Preview: Powers Could Prevail Again
October 18, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This year’s Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals will again feature a number of contenders we’re used to seeing raise trophies during the season’s closing weekend.
Reigning champions Okemos in Division 2 and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood in Division 3 are loaded with top seeds, as is Ann Arbor Greenhills in Division 4 as it looks to build off two straight runner-up finishes. The closest competition might come in Division 1, where reigning champion Bloomfield Hills must fend off the usual cast of contenders including Ann Arbor Huron and Birmingham Brother Rice – but will take them on with a lineup topped by victorious veterans.
Play both Friday and Saturday begins at 8 a.m. Click for full brackets for all four tournaments, plus Regional results, and come back to Second Half early Saturday evening for coverage from all four Finals.
Lower Peninsula Division 1 at Midland Tennis Center
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills, 2. Ann Arbor Huron, 3. Birmingham Brother Rice.
Bloomfield Hills has won two of the last three Division 1 titles, last year by two points ahead of Troy and eight ahead of third-place Ann Arbor Huron. Huron claimed the championship in 2016, by two points ahead of the Black Hawks. Brother Rice has finished runner-up three times this decade and as recently as 2014, and will play for its first title since 2009. The Warriors came in fourth last season.
Bloomfield Hills: Seven of eight flights are seeded first or second, led by top-seeded Andrew Zhang at No. 1 singles. He’s finishing a career that’s seen him win No. 2 singles as a sophomore and finish runner-up at No. 2 in 2015 and No. 1 a year ago. Sebastian Burman is the top seed at No. 3 singles after being part of last season’s No. 1 doubles champion with brother Cade, the second seed this weekend at No. 4 singles. Noah Rosin and Adrian Wilen are top-seeded at No. 1 doubles – Wilen was part of the No. 3 runner-up a year ago.
Ann Arbor Huron: The River Rats have won four of seven team titles this decade. They also are seeded at seven flights and pack the most power with three top-seeded doubles pairs – Nick Grosh and T.J. Bai at No. 2, Sammy Clyde and Pranav Sharma at No. 3 and Nikhil Girish and Vincent Tremonti at No. 4. Grosh and Bai were runners-up at No. 4 a year ago.
Birmingham Brother Rice: The Warriors are seeded at six flights and should stack up some singles points led by second-seeded Jarreau Campbell at No. 1 and top-seeded JJ Etterbeek at No. 2. Campbell made the No. 1 singles semifinals a year ago and was part of the No. 1 doubles champion in 2015. Second-seeded No. 1 doubles pair Josh Anschuetz and Niko Mamatas have enjoyed previous Finals success as well, Mamatas as part of the runner-up at No. 2 doubles last season and Anschuetz as part of the runner-up at No. 1 in 2016.
Clarkston’s Luke Baylis: The Wolves junior is the third seed at No. 1 singles after making the semifinals last season and finishing runner-up at No. 2 as a freshman.
Lower Peninsula Division 2 at Holland Christian/Hope College
Top-ranked: 1. Okemos, 2. Birmingham Groves, 3. Birmingham Seaholm.
The Chiefs swept their Regional flights and are looking to repeat as a Finals champion for the first time since winning four straight titles from 2004-07. They finished 15 points ahead of runners-up Groves and Midland Dow a year ago, while Seaholm finished fifth. The runner-up finish was Groves’ fourth, and the Falcons are seeking their first championship. Seaholm owns two runner-up finishes and also is seeking its first title.
Okemos: The Chiefs won six flight championships a year ago, and they’re seeded first in all eight heading into this weekend. Shrey Patel was the No. 3 singles champion in 2017 and is seeded first at No. 2 doubles with Druv Talluri – part of last season’s No. 3 doubles champion. Daniel Gorelik is the reigning No. 4 singles champ and part of the top seed at No. 1 doubles with Zal Chinoy, part of last season’s champion at that flight. Josh Portnoy was the runner-up at No. 2 singles last season and is seeded first at that flight, with freshman Ozan Colak the top seed at No. 1, Benjamin Letzer the top at No. 3 and Rohan Shah the top at No. 4; Shah was part of the No. 2 doubles champ a year ago. Siddharth Nagisetty and Aditya Kandula at No. 3 doubles and Abhi Shukul and Diego Casagrande at No. 4 round out the top seeds; Nagisetty teamed with Shah for that No. 2 title last season and Kandula was part of the winning No. 4 flight.
Birmingham Groves: All eight flights are seeded, and five third or higher. Gabe Liss is the third seed at No. 1 singles after finishing runner-up a year ago, while Gabe Vidinas is the second seed as the reigning champion at No. 2 and Jonah Liss is seeded third at No. 3 after finishing runner-up at that flight last season. Aerik Joe is part of the sixth-seeded No. 1 doubles pair and was part of the No. 4 champion in 2016.
Birmingham Seaholm: The Maples are seeded at five flights with three second-seeded doubles pairs. Ben Adams and Aidan O’Neill are teamed up for the second seed at No. 1 – Adams was part of the runner-up last season at No. 4 and O’Neill was part of the No. 3 runner-up. Max Levitsky teamed with Adams at No. 4 last season and this weekend is part of the second-seeded pair at No. 3.
Mattawan’s Nathaniel Webster: After making the second round as the fifth seed at No. 1 singles as a freshman last year, Webster enters this weekend third-seeded at the top flight.
Midland Dow’s Tyler Conrad: The Chargers’ senior is seeded fourth at No. 1 singles after finishing runner-up at No. 3 as a freshman, champion at No. 3 as a sophomore and making the semifinals at No. 2 last fall.
Lower Peninsula Division 3 at Novi
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Detroit Country Day, 3. East Grand Rapids.
Cranbrook Kingswood and Detroit Country Day have finished as the top two in this division the last four seasons, with the Cranes winning the last three titles after Country Day won four straight from 2011-14. In fact, they’ve combined to win the last 10 championships, and last year Cranbrook cleared the field by eight points. East Grand Rapids has finished runner-up twice over the last 11 seasons and is seeking its first title since spring 2007. The Pioneers tied for third last season with Ada Forest Hills Eastern.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes are seeded at every flight and carry six top seeds into the weekend, with three returning 2017 champions. Lucas Bosch is the top seed at No. 1 singles after winning No. 2 a year ago, and similarly Justin Luo is the top seed at No. 2 coming off the No. 3 singles titles. (Luo also was No. 4 champion as a freshman and No. 3 runner-up as a sophomore.) Joe Croskey was part of the No. 2 doubles champion in 2017 and is seeded first at No. 4 singles. Nolan Sherwood played No. 1 singles for Forest Hills Eastern last season and is seeded first at No. 3 for the Cranes. Patrick Tiwari and Sohum Acharya are the top seed at No. 2 doubles – Acharya was the runner-up at No. 4 singles last season – and Geoffrey Qin and Isaiah Croskey are top-seeded at No. 4. Nikhil Deenadaylu teamed with Croskey to win No. 2 last season and is part of the fourth-seeded No. 1 pair this time with Jack Trees, a runner-up at No. 3 in 2017. Hayes Bradley and David Hermelin are seeded third at No. 3 doubles after finishing runner-up at No. 4 a year ago.
Detroit Country Day: All eight flights are seeded second or third at their respective flights. Nikolas Gruskin is the second seed at No. 1 singles and Ricky Warnicke is the third seed at No. 2 – they finished back-to-back runners-up at No. 2 in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Nick Sicilia was part of the No. 4 doubles champion last season and is part of the second-seeded No. 2 pair. Alex Mettler and Alex Pollak are the second seed at No. 1.
East Grand Rapids: The Pioneers are seeded at seven flights including with one of the top seeds that didn’t go to Cranbrook. Nick Lambert and Graham Haslem earned it at No. 3 doubles after making the semifinals for that flight together last season. Kole Butterer was part of the No. 2 doubles runner-up last season and is part of the third-seeded pair at No. 1. Ben Collins made the quarterfinals at No. 1 singles last season as a sixth seed and returns in the third spot in that flight.
St. Clair’s Derek Distelrath: The Saints freshman enters his first MHSAA Finals as the fourth seed at No. 1 singles.
Ada Forest Hills Eastern’s Anish Premkumar and Anish Kokkula: They’re the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Kokkula made the semifinals last season at No. 3 singles and Premkumar was part of the champion at this flight.
Lower Peninsula Division 4 at Kalamazoo College
Top-ranked: 1. Ann Arbor Greenhills, 2. Traverse City St. Francis, 3. Allegan.
Greenhills won eight straight Division 4 titles from 2008-15 before Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett won the last two with the Gryphons finishing second both times. Liggett is ranked No. 7 entering this weekend, and Greenhills is poised to take back the title after coming up two points short a year ago. St. Francis was third last season, six points off the lead, and it is seeking its first top-two finish. So too is Allegan, which tied for fifth in LPD3 last season.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: The Gryphons have six top seeds and two second seeds. Kann Oral is the reigning champion at No. 2 singles and seeded first at that flight, and Taha Zirapury is the top seed at No. 4 after pairing for the No. 3 doubles championship last fall. Trey Feldeisen is back at No. 1 doubles as the reigning champion but with new partner Henry Branch, a No. 3 singles semifinalist last season. Nathan Rosenberg and Finn Feldeisen at No. 3 doubles, Harrison Li and Alex Schwendeman at No. 4 and Mert Oral at No. 3 singles also carry top seeds into the weekend. Drake Rosenberg and Joey Formicola are the second-seeded pair at No. 2 doubles after Rosenberg teamed with Zirapury for the No. 3 title last season and Formicola was part of the runner-up at No. 2. Sahil Deenadayalu is the second seed at No. 1 singles.
Traverse City St. Francis: Seven flights are seeded, with one top seed and four second at their respective flights. Tyler Tafelsky is part of the second-seeded pair at No. 1 doubles after combining to win No. 4 last season, and Sean Navin and Brendan Chouinard own that top seed at No. 2 doubles. Andrew Gerling is the fourth seed at No. 1 singles, topping a lineup with the second seeds at the other three flights.
Allegan: Five flights are seeded, all third or higher, and with four seeds coming in doubles. In singles, Kody Harrington is the third seed at No. 2 after finishing No. 3 runner-up in Division 3 a year ago. Zach Sisson made the semifinals at No. 1 doubles in last season and is part of the third seed at that flight with Zach Lang, who made the quarterfinals at No. 2 doubles in Division 3 a year ago.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett’s William Cooksey: Last season’s No. 1 singles champ as a freshman returns as the top seed at that flight as a sophomore.
Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard’s Ian Sood: A junior, Sood finished runner-up at No. 2 singles both of his first two seasons and this weekend is seeded third at No. 1.
PHOTO: Okemos’ Druv Talluri returns a volley during a No. 3 doubles match at last season's Finals; he returns this weekend as part of the top-seeded pair at No. 2. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Meyers Serves, Strides for Norrix Fall Teams
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
August 21, 2017
KALAMAZOO — Finding a face in a crowd of 357 runners erupting down a hillside all at once could be a daunting task.
But spotting sophomore Joe Meyers is easy, said Greg Savicke.
“He’ll be one of the ones out front,” the Kalamazoo Loy Norrix coach predicted.
That was true at Friday’s Portage Central Early Bird Invitational, where Meyers finished 14th with a time of 17 minutes, 12 seconds.
That sounds like a great time for a first race of the season, but Meyers was not celebrating.
“I had a pretty bad race,” he said. “I was training in Colorado for like a month with my new coach, and I put in a lot of training.
“I should have been well in the 16s. It was just not a good race.”
He didn’t have much time to fret.
The two-sport athlete had his first tennis match of the season Monday.
He’s playing No. 2 singles for the Knights after putting together a 21-5 record at the same flight last year.
Juggling two fall sports is not a problem for the amiable Meyers, with tennis taking priority.
“We work around the tennis schedule,” said Savicke, in his 29th year as Norrix’s head cross country coach. “We get Joe when he’s available. Early in the season it’s not so much, but down the stretch, yes.
“That’s the championship part of our season for us, in October, so we get him for the most important meets coming up.”
Both sports are in Meyers’ DNA.
His mother, Jody, got him on the tennis court when he was 5 and just playing for fun.
“Then I quit and mainly played hockey for years until seventh grade, then picked up tennis again,” he said.
He started running with his father, John, at age 9.
As a freshman, “I didn’t really want to pick one because I knew I could do pretty good in both,” Joe Meyers said. “It worked out last year.”
Both are individual sports, but in running, “you have to definitely have a lot more drive to go out and run by yourself because you can have a lot of excuses not to,” he said.
“In tennis, you go to group and you have to try as hard as you can. I don’t really get as tired in matches (since I’ve been) running.”
Meyers works out with sophomore Reed Crocker, Norrix’s No. 1 singles player.
Crocker qualified for the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals last season, losing his top-flight title match, 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(8), to top-seeded Varun Shanker of Midland Dow.
The only way Meyers will make it to the Finals is if Loy Norrix as a team qualifies, since the No. 1 player is the only individual eligible if the team falls short at Regionals. The No. 1 singles champion and runner-up at Regionals advance to Finals play even if their teams do not qualify.
“We have a better chance (as a team) this year,” Crocker said. “The team’s looking better.
“We’ve been doing a lot of sprints, a lot. (Sunday) was an easy day. We only ran a mile” before practice.
Crocker said Meyers pushes him to be better.
“Joe is like the marathon runner, so it helps me with conditioning and it helps me on the court because I know he can help build the wins,” Crocker said.
“We hit together, and he pushes me get better. I’ve had the joy to hit with him the last year or so because he joined my coach (Bill Jenkins, who is also Norrix’s head coach).”
Jenkins, in his third season with the Knights, has coached tennis for 38 years.
Meyers possesses a “good work ethic, and genetics are very much in his favor as far as a force in track,” Jenkins said. “He’s built for it in tennis as well.
“He’s also extremely coachable so he has a very good perspective, very good mindset and disposition for tennis. He’s extremely intense, extremely passionate and competitive, but he’s also very level-headed, so he’s able to channel a lot of that energy into proper use.”
Jenkins said, in his experience, it is unusual to have an athlete be so successful in two sports in the same season.
“He’s got very set dreams but he works at them on a daily basis, knowing that the only way to achieve them is through his commitment,” the coach said.
“Regardless of whatever natural distractions may come up, he seems to stay on track very diligently and is years ahead of his time.”
While Meyers needs the team to qualify for the MHSAA Finals in tennis, he has a much better shot of earning a berth in cross country.
Last year, then-senior Gabe Runyon was the only Norrix runner to qualify for the Lower Peninsula Division 1 competition at Michigan International Speedway.
Meyers just missed qualifying, finishing 21st at his Regional with a time of 17:04. The top 15 runners moved on.
Savicke lost Runyon and four of his other top seven runners to graduation this spring, noting that Meyers has moved up from second in the order to become the team’s top runner.
Meyers has improved on his 2016 Regional time and has an unofficial personal best of 16:30. He has hit 17:00 in a race, and his short-term goal is to get into the 16s during competition.
Said Savicke: “Joe’s father was a runner in high school for (Kalamazoo) Hackett in the 1980s, and he’s really active in bicycling and running events. He’s brought Joe along with him.
“I think that just paid dividends with his running abilities. I saw Joe in middle school, so I knew he would be a good fit for us.”
Norrix’s next cross country meet is Thursday with Meyers leading a varsity contingent of junior Will Carrier, senior Zach Skinner, sophomore Myles Baker, junior Rowan Mathieson, senior Garrett Bloom and sophomore Erick Ponce.
Once the fall season is over, Meyers does not plan to leave sports behind.
He bicycles and was the Michigan Bicycle Racing Association road race junior state and point series champ a year ago and “might pick up hockey or swimming this year,” he said.
In the spring, he is part of the varsity track & field team, competing in the 1,600, 3,200 and 3,200 relay.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo Loy Norrix sophomore Joe Meyers returns a volley during a tennis practice Sunday. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Meyers, tennis teammate Reed Crocker, Knights’ boys tennis coach Bill Jenkins, Knights’ boys cross country coach Greg Savicke. (Below) Meyers pushes ahead of a pack during Friday’s Early Bird race at Portage Central. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)