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: Power Programs Locked In
October 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It’s rematch time for many of the powerhouse programs in Lower Peninsula boys tennis.
This weekend’s MHSAA Finals feature the same No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in both Divisions 3 and 4 as a year ago, a pair of rivals that tied for the 2015 title holding down the top spots in Division 1, and the two programs with the most championships in Division 2 history heading that field again.
Play both Friday and Saturday begins at 8 a.m. Click for full brackets for all four tournaments, plus Regional results, and come back to Second Half early Saturday evening for coverage from all four Finals.
LP Division 1 at Midland Tennis Center
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills, 2. Novi, 3. Birmingham Brother Rice.
Bloomfield Hills missed a second straight championship last season by two points, scoring 28 to finish behind Ann Arbor Huron – which is ranked No. 6 heading into this weekend. Novi, which shared the 2015 title with the Black Hawks, also won in 2014 and finished fourth a year ago. Brother Rice finished runner-up in 2011, 2012 and 2014 and is seeking its first MHSAA title since 2009.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks are seeded in seven flights with six flights seeded first or second, including all four in doubles. Andrew Zhang is the second seed at No. 1 singles after winning No. 2 last season, and Constantin Hemmrich is the top seed at No. 3 singles as he looks to win that flight for the third straight season. Cade and Sebastian Burman at No. 1 doubles and Kyle Peres and Alex Walkon at No. 4 also carry top seeds.
Novi: Six flights are seeded, led by No. 1 doubles pair Robert Chen and Aditya Chitta as the second at their flight. Alex Wen enters as the sixth seed at No. 1 singles for the second straight year although he made the semifinals last season and won No. 2 as a sophomore and No. 3 as a freshman. Sid Amarnath is the third seed at No. 2 singles and was the No. 3 singles runner-up in 2015.
Brother Rice: The Warriors are seeded at three singles flights and three doubles flights as they seek to improve on last season’s sixth-place finish. Niko Mamatas and Riley McNulty are the top seed at No. 2 doubles, the highest seed among the team’s six. McNulty was part of the No. 2 runner-up last fall with Jack Brockhaus, who this season is part of the third-seeded pair at No. 1 doubles. No. 2 singles fifth seed Josh Anschuetz was part of last season’s No. 1 doubles runner-up, and No. 1 singles third seed Jarreau Campbell was part of the No. 1 doubles champion in 2015.
Troy’s Steve Forman: Now a senior, Forman improved from the semifinals as a sophomore to win No. 1 singles last fall while losing only one set during Finals weekend.
Clarkston’s Luke Baylis: The Wolves’ sophomore No. 1 singles player looks like an inevitable champion and enters as the fourth seed after finishing No. 2 runner-up last fall.
Ann Arbor Huron’s Brendan Chen and Max Brodkey: Chen was part of last season’s No. 1 doubles champion and with Brodkey is seeded fifth this weekend.
LP Division 2 at Kalamazoo College
Top-ranked: 1. Okemos, 2. Birmingham Groves, 3. Birmingham Seaholm.
Midland Dow, ranked fourth heading into the weekend, is the reigning champion and has won six of the last eight titles in this division. Okemos is seeking its first since running off four straight championships from 2004-07 – when Groves finished runner-up three times, their last three placings among the top two at a Finals. Like Groves, Seaholm also is seeking its first Finals championship and was runner-up two years at the end of last decade.
Okemos: This lines up much like the dominant Chiefs teams of old, with seven flights seeded and all seeded first or second at those flights. Josh Portnoy (No. 2), Shrey Patel (No. 3) and Daniel Gorelik (No. 4) all have top seeds in singles, while Rohan Shah and Siddharth Nagisetty (No. 2) and Deniz Kalfa and Druv Talluri (No. 3) are top-seeded in doubles. Kalfa was the champion at No. 4 singles last season and Gorelik was runner-up at No. 3 as Okemos finished third as a team, up from eighth in both 2015 and 2014.
Midland Dow: Although ranked just fourth heading into the postseason, Dow looks to be in the best position to challenge Okemos with all eight flights seeded and six seeded to make the semifinals. Aditya Middha and Saketh Kamaraju are the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Middha was part of last year’s champion at the flight and Kamaraju was runner-up at No. 4 singles. Reigning No. 3 singles champ Tyler Conrad is seeded third at No. 2, and last season’s No. 2 runner-up Anish Middha is seeded fourth at No. 1. Daniel Zhang and Gopal Parthasarathy are the top seed at No. 2 doubles after winning No. 3 last year, and Noah Nichols – part of last year’s runner-up at No. 2 – is seeded third at No. 3 singles. Ryan Killmaster is part of the fifth-seeded No. 3 doubles pair after finishing as part of the No. 4 runner-up in 2016.
Groves: The Falcons tied for fifth last season and return half of an individual champion – Aerik Joe, who is playing No. 1 doubles after helping earn the No. 4 championship in 2016. Groves’ strength is at singles, however, with all four players coming in as third seeds or higher. Junior Gabe Liss is the top seed at No. 1 singles after making the quarterfinals last season as the fifth seed in that flight.
Seaholm: The Maples actually won their Regional ahead of Groves last week after tying with the Falcons at last year’s Final, and they enter with five seeded flights and strength especially in doubles. Alex Acho and Ben Adams are paired as the top seed at No. 4.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central’s Connor Genschaw: The second seed at No. 1 singles made the semifinals last season as the fourth seed and took the first set from eventual champion Varun Shanker.
Portage Central’s Lucas Guy: Entering as the third seed at No. 1 singles for the second straight season, Guy also made the semifinals last season at the top flight.
LP Division 3 at Holland
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Detroit Country Day, 3. Ada Forest Hills Eastern.
Cranbrook Kingswood has won the last two Division 3 titles ahead of runner-up Country Day, by eight points in 2015 but only one point a year ago. Together, they’ve won the last nine Division 3 championships and earned five runner-up finishes in that time as well. Cranbrook Kingswood beat Country Day by two points at their Regional last week.
Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes have three top seeds in singles and two in doubles, with championship experience all over the lineup. Benji Jacobson is top-seeded at No. 1 singles and looking to repeat as champion and claim his third Finals title after winning No. 2 singles in 2015. Lucas Bosch is top-seeded at No. 2 singles after making the semifinals at that flight in 2016, and Justin Luo is top-seeded at No. 3 coming off a runner-up finish there and after winning No. 4 in 2015. Sohum Archarya is the second seed at No. 4 after also earning a runner-up finish there a year ago. Andrew Du and Jacob Yellen are the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Du was part of last year’s champion and Yellen a runner-up at No. 2, and Joseph Croskey and Nikhil Deenadayalu are top-seeded at No. 2 after Croskey teamed with Yellen and Deenadayalu was part of last season’s runner-up at No. 3. Eshaan Kawlra and Jack Trees are the second seed at No. 3 doubles after winning No. 4 a year ago.
Country Day: The Yellowjackets will bank on six seeded flights to lead them back to the top this weekend. Among top seeds are Tom Nardicchio and Eric Liu at No. 3 doubles and Nick Sicilia and Justin Lee at No. 4; Nardicchio was part of last season’s champion at No. 3 and Sicilia was part of the runner-up at No. 4. Eric Wang earned the top seed at No. 4 singles after winning that flight last year, and Nik Gruskin is the fourth seed at No. 1 after finishing runner-up at No. 2 a year ago. Prathik Chukkapalli was Sicilia’s partner last season but is teaming up for the second-seeded No. 1 pair with Ryan Murakawa, who was part of the runner-up at that flight last year with Rick Warnicke – who is seeded second at No. 2 singles.
Ada Forest Hills Eastern: If either of the Oakland County powers above falters, Forest Hills Eastern could swoop in for its first top-two Finals finish. The Hawks are seeded in seven flights and expected to make the semifinals in six of them. No. 2 doubles pair Evan Schwalm and Karsyn Vanderweele are seeded second, the highest in the lineup.
Coopersville’s Jack Dausman: He’s the second seed at No. 1 singles after surprising by making the semifinals last year as the fifth seed, before falling to Jacobson.
Holland Christian’s Ryan Rhoades: Last season’s runner-up returns as the fifth seed at No. 1 singles, meaning a rematch with Jacobson would come in the semifinals instead of the championship match.
Williamston’s Oliver Weaver: The Hornets moved to Division 3 this fall, and Weaver will test his skills against a new field after winning No. 1 singles in Division 4 last year and finishing runner-up in that division in 2015.
LP Division 4 at Novi
Top-ranked: 1. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 2. Ann Arbor Greenhills, 3. Traverse City St. Francis.
University Liggett broke Greenhills’ eight-year hold on the Division 4 title by finishing two points ahead to win last season’s championship. The pair actually have shared the top for a while, with Greenhills of course finishing second last year and Liggett finishing runner-up in both 2015 and 2014. Traverse City St. Francis remains on the verge of its first top-two finish after tying for third place in 2016.
University Liggett: Only three flights are top-seeded, but all eight flights are seeded third or higher. Thomas Van Pelt and Spencer Warezak at No. 2 doubles and Matthew Lesha and Craig Buhler at No. 3 have two of those top seeds, and all four played in championship matches last year – Warezak and Buhler won No. 3 doubles, while Van Pelt was part of the No. 1 runner-up and Lesha part of the runner-up at No. 4. Andrew Staricco is the lone top seed in singles, at No. 4 after winning that flight last fall, but No. 2 singles third seed Christian Illitch was runner-up at his flight two years ago. Maddie Fozo and Alec Azar are the second seed at No. 1 after Fozo teamed with Van Pelt last year and Azar was part of the No. 2 doubles champion. Freshman William Cooksey will lead the next wave and he’s already started, pulling in the second seed at No. 1 singles for his first Finals.
Greenhills: Like Liggett, Greenhills has all eight flights seeded third or higher. Kaan Oral has the top seed at No. 2 singles after making the semifinals at that flight last season (as the second seed), and Jack Harris and Trey Feldeisen are the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Harris was part of last season’s champion at that flight and Feldeisen was part of the runner-up at No. 3. Drake Rosenberg was a champion at No. 4 doubles last year and is part of the second seed at No. 3, while Sushruta Shankar was part of the runner-up at No. 3 and is part of the third seed at No. 2. Henry Branch is seeded third at No. 3 singles after finishing runner-up last season at No. 4.
St. Francis: The Gladiators might have their best shot yet at moving up with all eight flights seeded fourth or better. St. Francis also has one top seed in singles – Nathan Sodini at No. 3 – and one top seed at doubles with Alex Thelen and Tyler Tafelsky at No. 4. Joe Primeau will look to take some of the Finals experience he earned last year as part of the No. 2 doubles runner-up to No. 4 singles, where he’s seeded fourth.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Ian Worthington: Last season’s champion at No. 2 singles (as a third seed) has moved up to No. 1, where he enters the weekend seeded fifth.
Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard’s Ian Sood: After finishing runner-up to Worthington at No. 2 singles last season, and as a fifth seed, Sood is back as the second seed at the same flight.
Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard’s Evan Sood: Evan Sood is playing No. 1 singles for the third straight year and is the top seed after making the quarterfinals last season while unseeded.
PHOTO: Cranbrook Kingswood’s Benji Jacobson, left, and Holland Christian’s Ryan Rhoades meet at the net after Jacobson won last season’s No. 1 singles final in Lower Peninsula Division 3. Both return this weekend. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)