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.)
Rising St Clair Nets 'Unattainable' Goal
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 25, 2019
For years, the St. Clair boys tennis team used the Macomb Area Conference Red schedule as preparation for the postseason and not much else.
As by far the smallest school in the MAC’s toughest division, the Saints regularly took their lumps against perennial Division 1 and 2 MHSAA Finals contenders Grosse Pointe South and Port Huron Northern – but always kept their focus on how it would make them stronger for the regional and state competitions.
“We put ourselves in that league to get better for the state finals,” said St. Clair coach Dave Clutts, who is in his 24th season leading the program. “The teams that are in the Red are the teams that are consistently going (to the Finals), and it was never a goal of ours to win it because it was not attainable.”
A year ago, the Saints finished second and made Clutts re-think his outlook. This year, the Saints took it a step further.
St. Clair tied Grosse Pointe South 4-4 in the league opener before defeating Grosse Pointe North (7-1), Utica Eisenhower (7-1) and Port Huron Northern (6-2) to grab a share of the title, their first in the division.
“It was very exciting, because even last year we really struggled against (Grosse Pointe) South, especially,” said St. Clair sophomore Derek Distelrath, who plays No. 1 singles. “We’ve been building our program now for a couple years, and we’ve gained a lot. When we were able to finally get a share of it this year, it was really exciting. When our coach told us he’d never had a boys team or a girls team win the MAC Red – and he’s had some really good girls teams, especially – it was really exciting.”
St. Clair’s conference title came after graduating eight starters off a team that finished a program-best eighth at the Division 3 Final a year ago. The success also came despite being at least 500 students smaller than any of its competitors.
By the latest MHSAA count, St. Clair has 780 students, well below division mates Port Huron Northern (1,284), Grosse Pointe North (1,295), Grosse Pointe South (1,510) and Utica Eisenhower (2,617). South is ranked No. 7 in Lower Peninsula Division 1 this week.
“It felt really good to be able to do it once and for all,” said St. Clair senior Eli Pinnoo, who plays No. 2 singles. “We’ve always worked hard all these years leading up to it.”
Pinnoo is one of two seniors on the team, joined by Ethan Urban who plays No. 2 doubles. They were around for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, which both ended with the Saints finishing 1-3 in the Red. In St. Clair’s time in the Red from 2005-09 (which included two seasons in 2007 because of the switch from spring to fall) and 2014-17, the Saints were 3-36-2 in divisional play.
“Because we have so many freshmen, they don’t really get it,” Clutts said. “The two seniors, it means a lot more because they’ve been getting their butts kicked and they know how hard it is.”
Amazingly, during that time, the Saints have steadily been a very strong program despite the conference losses. They’ve advanced to the MHSAA Finals 21 seasons in a row, and they won a MAC White title in 2013.
Clutts sees the program entering a new level, however.
“The big thing is the middle school program we started nine or 10 years ago,” Clutts said. “That’s where we’re getting those good kind of club players that were always at the top of our lineup, now they’re playing their role. Now we have kids who can play those top spots, and all those club players who can fill in behind them.”
Between the singles players – Distelrath, Pinnoo, No. 3 Michael Mascarin, and No. 4 Ian Pinnoo – there are only two losses, and both came in three sets. Clutts said he feels that foursome has the potential to all reach the final of their respective flights at the MHSAA championship tournament Oct. 18-19 at Kalamazoo College. Eli Pinnoo did it last year, finishing runner-up at No. 2 singles after dropping a three-setter in the final.
St. Clair’s doubles teams are inexperienced but solid, as Urban and Quinn Schwarz are the only returners from last year’s team. Schwarz plays with his sister Hadley at No. 1 doubles, while Urban plays with Joey Fajardo at No. 2. Eli Lohr and Patrick Mason are the No. 3 doubles team, and Will Wentrack and Jared Kramp are at No. 4.
The team is ranked No. 5 in LP Division 3, and has seen three of the top four teams – tying No. 4 East Grand Rapids 4-4 and losing to No. 3 Detroit Country Day and No. 2 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood each by a score of 5-3. The Saints have a match with top-ranked Ann Arbor Greenhills coming up Oct. 2.
While scheduling tough is obviously nothing new for Clutts, what is new is the top teams seeking St. Clair out, which Clutts said is now happening as each of the top teams jockeys for seeding.
“That says a lot for sure,” Distelrath said. “With these top schools, they didn’t know who we were a couple years ago. Now they’re actively looking to play us, which is really cool because they can respect the strength of our team.”
A top-three finish at the MHSAA Finals is the goal for this year’s Saints team, and it’s something they believe is realistic. But even without that, this two-year run has already been one of, if not the most successful in the program’s history.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Eli Pinnoo said. “Just knowing that the time I’m there, that’s one of the best it’s been so far – that's just crazy.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTO: The St. Clair boys tennis team locked down its first Macomb Area Conference Red championship this month with a 3-0-1 record in league play. (Photo courtesy of the St. Clair athletic department.)