, 2-6, 7-5, 4-10 in the tiebreaker.
“(Saturday) we both came out to play hard. He just came out on top. We both wanted it, obviously, but he just came out on top. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
At No. 4 singles, fifth-seeded Josh Olmstead, a Birmingham Groves junior, upset Midland Dow’s top seed, Aditya Middha, 6-1, 6-2, in the semis but fell short against No. 2, Forest Hills Central freshman Jacob Wiltjer, 6-4, 6-3.
“I think when I was playing the No. 1 seed, I just gave it my all,” Olmstead said. “I left everything out on the court. When I came up against the second seed, he had more than I had and he played a lot better. I couldn’t do much. He played great, and he deserved it.”
Wiltjer said playing in an MHSAA championship tournament with a team is a lot different than USTA tournaments.
“It’s a lot bigger and a lot more important,” he said. “There are a lot more players here.”
Besides Fox and Schmidt, Forest Hills Central’s doubles winners were No. 6 Nico Finelli and Joey McClure at No. 1 and top seeds Humzah Azeem and Ryan Conner at No. 3.
No. 4 seeds Clark Shawver and Hunter Hall, from Forest Hills Northern, won the No 4 doubles title.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Central unseated Midland Dow as LP Division 2 champion Saturday. (Middle) Portage Northern's Steward Sell prepares to return a volley during his No. 1 singles championship match. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
Preview: Champions Hope to Reign On
October 17, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
All four reigning champions at this weekend’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are playing to continue incredible strings of success atop their respective divisions in the sport.
Ann Arbor Greenhills in Division 4 is playing for its sixth straight title, while Midland Dow in Division 2 is hoping for its fifth consecutive. Ann Arbor Huron in Division 1 and Detroit Country Day in Division 3 are going for their third straight titles – and all four are ranked No.1 in their respective divisions entering Friday’s first rounds of play.
Below is a brief look at top contenders at all four tournaments. Play begins Friday morning and finishes Saturday. Click for more including brackets and seeds for all 32 flights.
DIVISION 1 at Midland Tennis Center
Top ranked: No. 1 Ann Arbor Huron, No. 2 Birmingham Brother Rice, No. 3 Novi.
Huron has won the last two LP Division 1 championships, by six points last season and four in 2011. Both times Brother Rice finished second, tying with Novi last fall. Novi has never won an MHSAA team championship, but brings back experienced players from last year’s run.
Huron: The River Rats are lined up with two top seeds and four second seeds – and all four doubles pairs among those six. Reigning No. 3 singles champion Colin Williams is back as the top seed in that flight, and reigning No. 1 doubles champions Akihiro Ota and Aaron Brodkey also are back to attempt a repeat. They top a veteran doubles group: Michael Bondin was half of last season’s MHSAA runner-up at No. 3 and teams with Danny Friedman for the second seed at that flight, and Austin Luker and Will Brenner were No. 4 runners-up last season and are back with new partners – Luker with Jason Chen as the second seed at No. 2 and Brenner with Orion Sang as the second seed at No. 4.
Brother Rice: The Warriors are seeded at seven flights with four top seeds including three and a second in doubles. Connor Parks and George Hamaty made the semifinals at No. 2 doubles last season and are the second seed at No. 1, while reigning champions Joey Hildebrand (No. 3) and David Weatherford (No. 4) have teamed up for the top seed at No. 2. Brendan Dillon, Weatherford’s partner last season, is part of the top seed at No. 3 doubles with Joe Paradiso.
Novi: The Wildcats are seeded at every flight, led by top-seeded Tim Wang at No. 1 singles – he made the quarterfinals last season. Koushik Kondapi is back as the second seed at No. 3 singles after finishing runner-up at that flight in 2012, and Andrew Ying is back at No. 1 doubles with new partner Michael Chang after finishing runner-up in the top doubles flight last season. Chang was half of the runner-up at No. 2 doubles.
Northville’s Connor Johnston: He’s the second seed at No. 1 singles after winning the No. 2 championship in straight sets in 2012. He lost to Novi’s Wang at the Regional.
Detroit Catholic Central’s Michael Dube’: He’s the third seed at No. 1 singles after making the second round while the fifth seed last season. He also fell to Novi’s Wang during the Regional.
Troy Athens’ Richard Zhang: He made the quarterfinals at No. 1 last season after entering the tournament unseeded.
DIVISION 2 at Hope College/Holland Christian
Top ranked: No. 1 Midland Dow, No. 2 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, No. 3 Detroit U-D Jesuit.
Reigning No. 1 individual champion: Davis Crocker, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix.
Dow has owned this division the last four seasons, beating runner-up Forest Hills Central by 12 points last season and 14 in 2011. U-D Jesuit finished seventh last season and could make a substantial jump.
Dow: All eight flights are seeded first or second. Julian Guerra is the top seed at No. 2 singles after winning No. 3 last season, and Michael Szabo is the top seed at No. 4 as he plays for a repeat title. Jason Chang and Vikram Shanker also are back as reigning champions, at No. 1 doubles, and Patrick Eschbach and Colin Angell are the top seed at No. 2 doubles after Eschbach was part of last season’s No. 3 champion and Angell was part of the No. 2 runner-up.
Forest Hills Central: Another run could be keyed by the doubles pairs; all four are seeded third or better. Nico Finelli and Joey McClure are the third seed at No. 2 after Finelli was part of the runner-up last season and McClure was half of the No. 4 champion pair. Carson Schmidt and Andrew Fox are the top seed at No. 3, and two singles flights also are seeded.
U-D Jesuit: The Cubs bring back an identical singles lineup from last season’s Finals, plus No. 1 doubles pair Timmy Hoffman and Marty Nagle, who made the semifinals at No. 2 last season. Jesuit never has finished among the top two at a Finals, but does have seeds at every flight this weekend.
Kalamazoo Loy Norrix’s Davis Crocker: The reigning No. 1 singles champion won last season as the second seed, but enters with top billing this time.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern’s Justin Minzlaff: He’ll try to claim the No. 2 singles title after finishing runner-up at No. 4 in 2012; he enters as the fifth seed.
Birmingham Seaholm’s Griffin Neel and Kenji Johnston: They’re seeded second at No. 1 doubles with Neel coming off the No. 2 doubles championship last season – when Johnston played No. 2 singles.
DIVISION 3 at Kalamazoo College
Top ranked: No. 1 Detroit County Day, No. 2 St. Joseph, No. 3 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood.
Country Day and St. Joseph have a rivalry growing atop Division 3 as the Yellowjackets have won the last two Division 3 titles, with St. Joseph second both times. Players from the two met in six of the eight flight championship matches last fall. Watch for East Grand Rapids, which is seeded fourth or higher at every flight.
Country Day: Some of the names at the top of the lineup have changed, but not the level of play. Country Day enters with six top seeds – including at all four doubles flights – and led by two-time No. 3 singles champion Rishi Patel, who is the third seed at No. 1 this weekend. Rishabh Nayak and Adam Dunn are the top seed at No. 2 doubles with Nayak coming off last season’s No. 3 championship, and Matt Stebbins and D.J. Bailey hope to add a title at No. 3 after winning No. 4 doubles in 2012.
St. Joseph: The Bears also return some veterans after finishing eight points behind Country Day a year ago. Thomas Bellio was the No. 2 singles runner-up and returns as the second seed at No. 1 (he also won No. 3 singles as a freshman), and Kenny Garstecki is the top seed at No. 3 after winning No. 4 last season. Matt VanWinkle and Ed Nieh hope they are a championship combination as the third seed at No. 1 doubles after VanWinkle was part of last season’s runner-up and Nieh was part of the runner-up at No. 3. Nick Stants and Peter Kim are the third seed at No. 2, with Stants formerly part of last season’s No. 4 doubles runner-up.
Cranbrook-Kingswood: The Cranes are the only team aside from Country Day to win a Division 3 title over the last five seasons; Cranbrook-Kingswood won in both 2010 and 2008. The Cranes enter this weekend with seven seeds, including three seconds in doubles. Marc Sable is the sixth seed at No. 1 singles after making the semifinals at No. 2 in 2012.
East Grand Rapids' Garrett Goldman: The top seed at No. 1 singles entered 2012’s Finals as the third seed and fell in the quarterfinals to eventual runner-up Jan Krakora from Plainwell. Goldman did win No. 2 singles as a sophomore.
DIVISION 4 at Gland Blanc/Holly
Top ranked: No. 1 Ann Arbor Greenhills, No. 2 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, No. 3 Lansing Catholic.
Greenhills is looking to continue its MHSAA-best current streak of five straight boys tennis titles and last season won six flights including all four in doubles. Lansing Catholic has finished runner-up twice during that five-year run and University Liggett tied for third a year ago.
Greenhills: Many of the Gryphons’ top players this season succeeded at lower flights during last fall’s run. Zach Martell is the fifth seed at No. 1 singles after winning as part of the No. 1 doubles pair in 2012 (and at No. 4 singles in 2011), second-seeded No. 2 singles player Nick Sandhu was part of last season’s No. 2 doubles champ, and second-seeded Zach Tsai at No. 3 singles is coming off winning the No. 4 title. Adhi Rajaprabhakaran (No. 1 doubles) and Neil Sykes (No. 2) both were part of championship pairs at lower flights last season, and Gage Feldeisen is the second seed at No. 4 singles after teaming with Sykes to win No. 4 doubles.
University Liggett: A pair of top-seeded doubles teams anchor a lineup with six seeds total. Alan Jurcak and August Bonacci made the No. 2 doubles quarterfinals last season and are the top seed at that flight, and Jackson Benning and Davey Sekhon are the top-seeded pair at No. 4.
Lansing Catholic: The top three seeds at No. 1 singles last season all were from the Capital Area Activities Conference White, and with both finalists graduated Lansing Catholic’s Matt Heeder moves up from the third to first seed. No. 2 singles player Anthony Davis also returns to his 2012 flight, this time as the fifth seed, and three other flights carry seeds into the tournament.
Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central’s Danny Moyer: He made it to the quarterfinals at No. 1 singles last season as the fourth seed and enters Friday as the second.
Kalamazoo Christian’s Andrew Klein: Last season’s runner-up at No. 2 singles is the sixth seed at No. 1.
PHOTO: Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Zach Tsai returns a volley during his Division 4 championship match at No. 4 singles against Comstock Park’s Zac Rossman last fall. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)