Preview: Pair of Reigning Boys Tennis Finals Champs Set to Pursue 3-Peat
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 17, 2024
All four of last season’s Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals champions are considered among top contenders again as we head into our season-ending tournaments, and two will be playing for third-consecutive titles – but only three at most will repeat.
Bloomfield Hills in Division 1 and Midland Dow in Division 2 are playing for three-peats and enter this weekend top-ranked in their divisions according to the final state coaches polls. Last season’s Division 3 champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood is ranked No. 1 as well, but will have the added challenge of fending off Ann Arbor Greenhills, which is back in Division 3 after winning the Division 4 title a year ago.
The Division 1, 2 and 3 Finals will be played Friday and Saturday at the sites listed below. Division 4 will be played Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Play begins between 8:15-8:30 a.m. Friday at the various sites for opening rounds, and between 8:30-9 a.m. Saturday for anticipated semifinals and championship matches. Visit the Boys Tennis page to find out which flights will be played at each location and to track results as they are received.
LP Division 1 at Byron Center West Sports Complex & Grand Rapids South Christian
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills, 2. Troy, 3. Northville.
Two-time reigning champion Bloomfield Hills has been ranked No. 1 all season. Similarly, Troy has been No. 2, Northville has ranked No. 3 and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice has been listed No. 4 in all five state coaches polls as well. Troy most recently was champion in 2021 and co-runner-up last season, and Northville finished runner-up alone in 2022 and shared second with Troy last fall – the Mustangs’ highest finishes in program history.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks finished nine points ahead of the field in winning last season’s championship, and they are set up to score big again with three top seeds, three second seeds, a third and a fourth seed. Senior Pierce Shaya (20-1) and junior Connor Shaya won Nos. 2 and 3 singles last season and are seeded first at No. 1 and second at No. 2, respectively, for this weekend. Both are seeking third Finals singles flight titles. Sophomore Zev Spiegel is seeded first at No. 3 after making the No. 4 semifinals last season, and sophomore Brady Winston is the second seed at No. 4. Seniors Asher Langwell and Dominic Pascarella lead the doubles lineup as the top-seeded pair at No. 1; Pascarella was at No. 3 and Langwell No. 4 last year as Bloomfield Hills swept doubles flight championships. Juniors Meyer Saperstein and Sajan Doshi earned the top seed at No. 3 for this weekend.
Troy: All eight flights are seeded, and only one player will graduate after this season. A pair of highly-regarded freshman will lead the Colts’ singles lineup, with Dheeraj Yelleti on the top line at No. 4 and Krish Gupta second-seeded at No. 3. Juniors Varun Shetty and Anthony Wu are top-seeded at No. 2 doubles, freshman Sourish Darui and junior Nate Wanstreet are second-seeded at No. 3, and freshman Jackson Kraus and junior Raghav Karur are second-seeded at No. 4. Shetty and Vu were the flight runners-up at No. 3 doubles last season, and sophomore Jesse Hao was part of the runner-up at No. 4 and will team with junior Derrick Kim for the third-seeded No. 1 doubles pair.
Northville: Strong doubles are expected to pace Northville’s team title pursuit, with all four flights seeded third or higher. Seniors Nick Song and Josh Kim are seeded first at No. 1, and juniors Michael Rogala and Rohi Maddali are top-seeded at No. 4. Kim was the runner-up at No. 3 singles last season.
Chad Anderson, Rochester junior: Last season’s runner-up at No. 2 singles is the third seed this time at No. 1, carrying a 24-2 record with his only losses to Shaya a month ago and Stoney Creek’s Andrew Vincler (see below) in three sets at the end of August. He then defeated Vincler in three sets at their Regional last week.
Patrick Cretu, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior: Cretu was the runner-up at No. 2 singles as a sophomore and made the semifinals at No. 1 as the fifth seed last season. He’s 21-3 with losses to Shaya and Vincler, plus a default.
Andrew Vincler, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek senior: He’s 26-1 and seeded second at No. 1 singles, with his only loss last week to Anderson and as the only player to defeat Shaya, which he achieved Sept. 5. He’s made a solid jump after entering as the sixth seed a year ago.
LP Division 2 at Kalamazoo College & Western Michigan University
Top-ranked: 1. Midland Dow, 2. Birmingham Seaholm, 3. Byron Center.
Dow also has been the season-long favorite in this division, with Seaholm and Byron Center pushing into the second and third coaches poll spots, respectively, in mid-September. The Chargers are seeking their third-straight Division 2 championship. Seaholm finished runner-up last year and is seeking its first Finals title, as is Byron Center coming off a seventh place in 2023.
Midland Dow: After winning last season’s title by five points and then graduating seven seniors from that lineup, Dow will go for the three-peat with seven seeded flights including two top seeds and two seconds. Senior Austin King (34-0) is seeking to finish his high school career with a second-straight championship at No. 1 singles and is top-seeded at that flight, and senior Nimai Patel (31-0) won No. 4 the last two seasons and is top-seeded this time at No. 3. Junior Siddarth Venkatesan is the second seed at No. 4 singles, and junior Ian Kohl and senior Dominic Griffin are seconds at No. 2 doubles.
Birmingham Seaholm: The Maples also were quite senior-heavy last season, graduating all but three starters from their runner-up lineup. Seven flights are seeded this time, with junior Britton Leo and sophomore Aaryan Senthilvanan second-seeded at No. 3 doubles and seniors Connor Champion and Andrew Wachowicz second-seeded at No. 4. Seniors Leo Kim and Carson Wright are the fourth seeds at No. 1 doubles; Kim was part of the flight winner at No. 4 last season, and Wright was half of the runner-up at No. 2.
Byron Center: The Bulldogs are seeded at six flights and with plenty of anticipated scoring opportunities in both singles and doubles. Sophomore Terrence He is second-seeded at No. 2 singles and junior Cole Krauss is the top seed at No. 4. All four doubles flights are seeded, led by sophomores Brayden Slot and Zeke Sandholm on the top line at No. 3. Terrence He reached the quarterfinals at No. 2 singles last season, and Krauss did the same at No. 4, while Slot and Rylan Vandenberge (now part of the third seed at No. 2 doubles) made the semifinals at No. 3 doubles.
Tanner Cooley, Traverse City Central senior: Cooley is back in the mix this season as the second seed at No. 1 singles. He’s 35-3, with his only losses twice to King and in a default.
Michael Liss, Birmingham Groves senior: As a freshman, Liss at No. 3 singles was Groves’ only flight winner on a team champion, and he’ll close his career as the fourth seed at No. 1 singles with all of his six losses to contenders in either Division 1 or Division 3. He made the quarterfinals while unseeded at No. 1 last season.
Sam Schumacher, Portage Central sophomore: He reached the quarterfinals at No. 1 singles as the seventh seed last season and returns as the third seed. He’s 26-5 also with a pair of losses to King and one to Cooley, plus two defaults.
LP Division 3 at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Detroit Country Day, 3. Ann Arbor Greenhills.
No surprises here; one of these three teams has won the championship every season since 2008, and some combination of these three has finished first or second every season since 2014. Reigning champion Cranbrook took over the top spot in this season’s rankings from Country Day in the Sept. 2 poll and hasn’t given it back.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: All eight flights are seeded third or better, with six first or second seeds. Senior Ryan Michaels, last season’s runner-up at No. 1 singles, is seeded first this time with an 18-3 record and all three losses to contenders in Divisions 1 or 4 – plus a pair of wins over reigning champion Saahith Reddy (see below). Juniors Kenneth Hu and Jace Bernard are seeded second at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, with freshman Eli Rosen the top seed at No. 4 singles. Bernard was the No. 3 champion a year ago and part of the No. 1 doubles champion as a sophomore. Junior Cole Kirschenbaum and sophomore Ryan VanDyke are the second seed at No. 2 doubles, and senior Sanjay Lokum and junior Daniel Ma are second-seeded at No. 3. Kirschenbaum and Hu teamed up to win No. 2 doubles last season, while VanDyke was half of the champion at No. 3.
Detroit Country Day: The Yellowjackets are seeking their first team title since 2014 and finished second and nine points back a year ago. All eight flights also are seeded third or higher, and like Cranbrook again six flights are seeded first or second. Senior Saahith Reddy (11-5) is the second seed at No. 1 singles but last season’s champion at the flight. Senior Dan Marin is the top seed at No. 2 singles after finishing runner-up last season, and freshmen Ricky Jeong and Adam Mahmoud are seeded first at No. 3 and second at No. 4, respectively. Junior Charlie Khaghany and senior Achyut Reddy have teamed up again this season at No. 1 doubles and are the top seed after finishing runner-up at that flight in 2023, and junior Rick Nie and sophomore Preston Blum are second-seeded at No. 4. Seniors Thomas Bresson and John McKany also are teamed up again as the third seed at No. 3 doubles after finishing runner-up at that flight last fall.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: The 2022 team champion moved into Division 4 for last season and won that Finals title as well before returning to Division 3 this fall. Doubles are where the Gryphons are expected to dominate with three tops seeds and a second seed. Sophomore William Pearce and senior Kabir Rajendra are that second seed, at No. 1, with Rajendra last season’s Division 4 runner-up at No. 1 singles and Pearce part of last year’s No. 3 doubles winner in that division. Juniors Ajay Purohit and Charlie Rich are top-seeded this weekend at No. 2 doubles, junior Richard Wu and sophomore Kirtan Palapattu are top-seeded at No. 3, and sophomores Lander Whelan and Deven Pimputkar are top-seeded at No. 4. Wu teamed with Pearce on last year’s Division 4 No. 3 winning pair, and Rich was the No. 3 singles champion. No. 1 singles senior Teddy Staebler, seeded fourth, was the No. 2 champion in Division 4 last year.
Bhavesh Burramukku, St. Joseph senior: He’s seeded third at No. 1 singles and advanced to the semifinals at that flight and that seed last season as well before losing in a three-set match to Michaels. He’s also played several of the highly-seeded players from all divisions this season in going 19-7.
LP Division 4 at Midland Tennis Center
Top-ranked: 1. Holland Christian, 2. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 3. Maple City Glen Lake.
As reigning champion Greenhills moved back into Division 3 this season, Holland Christian moved into Division 4 after finishing fourth in Division 3 a year ago. The Maroons are seeking their first Finals championship in this sport since 1965, and first top-two finish since 1998. Liggett is a familiar contender in this bracket, most recently winning it in 2022 and 2020 and finishing runner-up last season and in 2021. Glen Lake could be on the verge of history as it seeks its first top-two Finals finish. The Lakers moved back up to No. 3 in the rankings after edging No. 4 Traverse City St. Francis by three points at their Regional.
Holland Christian: The Maroons have the top seeds at every doubles flight plus No. 4 singles, and the second seeds at Nos. 2 and 3 singles. Senior Henry Langejans and junior Lucas VanWieren are the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Langejans made the semifinals at No. 1 in Division 3 last fall. Seniors Tyler Hemmeke and Gavin Swiftney are the top seed at No. 2; Hemmeke was part of a semifinalist at No. 2 in Division 3 last season, and Swiftney reached the quarterfinals at No. 4. Sophomores Michael Gorno and Graham Tanis are the top seed at No. 3 after teaming up to reach the Division 3 semifinals at No. 3 last year, and senior Levi King and junior Jack DeYoung earned the top seed at No. 4 doubles. Also earning a top seed for this weekend was freshman Nico Grosso at No. 4 singles, and juniors Dylan Becksvoort and Evan Disselkoen are the second seeds at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, respectively. Both made quarterfinals playing those flights, but in Division 3, last season.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett: The Knights edged St. Francis by three points to finish second to Greenhills a year ago and have six seeded flights this weekend, all fourth or higher. Juniors Griffin Marchal and Niko Cooksey are the second seeds at No. 2 doubles, and sophomore Davis Ford and freshman Lucas Ferguson are seeded second at No. 4. Cooksey and junior Landen Maltby – part of the third-seeded No. 1 doubles this weekend – finished runner-up at No. 2 last year, and Marchal was part of the No. 3 champion in 2022.
Maple City Glen Lake: The Lakers finished two points out of third place and five out of second a year ago. All four singles and three doubles flights are seeded, with senior Michael Houtteman the top seed at No. 3 singles after making the No. 2 quarterfinals as a sixth seed a year ago. Sophomore Hawthorn Sutherland is the fourth seed at No. 2 this weekend after finishing runner-up at No. 3 in 2023.
Oliver Caldwell, Grand Rapids West Catholic freshman: Caldwell enters his first Finals as the top seed at No. 1 singles with a 29-1 record after falling to Traverse City St. Francis’ Owen Jackson in August but winning the rematch a month later.
Stephen Gollapalli, Lansing Christian sophomore: He’s 23-0 and the third seed at No. 1 singles after reaching the quarterfinals as a sixth seed a year ago.
Owen Jackson, Traverse City St. Francis senior: The second seed at No. 1 singles will cap a career that included the No. 3 championship as a freshman, No. 2 title as a sophomore and a run to the No. 1 semifinals last season. He’s 31-5 this fall.
PHOTO Byron Center’s Terrence He prepares to send a forehand back to his opponent during a match at last season’s LPD2 Finals. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
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).