Longtime Okemos Friends Deliver Again
October 20, 2018
By Butch Harmon
Special for Second Half
HOLLAND – What started with a love of the sport in elementary school grew into a second straight MHSAA Finals championship for members of the Okemos boys tennis team Saturday.
Led by a core group of players who began playing tennis together at a young age, Okemos won the Lower Peninsula Division 2 title with six flight championships and 37 total points. Birmingham Groves and Birmingham Seaholm tied for second with 23 points, with Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern placing fourth with 19.
“We’ve known when these kids were 5, 6, 7 years old they were going to be good,” said Okemos coach Chris Silker. “They have stayed together. They have invested in each other and really pushed each other to higher levels every year.”
The No. 1 doubles team of seniors Zal Chinoy and Daniel Gorelik are a prime example of the long-time friendships on the team.
“I’ve known Daniel since I was in the second grade,” Chinoy said. “We started playing tennis together around that time. We built a friendship around playing tennis, and we kept it going for all these years and our chemistry is a main, main part of our game.”
Chemistry proved key as Chinoy and Gorelik wrapped up their careers by turning back Ben Adams and Aidan O’Neill of Birmingham Seaholm 6-1, 6-3.
“Actually Zal is the one that played tennis before me,” Gorelik said. “He was playing since he was 6 years old, and he was the one that brought me into it. He said, ‘Hey, you should try this sport.’ It’s actually surreal we are here right now playing one doubles together.”
At No. 2 doubles, sophomores Druv Talluri and Shrey Patel turned back Jonathan Cross and Owen Cross of Birmingham Seaholm 6-4, 6-1.
“It feels great,” Talluri said. “All the practice and it paid off.”
The duo both won flight titles last year as well. Talluri was part of the victorious No. 3 doubles team in 2017, while Patel won the No. 3 singles title last year.
“We have really good chemistry,” Patel said. “We’ve played together before, and we have a good chemistry together.”
Depth and balance are a major strong point of this year’s Okemos squad.
“We’re deep, we’re deep,” Silker said. “When you have a freshman that can come into the one-singles spot and pushes everyone down, it creates a stronger and deeper lineup.”
That freshman is Ozan Colak, who came into the tournament as the top seed at No. 1 singles. Colak more than lived up to his lofty ranking as he wrapped up the title with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Nathaniel Webster of Mattawan.
“Right now, I just can’t get this smile off my face,” Colak said. “It feels really good. I’ve had a lot of injuries, and to come out here and still play as well as I believe I can is huge for me. It’s a huge confidence boost. It just feels great to be on a team that is so good.”
At No. 2 singles, Okemos sophomore Joshua Portnoy stopped Anish Middha of Midland 6-1, 6-1 in the final. The win was extra special for Portnoy, as he lost in the final last year.
“I’m really excited because last year I fell short in the finals,” Portnoy said. “It just felt great coming back here and winning it. After the loss last year, I wanted to win it so bad, so I just worked really hard to come back this year and win.”
Okemos junior Benjamin Letzer claimed the title at No. 3 singles as he topped Saketh Kamaraju 6-1, 1-0 (retired). Letzer reached the quarterfinals at No. 1 singles last year and No. 2 singles as a freshman, and breaking through this year was special.
“It was a lot of fun getting a state championship,” Letzer said. “We have a lot of great guys on this team, and we are really positive and that helps.”
Winning the team title made the day even more special for Letzer.
“It’s really amazing,” Letzer said. “We have this great team chemistry and we’ve been playing this great tennis for two years. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Sophomore Rohan Shah capped the sweep of singles flights for Okemos when he turned back Owen Goodrich of Forest Hills Northern 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4.
“It was really cool winning four singles,” Shah said. “We have a special team. We have just amazing players, and it’s truly an honor being on this team. The seniors this year really worked their tails off, and it’s amazing to see them win a second title.”
Birmingham Seaholm finished the tournament with a pair of flight championships. At No. 4 doubles, the team of junior Fred Kassab and sophomore Nolan Werner outlasted Brett Kovan and Ethan Weitzman of Birmingham Groves 6-4, 6-3. The Seaholm duo entered the tournament seeded fourth but defeated top-seed Okemos in the semifinals and third-seeded Groves in the final.
“It’s crazy,” Werner said. “We were the number four seed, so we were not even projected to be here. We took down Okemos and took down Groves, two very good teams, so it worked out pretty good. We were just more aggressive at the net. We were making our serves, cutting more, it was great.”
Confidence was also a big part of Kassab and Werner’s success.
“I didn’t think we could do it at first,” Kassab said, “but we just took one match at a time, one point at a time and we persevered and won. We knew we had it in us.”
Seaholm pulled another upset at No. 3 doubles, where the second-seeded team of Max Levitsky and Cameron Lee outlasted the top seed from Okemos, Siddharth Nagisetty and Aditya Kandula, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
For Levitsky, a senior, winning capped a career that saw him finish as a runner-up at No. 3 doubles last year and a quarterfinalist at No. 3 singles as a sophomore.
“It’s fun to go out with a win as a senior,” Levitsky said. “I think we won more of the big points, and we played our game really well. This feels pretty good.”
Lee, a junior, reached the quarterfinal round as a singles player last year.
“This feels awesome,” Lee said. “It’s extremely special. I think we just outplayed them. We capitalized on the easy balls, and we weren’t nervous or tentative.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Okemos freshman Ozan Colak follows through during No. 1 singles action Saturday. (Middle) Birmingham Seaholm’s Nolan Werner and Fred Kassab encourage each other during a No. 4 doubles match. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Negaunee Caps Near-Perfect Season by Taking Back Top Spot in UPD1
By
Jerry DeRoche
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2023
KINGSFORD – The Negaunee Miners are no strangers to lifting Upper Peninsula Division 1 tennis title hardware.
Coach Kyle Saari’s program has been a powerhouse over the past 14 years, winning eight championships and finishing runner-up three times.
Still, the Miners entered the 2023 event having finished second behind Escanaba the last two seasons. But this Negaunee squad was dripping with confidence, having gone through the regular campaign unbeaten and barely losing a set along the way.
With that in mind, the Miners' championship Wednesday at Kingsford High School was rather expected. But take nothing away from the 12 Negaunee players who shined nearly as brightly as the blazing sun overhead with seven flight championships and one second-place finish to recapture the trophy in emphatic fashion.
The Miners finished the day with 23 points, well in front of 2022 champion Escanaba, which recorded 11 points. Kingsford took third with eight, Marquette placed fourth with six, Westwood wound up fifth with five and Gladstone did not post a win and finished sixth.
“From day one, they wanted to bring a U.P. title back home,” Saari said of his squad. “So for us to take seven out of eight finals, it’s a great feeling. You have to play your best on the final day, and today they were able to do that. They answered the bell.”
Frankly, the Miners have done that all season, to a remarkable degree. Negaunee not only beat every opponent they faced along the way, the Miners' players won a staggering 155 of 160 matches they played combined.
And to cap it all off, Negaunee lost just two of 32 sets on the final day of the season.
“This year has been kind of unprecedented,” Saari said. “I don’t think you can ever see (155-5) coming. Our 2012 team was 162-7, and this team beat that as far as winning percentage.
“The unique thing was they were able to answer the challenge every single day. They’re a humble group, they do it the right way and they handle it the right way, too.”
The Miners swept the four doubles flights. At No. 1 doubles, Jace Turri and James Thomson knocked off Kingsford’s Ben Trevillian and Gabe Lafraniere 6-1, 7-5, while Gavin Jacobson and Gavin Downey defeated Gabe Tossava and Reid Frustaglio of Westwood 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.
In the No. 3 doubles flight, Philip Nelson and Zack Brundage posted a 7-5, 6-2 win over Nick Chaillier and Vincent Guindon of Escanaba, and at No. 4 doubles, Ethan Harris and Brandon Borlace upended Brett Berglund and Isaac Lebouef of Kingsford 6-3, 6-3.
The only flight that didn’t end with a Negaunee win was No. 1 singles, where Escanaba senior Dawson Williams defeated Negaunee senior Luke Syrjala in two tough sets, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
Williams was overwhelmed with emotion after putting his name in the U.P. boys tennis record book.
“I’m lost for words right now,” Williams said, fighting off tears. “I never thought when I was a freshman walking into tennis, I’d be winning a U.P. title at one singles.”
Williams said the matchup with Syrjala, their fifth duel of the season, came with the added difficulty of playing a left-hander.
“It is always tough to deal with a lefty, and he’s a very competitive player,” said Williams, who won four of the five matches with Negaunee’s top singles player along the way.
But in the overall competition, Negaunee’s depth was too much for all the other competitors.
“We feel that from one singles to four singles, on any day, they could have each other’s (flight) numbers, so all four of them were able to push each other during the course of the year to make us better,” Saari said. “And I think that’s true within our doubles lineup, too.”
PHOTOS (Top) Negaunee’s James Thomson returns a volley during a No. 1 doubles match, with partner Jace Turri. (Middle) The Miners are presented with the championship trophy Wednesday. (Below) Escanaba’s Dawson Williams sends a backhand during the championship match at No. 1 singles. (Photos by Dennis Mansfield.)