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.)
GNC Champ Escanaba Hoping to Serve Up More History
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 2, 2021
ESCANABA — Fourteen years have passed since the Escanaba boys were last crowned Upper Peninsula tennis champions.
The Eskymos, fresh from earning their first Great Northern Conference title since 2003, will try to change that at today’s U.P. Division 1 Finals at Negaunee.
“We have a very nice opportunity ahead of us,” said fifth-year coach Tom Penegor. “We just went through a tough GNC meet (May 27 at Marquette). We’re hoping that will give us an edge in the U.P. Finals. I think we have some momentum.”
Standing in the way is five-time reigning champ Negaunee.
“They’ll be tough, and Marquette has good singles players,” said Penegor. “The other schools also have some good players. There’s pressure out there, and everybody responds to that differently. The game is just as much mental as physical. The scoring system is different from the GNC. You need every single point.”
The Eskymos have an all-junior singles lineup with Gunner Dlugas holding a 14-5 record at No. 1. Filling out singles are Shawn Beauchamp (13-7) at No. 2, Nathan Howes (15-3) at No. 3 and Connor Smale (10-2) at No. 4.
“It felt great to win the GNC,” said Dlugas, who among latest improvements to his game has made the transition from a two-handed to a one-handed backhand shot. “We hadn’t won the GNC since I was born. Four of us have played for two years, and the rest of the guys are first-year players. We’re a fresh team, and that’s why this is so important for us. We have a lot of No. 1 seeds and we’re definitely improving, which gives us a pretty good feeling going into the Finals. I think we’re ready to go.”
Also part of today’s lineup are senior Ryan Moreau and junior Viktor Pospisil, an exchange student from Mladá Boleslov in the Czech Republic, who together are 10-2 at No. 1 doubles.
“I wasn’t supposed to play tennis, but I started playing with the guys at first, then decided to join the team,” said Popisil. “I had been playing in my hometown in Europe and appreciate having the opportunity to play here. I didn’t think we’d be this good at the beginning of the season, but everything kind of progressed as the season went on. We’ve been coming together as a team.”
Moreau said he truly enjoys playing with his partner.
“Viktor’s a great player, and we’ve become great friends,” he added. “All the players from the other schools come up and talk to him.
“I’m real excited about the Finals. Negaunee has a great program. We’re coming in as kind of an underdog. We definitely have to play our game and take the title away from them. If we do that, we should take it.”
Junior Isaac Maki and sophomore Dawson Williams fill the No. 2 flight.
“This experience has been awesome,” said Williams. “I learned a lot about tennis and made a lot of new friends. This is actually my first high school sport. Our first match (this season) against Menominee was exciting. I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I thought we performed beyond expectations.
“Negaunee as a great team, and West Iron County is very good. I thank God for giving me the strength to play at a high level and Coach, my teammates and parents for all their encouragement and support. Winning the GNC gave us a boost going into the Finals.”
Joining them in the doubles lineup are seniors Tanner McDonald and Jordan Nance (13-1) at No. 3 and senior Brayden Roberts and junior Joe Hubert at No. 4.
Should the Eskymos prevail today, it would mark the first time they’d have won the GNC and U.P. Finals in the same year since 1999.
“We had four practices before the U.P. Finals,” said Penegor. “After the GNC meet, we asked the guys if they wanted to practice over the weekend and they decided they wanted to do that.
“Our team has worked hard, and our assistant coaches (Chris Ogren and Alan Adams) have been a tremendous asset to our team this year.”
Tennis is a self-supporting program at Escanaba, and Penegor said one of the reasons he took over after retiring from the city was out of love for the sport.
“We appreciate the support of our sponsors, and the parents have driven us to some of the meets,” said Penegor. “They’ve also been big supporters of our team.
“We started with four seniors. It’s nice to have a mixture of younger kids with our seniors. This is definitely the best mix we’ve had in my five years as coach. We stress to the kids the importance of having fun, making improvements and working on their game.”
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTOS: (Top) Escanaba’s Ryan Moreau returns a volley this season against Ishpeming Westwood. (Middle) The Eskymos celebrate their Great Northern Conference championship. (Top photo courtesy of the Escanaba Daily Press; middle photo courtesy of the Escanaba athletic department.)