West Iron Adds 13th Tennis Finals Title in Near Sweep
By
Matt McCarthy
Special for Second Half
June 3, 2021
KINGSFORD —West Iron County, with its senior-heavy roster, won every flight but one in dominating the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 boys tennis championships Thursday afternoon at the Kingsford High School Tennis Facility.
The event, which was hosted by Iron Mountain, was held at various courts in the Iron Mountain-Kingsford area.
The lone flight not won by the Wykons was No. 1 doubles, claimed by Garrett Mann and Ryan Lafountain of the runner-up Ishpeming Westwood Patriots. David Juul of Iron Mountain gave eventual No. 1 singles champ Nolan Anderson another of the best challenges.
West Iron finished with 23 points, followed by Westwood with 13, the host Mountaineers in third with 10 points, Ishpeming with seven points and Gwinn with three.
"You come into these type tournaments, and every school has at least one strength throughout the flights," said veteran West Iron head coach Joe Serbentas. "We've been steady and deep throughout the lineup all season. We've never had as strong of a performance in UPs as we did today, as long as I have been coaching."
That’s saying a lot. West Iron has won 13 Finals championships total, including seven under Serbentas’ leadership. The Wykons had most recently won in 2018, after two straight runner-up finishes and before finishing runner-up again in 2019. Last season was canceled due to COVID-19.
With 10 seniors, Serbentas expected his team to fare well again in the event. Anderson won No. 1 singles, Mitch Ballinger took No. 2, Alex Wickstrom won No. 3 and Drew Alexa won No. 4 singles.
In the doubles flights, Lucas Isaacson and Cole Alexa won No. 2, No. 3 winners were Lucas Shovald and Colton Holm, and Justin Nelson and Andy Fredrickson won No. 4 doubles. The Wykons’ victories were mostly by significant margins as well.
Anderson, who lost only one match all season, was happy with winning UPs as a senior.
"This is a good way to go out,” he said. “I have never won UPs before. So I am glad I could do it.”
PHOTOS: (Top) West Iron County’s Nolan Anderson sends back a volley during one of his matches Thursday at No. 1 singles. (Middle) West Iron celebrates its Division 2 championship, the 13th Finals title in program history. (Photos by Matt McCarthy.)
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.)