No Separating Country Day, Greenhills as Division 3 Powers Share Finals Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 19, 2024
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The slimmest of margins seem to separate Detroit Country Day, Ann Arbor Greenhills and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood every year at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Boys Tennis Finals.
That was again the case this weekend, with those slimmest of margins turning out to be an unfortunate injury and an incredible comeback.
The end result was Greenhills and Country Day sharing the team title with 32 points, while host Cranbrook was third with 30 and wondering what might have been after a critical injury.
In the third set of a semifinal match at No. 1 singles, Cranbrook senior Ryan Michaels — the top seed going into the tournament — started cramping up while trailing 2-0 against No. 4 seed Teddy Staebler of Ann Arbor Greenhills.
Michaels eventually couldn’t go on and had to retire from the match. Nobody will know if Michaels would have been able to come back to win, but regardless, Staebler continued his good play and took advantage of his championship opportunity.
Staebler went on to defeat Bhavesh Burramukku of St. Joseph in the final, storming back after losing the first set for a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
“I’ve played him a bunch of times,” Staebler said. “I haven’t had a ton of success, but I’ve seen a couple of things that work with him. In the past I usually win the first set and then struggle in the second set, but I lost the first set this time. I knew I was still in it in the second set. I was really able to play my game.”
The other big thing that skewed the end result was the unreal comeback by Greenhills’ No. 1 doubles team of William Pearce and Kabir Rajendra.
The second-seeded team in the flight, the tandem met up with top-seeded Charlie Khaghany and Achyut Reddy of Country Day in the final.
Khaghany and Reddy had downed Pearce and Rajendra at their Regional and held a 5-0 lead in the first set of the final. But Pearce and Rajendra put on a comeback for the ages, staving off a set point and ultimately rallying by winning seven games in a row to earn a 7-5 win.
“In tennis, one little shot or thing can change everything,” Rajendra said. “We started to gain some momentum, and next thing you know we are down 5-4 and we said we had a chance to pull out this set.”
Pearce and Rajendra then won the second set in a tiebreaker, winning the tiebreaker 7-5. In addition to the titles at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, Greenhills got flight championships out of the team of Ajay Purohit and Charlie Rich at No. 2 doubles, and the team of Richard Wu and Kirtan Palapattu at No. 3 doubles.
The team championship was Greenhills’ third straight, including last season’s in Division 4.
Greenhills head coach Eric Gajar said it was just a matter of his players giving themselves a chance by continuing to advance.
“You just sort of take care of what you can care of in your matches,” Gajar said. “We won nine of our 12 matches today. Our guys really stepped up against top-level competition.”
Country Day snapped an uncharacteristically long title drought by winning its first since 2014.
“I’ve been speaking about it to them for a long time,” Country Day head coach Nick Fiashchetti said.
Country Day got titles in three flights, with Ricky Jeong prevailing as the top seed at No. 3 singles, second-seeded Adam Mahmoud winning at No. 4, and the second-seeded tandem of Rick Nie and Preston Blum winning at No. 4 doubles.
“I felt like we did a good job of competing,” Fiashchetti said. “It seemed like our minds were locked in. That sometimes can lead to emotions spilling out. But that didn’t happen to us.”
Cranbrook’s title came courtesy of Kenneth Hu at No. 2 singles.
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Kabir Rajendra, left, and William Pearce talk things over during their comeback to win the No. 1 doubles championship Saturday. (Middle) Country Day’s Ricky Jeong volleys during his No. 3 singles title match. (Below) The Gryphons’ Teddy Staebler gets to a backhand during his No. 1 singles final. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Game, Set, Gurnee
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 16, 2011
The highlight of Jonathan Gurnee's tennis season, without question, was helping Midland Dow to a third-straight MHSAA Division 2 championship.
But setting the state record for career singles wins was a close second.
Playing the No. 2 singles slot in Dow’s lineup, Gurnee tied another state record with 41 victories on the way to winning the Division 2 championship at his flight. He finished his final high school season with 141 wins, topping the previous leaders by 15.
Gurnee found out at the end of his junior season how many wins he needed to break the record. By midway through this fall, his teammates were asking regularly how many more it would take.
“It was nice because I could tell the team cared. But it’s just another record to go down for Dow High,” Gurnee said. “The whole thing was really the team, I think. I just enjoyed the team record. I did win individually. But really, over everything, (the team Finals win) was the greatest accomplishment.”
Gurnee played No. 4 singles his first two seasons of high school before moving to No. 3 as a junior and No. 2 this fall. He also won an MHSAA championship at No. 4 as a sophomore, while finishing runner-up in his flights the other two seasons. He was 32-6 as a freshman, followed by 36-2, 32-2 and then 41-1 this season for a career record of 141-11.
Gurnee credited Dow coach Terry Schwartzkopf for not only scheduling a full load over the last four years, but also a strong group of opponents. Dow regularly plays many of the state’s elite.
And Gurnee’s improvements on the court came parallel to steps he was taking within the structure of the team. He went from talking mostly to classmate Santi Guerra the first season to being named co-captain with Guerra this fall.
“I started as a freshman, and I was pretty quiet on the team. My brother (JP) was on the team as a junior, and he led the path for me,” Jonathan Gurnee said. “As the years progressed, I became more open to everybody, more into the positive camaraderie, and my junior and senior years I started leading the team in conditioning.
“It was an evolution, but probably a maturing thing too. I got some great leadership opportunities."
That showed through at the start of this season when Gurnee challenged for the No. 1 singles spot.
An elite and deep team like Dow generally has a few players who could occupy No. 1 singles for many teams. Gurnee challenged for Dow’s top position and lost a tight match to junior John Templeman. Because the score was so close, Gurnee could’ve asked for a rematch. He did not, feeling Templeman at No. 1 was the best situation for all involved.
And Gurnee still made the Michigan Interscholastic Tennis Coaches Association all-state team, one of three Dow singles players picked for the top 10 spots in Division 2.
"Jonathan is the All-American kid who fought for the success of his team. Along the way, he broke a few records," Dow coach Terry Schwartzkopf said. "Of course, we will miss his ability next year. But what I am going to miss most is his presence. He led by action and deed. He was the consummate captain. He epitomized Dow High tennis."
Gurnee also finished his career with 32 tournament championships, tops on that list, and 35 shutouts, second on the MHSAA list.
He is one of 11 Dow players whose accomplishments this season have been added to the MHSAA record book. Click to check out the full listings and directions for submitting others.