FH Northern Finishes Long Climb Back to #1
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
October 19, 2019
ANN ARBOR – Cole Rynbrandt had been there before. He’d seen his older brothers capture individual MHSAA Finals championships.
On Saturday, he wanted to experience that achievement for himself.
The Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern junior and his doubles partner, Justin Lee, finished off a barn-burner of a tie-breaker, defeating Detroit U-D Jesuit’s Charlie Young and John Dahmer, 6-2, 7-6 (6), in the No. 2 doubles championship match, helping seal not only a flight title for Rynbrandt himself, but clinching the school’s first team Finals title since 1998.
“Knowing that (our win) clinched the team title makes it all that much sweeter,” Rynbrandt said. “The team hasn’t won a title in about 20 years and two of my older brothers had won state titles, so it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
What made it even more special is that Rynbrandt’s older brothers – Quentin and Aidan – both won their titles at No. 2 doubles as well. Oh, and to top it off, Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals were played at the University of Michigan.
“I’ve been a die-hard Michigan fan my whole life, so to play on these courts has been so incredible,” Cole Rynbrandt said. “I’ve always dreamed of going to school here and to play on these courts.”
The Huskies’ 1998 title came when they competed in Division 3.
“It feels good that we could go out and win it,” said longtime Northern head coach Dave Sukup, who also was the head coach of that 1998 team. “We’ve come close a lot of times, some seconds and thirds and fourths. It feels good to fight back. Earlier this year we were (ranked) fourth or fifth, but we’ve come back and worked for this.”
The Huskies finished with 28 team points and had seven of eight flights reach Saturday’s semifinals, with four making it to the championship round. Along with Rynbrandt and Lee, two other doubles teams won titles for the Huskies. The No. 1 team of Nav Dalmia and Jeff Consolla defeated Jesuit’s Kagan Shetterly and Theodore Yaldoo, 6-3, 6-4, in their championship final. And Northern’s Jack Sparhawk and Ty Ulchman defeated Jesuit’s Teodore Melnyczuk and Nathan Comerford in the No. 3 doubles championship match, 6-4, 7-5.
Jesuit, which along with Birmingham Seaholm shared the lead with Northern after the first day, sent all four of its doubles teams into Saturday’s finals. But the Cubs came up empty from there, finishing with 25 team points – good for second overall.
“They definitely were the favorite (coming in), but we had every opportunity to take it from them,” Jesuit head coach Jim Slaughter said. “They were the ones who had to play tense, and we could have come in and snatched it. But it didn’t happen today. We didn’t do the things that we normally do. We didn’t play our game. That happens.”
At No. 1 singles, Mattawan’s Nathaniel Webster defeated Berkley junior Adnan Alousi in the final, 6-1, 6-2. It was redemption for Webster, who lost in last year’s championship match.
“I wanted to win a state championship so bad,” said Webster, who did not drop a set and lost just seven games over his four matches on the weekend. “My team, we were so excited to compete at the state championships. I’m glad I could win this for myself and for them.”
Birmingham Groves finished third overall thanks to a pair of individual championships Saturday. Senior Brett Kovan defeated Northern’s Owen Goodrich in three sets in the No. 4 singles final, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. The No. 1 seed entered the tournament with just two losses and entered the match against Goodrich having lost just a single game over his previous three matches.
The Falcons were also the top seed at No. 4 doubles, where the team of Will Hess and Will Kostello breezed to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jesuit’s Jake Kuredjian and Alex Mackillop in their final.
The final two individual flight championships were both won by Midland Dow – which finished fifth overall with 19 team points. Freshman Colson Wells – the second seed – defeated top-seeded Nolan Kovan of Groves, 6-3, 6-2, in the championship match at No. 2 singles. And senior Saketh Kamaraju needed three sets to defeat Portage Northern’s Graham Holley, 7-6, 6-7 (4), 6-2, in the No. 3 singles final.
The team title was the third overall for Sukup and his program, and it may not take 20 years to get to number four. The Huskies are young. They graduate just three starters and should return all four of their singles players in 2020.
“We’re really young,” Sukup said. “We’ll have all of our singles back and a good chunk of our doubles, so we’re excited about that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Northern's Nav Dalmia (front) and Jeff Consolla celebrate their No. 1 doubles title that contributed to the Huskies' first team championship since 1998. (Middle) Mattawan's Nathaniel Webster won the No. 1 singles flight title. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
After Sending Every Flight to Championship Day, Seaholm Boys Secure 1st Title
By
Fred Kelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 23, 2025
MIDLAND – Birmingham Seaholm had been knocking on the door of a first Finals boys tennis championship for the past couple of seasons.
This year, the Maples just busted it right down.
Seaholm entered this week’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals as the top-ranked team in the state, and the Maples made that ranking hold up, finishing with 31 points Thursday to top a 21-team field and outlast second-place Byron Center (26 points) and second-ranked Midland Dow (22).
“Last year, we were right there in the end, tied with Dow with 24 points (heading into day two). This feels good, because these returners were motivated, and they worked their butts off in the offseason,” said Seaholm eighth-year coach Nick Shaheen, whose Maples were Division 2 runners-up the last two years.
“We knew it was going to be a tough tournament. Midland Dow is a great team, and I’ve got a lot of respect for their program, and for Byron Center as well,” Shaheen added. “It took a team effort. To get eight flights into the semis is tough. We felt like we were playing our best tennis at the end of the season, and sometimes that’s what you need to win a state championship.”
The Maples won titles at three flights, as second-seeded Charlie Griffith won the No. 3 singles championship, top-seeded Joaquim Flory earned the No. 4 singles title, and the second-seeded duo of Britton Leo and Alex Ting clinched the No. 1 doubles crown.
Griffith defeated third-seeded Ryan McKendry of Byron Center 6-3, 7-5 in Thursday’s semifinals, then edged top-seeded Roman Vuljaj of Detroit U-D Jesuit 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) in a thrilling three-set upset to clinch the title.
Flory won a tough three-setter 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 over fifth-seeded Oscar DeLuca of Grosse Pointe South in the semifinals, then beat third-seeded Cole Krauss of Byron Center 7-5, 6-4 in the title match.
Leo and Ting rallied to beat third-seeded Rylan Vandenberge and Casey Schans of Byron Center 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals before going on to upset top-seeded Matt McGaugh and Nathan Song of Dow 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
Shaheen said that advancing to the semifinals in four singles flights – and to the finals in three of them – helped his Maples get over the hump this year.
“Traditionally, we’ve been known as more of a doubles power, so for us to send three flights into the singles finals was big. We really relied on the depth of our team,” he said.
“In past years, when we’ve had good runs, our singles haven’t been quite deep enough to get us there,” he added. “But on the first day (of this tournament), we went perfect, which is not easy to do. We benefitted from getting some serious all-year-around players at singles, and that helps.”
Seaholm had a Finals runner-up at No. 2 singles, as top-seeded Giorgio Materazzo beat Rei Hitachi of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, then lost 6-3, 6-1 to third-seeded Vikram Krishnan of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in the title match.
In other action for the Maples on Thursday, second-seeded Carter Griffith lost 6-1, 6-2 to third-seeded Mason Crosby of South Lyon East in the No. 1 singles semifinals; fourth-seeded Saajan Mahadevan and JJ Bastani lost 6-2, 6-1 to top-seeded and eventual champion Nolan Booth and Brayden Slot of Byron Center in the No. 2 doubles semifinals; third-seeded Roger Harris and Kalil Wahab lost 6-4, 6-4 to second-seeded Aidan Banchoff and Ben Vander Stelt of Byron Center in the No. 3 doubles semifinals; and second-seeded Ryan McArdle and Gabe Christman lost 6-3, 7-6(1) to third-seeded Zeke Sandholm and Brady Slot of Byron Center in the No. 4 doubles semifinals.
In Thursday’s other flight finals, top-seeded Sam Schumacher of Portage Central beat Crosby 6-2, 0-6, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, Booth and Slot beat third-seeded Joseph Song and James Notarnicola of Forest Hills Central 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 doubles, fifth-seeded Marcus Bernard and Drew Decker of Forest Hills Northern beat Banchoff and Vander Stelt 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3 doubles, and top-seeded Ethan Clark and Vettel Xu of Dow beat Sandholm and Slot 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(2) at No. 4 doubles.
According to Shaheen, Seaholm’s first team title on the boys tennis side has been a long time coming.
“I’m extremely proud of our guys. This is something our senior leaders have wanted for a long time,” he said. “They see on our fence back at Seaholm all of the girls state championships, and they so badly wanted to put one on the fence for themselves. We are extremely proud of the effort they put in.”
Shaheen was particularly pleased with how his Maples adjusted to the unpredictable weather in Midland, which prompted play to be bounced back and forth between the Greater Midland Tennis Center’s indoor and outdoor courts.
“For them to come out here and be adaptable – playing indoors, outdoors, indoors, outdoors – I give our boys a lot of credit, because that’s not easy,” he noted. “They were super tough this week. It's a tough, emotional week, so for them to handle that pressure and the ups and downs and come out on the other side is really awesome.”
(PHOTOS by High School Sports Scene.)