UP Tennis Finals: Negaunee, Westwood Reign
May 31, 2012
Negaunee won its third straight MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 boys tennis championship Wednesday at Marquette High School, and Ishpeming Westwood won its first team title, ever, in Division 2 at Iron Mountain High School.
The Miners were heavy favorites in Division 1 after finishing ahead of Kingsford last season and tying with Kingsford for the 2010 title. Negaunee scored 20 points this time, eight more than runner-up Marquette.
Finalists from 2011 returned in all four singles flights in that division, with three earning individual championships this time. Negaunee’s Cody Tossava won his second-straight at No. 2, while teammate Kevin Price did the same at No. 3 and Rob Sertich won at No. 4 after finishing runner-up last season. The only singles flight the Miners didn’t win was No. 1, where Dave Terzaghi finished runner-up for the second straight season – this time falling 6-3, 0-6, 6-0 to Marquette’s Julien LeCosquer.
Another returning Miners flight won at No. 1 doubles – Lucas Christianson and Nick Kill, who were runners-up in 2011. Teammates Austin Rice and Ryan Syrjala and Tyler Beaumont and Eric Ludlum won at Nos. 2 and 4 doubles, respectively. Ted Pietila and Sean Ryan claimed the No. 3 doubles championship for Kingsford, which finished third as a team.
At Iron Mountain, Westwood improved from sixth place in 2011 to edge reigning champ Iron River West Iron County by a point 16-15, although the Wykons had finalists in all four singles and two doubles flights.
West Iron County’s Austin Waara won his third MHSAA Finals championship and second straight at No. 1 singles by again beating Westwood’s Andrew LeSage in the title match, 6-1, 7-5.
Gwinn’s Derek Reetz downed reigning No. 3 singles champ Caleb Pellizzer of West Iron Country in the No. 2 Final, and Westwood’s Tyler Quayle won a three-set match for the championship at No. 3. Alex Rolston added a second singles title for West Iron County with a three-set win in the No. 4 Final.
Iron Mountain’s Gerry Pirkola and Max Frorenza and Henry Hakamaki and Taylor Huotari claimed the flight championships at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles, respectively – Pirkola and Frorenza after winning No. 3 doubles in 2011. Westwood closed out the team championship by winning the final two doubles flights – Quinn Leroy and Michael Ostlund at No. 3 and Derek Wing and Josh Nicholas at No. 4.
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Performance of the Week: Midland Dow's Austin King
September 1, 2022
Austin King ♦ Midland Dow
Tennis ♦ Sophomore
Over three days last week, Midland Dow played six opponents – including five ranked among the top 10 in Lower Peninsula Division 2. The No. 2-ranked Chargers won five of those matches and tied the sixth, paced by King’s 6-0 performance at No. 1 singles. Dow tied then-No. 1 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, and defeated No. 3 Birmingham Groves, No. 4 Birmingham Seaholm, No. 5 Mattawan, No. 9 Traverse City Central and Gibraltar Carlson, catapulting the Chargers into the top spot in this week’s coaches association poll.
King lost only one set over those six matches – the first against Groves’ Nolan Kovan, last season’s LPD2 Finals runner-up at No. 1 singles. King is 13-1 this season with his only defeat to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood’s Owen DeMuth, the LPD3 No. 1 singles runner-up the last two seasons. King was 28-7 as a freshman when he also played No. 1 singles and reached the quarterfinals as the sixth seed at the Finals.
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(Photos courtesy of the Midland Dow boys tennis program.)