Greenhills Extends Title Streak to 7
October 18, 2014
By Butch Harmon
Special to Second Half
HOLLAND – The Ann Arbor Greenhills boys tennis team made it seven MHSAA Finals titles in a row Saturday at Hope College when it captured the Lower Peninsula Division 4 state championship
And for Greenhills coach Eric Gajar, title number seven was just as exciting as the previous six.
“It’s a different group of guys and a different feeling every year,” Gajar said. “We’ve had a lot of pressure on us all year, and we take everybody’s best shot. We may have taken some of the drama out of it by clinching the title on Friday, but it was still exciting to win the state title.
“This never gets old. It’s always fun to win it.”
Greenhills clinched Friday as it saw all four of its doubles pairs qualify for Saturday’s play and three singles flights earn trips to the semifinals. The Gryphons then captured three doubles championships along with a pair of singles titles to finish with 33 points. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett placed second with 22, while Traverse City St. Francis rounded out the top three with 21 points.
“Some of the guys struggled earlier this season, but they kept working and persevered,” Gajar said. “It just took a while for everything to sort itself out.”
Setting the table for Greenhills was its doubles teams.
At No. 1 doubles, junior Brandon Johnson and sophomore Sam Talsma captured a title with a 6-2, 6-1 win against David Niewoonder and Dean VanElderen of Kalamazoo Christian. Johnson and Talsma were on winning doubles teams last season as Talsma also played No. 1 and Johnson was at No. 4.
“It’s the same feeling you have of winning but at a different level,” Johnson said. “It feels real good to win it at one doubles this year.”
Repeating at No. 1 was particularly special for the senior Talsma.
“It’s pretty nice to go out with another title,” Talsma said. “I had a new partner this year in Brandon. It was a nice season getting to know him, and winning the state title again feels great.”
A pair of sophomores hooked up for Greenhills to win No. 2 doubles. Andy Xie and Isak Akervall captured a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Alex Dow and Dave Sekhon of University Liggett.
“We’re real happy with the outcome,” Akervall said. “We had a pretty tough match in the semifinals yesterday. We had some nerves early, but then we settled down.”
The squad also felt some nerves en route to keeping the team title streak alive.
“You don’t want to be the team that breaks the streak,” Xie said. “The streak is like the elephant in the room.”
Rounding out the doubles titles for Greenhills was the No. 4 team of freshman Zach Wu and senior David Groden, who faced a familiar foe in the final. Wu and Groden had split a pair of matches with Jackson Richmond and Ryan Navin of Traverse City St. Francis earlier this season.
Wu and Groden won the season series and the flight as they claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory this time.
“Our whole season we have been working to this point,” Wu said. “We were really focused today and playing the way we were supposed to.”
The lone doubles title not won by the Gryphons featured a thrilling match at No. 3 that went three sets and featured the surprise squad of the tournament.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s No. 3 pair of junior Josh Sullivan and sophomore John Jakubowski came into the tournament seeded fifth. On Friday, Sullivan and Jakubowski defeated the No. 1 seed from University Liggett in the semifinal. They followed that up Saturday with a gritty 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win against Matt Chatas and Nick Wu of Greenhills, who entered the tournament seeded second.
“Tennis is such an up-and-down sport,” Jakubowski said. “There are so many highs and lows, I’m just so glad we ended it on a high.”
“We were just hoping to play our best and maybe make it to the semifinals,” Sullivan added. “This is just a great feeling. This is crazy.”
In singles action, the feature match came at No. 1, where a pair of seniors met in a rematch of last year’s title match.
Lansing Catholic’s Matt Heeder defeated Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Nick Solarewicz in last year’s No. 1 singles final. This year the two seniors again put on a dazzling display of tennis with Solarewicz coming out with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
“It was the same exact final as last year,” Solarewicz said. “We are both seniors, and it both meant a lot to us. The first set I started slow and I had some nerves, but then they wore off and I played my game and played my best.”
The title was the first for Solarewicz, who reached the semifinals as a sophomore and the final as a junior.
“To do it in my senior year is special,” Solarewicz said. “I know Matt real well. We played together in juniors, and it was a real great match.”
At No. 2 singles Kalamazoo Hackett sophomore Henry Hedeman made it two MHSAA titles in two years. Hedeman, who won at No. 3 singles last season, captured the No. 2 title this time with a 6-2, 6-1 win against Sam Holmes of Traverse City St. Francis.
“The competition was definitely stiffer at No. 2 singles,” Hedeman said. “I felt I played great the whole tournament.”
The win put Hedeman halfway to his goal of four state titles.
“That has been my main goal since last year,” Hedeman said. “After I won it last year I made it a goal to win it all four years."
Ann Arbor Greenhills made its presence felt in singles action by winning at Nos. 3 and 4.
At No. 3 singles, junior Gage Feldeisen turned back Ian Worthington of Grand Rapids Catholic Central 6-2, 6-1. As a captain this year, the win was special for Feldeisen.
“There was a little extra pressure,” Feldeisen said. “As a captain you have to perform and show what it means to be a Greenhills tennis player. Being a Greenhills tennis player means playing your best and being respectful.”
At No. 4 singles, Greenhills freshman Sonaal Verma showed why he is ready to carry on the Greenhills winning tradition as he defeated Noah Katt of Kalamazoo Hackett 6-2, 6-0.
“It’s pretty special to come in as a freshman and win state,” Verma said.
With number seven in the books, the question for the Gryphons is: Can they make it eight straight next year?
“We will have 10 of our 14 starters back next year and also our two alternates,” Gajar said. “We also have some players coming up from a strong junior varsity team. I know that University Liggett has a lot of players coming back next year also, so it should be fun.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills coach Eric Gajar (left), congratulates his No. 3 doubles pair of Andy Xie (center) and Isak Akervall (right) at Hope College. (Middle) Grand Rapids West Catholic's Nick Solarewicz returns a shot during his No. 1 singles match. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
West Iron County Continues Reign Among UP Tennis Elite with Finals Repeat
By
Jerry DeRoche
Special for MHSAA.com
May 29, 2025
KINGSFORD – In the years 2022 and 2023, a strange event occurred in recent Upper Peninsula boys tennis history. One of the strongest programs above the Mackinac Bridge, West Iron County, failed to finish either first or second in the annual contest for Upper Peninsula Division 2 supremacy.
But the last two seasons have brought a return to normality.
With four flight championships, West Iron repeated as Division 2 champion by fending off Munising and three other opponents in Wednesday's Finals hosted by Iron Mountain and played at Kingsford High School.
The Wykons recorded 17 points to finish three in front of the runner-up Mustangs. Ishpeming placed third with 13 points, Iron Mountain finished fourth with 11 and Gwinn wound up fifth with one.
“There were a lot of long matches today,” West Iron coach Jim Anderson said. “A lot of them went to three sets or tiebreakers. I’m really happy with the kids’ focus to stay on track and accomplish our goal.”
The highlight of West Iron’s win came at No. 1 doubles where second-seeded Elijah Oberlin and Jackson Strom knocked off top-seeded Oskar Kangas and Evan Copley of Iron Mountain 6-2, 6-4.
Oberlin and Strom got off to a flying start, capturing the opening five games. Kangas, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh basketball recruit, and Copley steadied the ship a bit by taking the next two games, but the West Iron duo held firm to finish off the opening set.
The second set went back-and-forth until the Wykons broke serve in the 10th game to complete the victory.
“We talked about it before the match that we just needed to stay consistent,” said Oberlin, who started playing tennis just last season. “Nothing fancy, nothing special, just be consistent and stay focused.”
That no-frills approach worked wonders against the Iron Mountain duo, which featured Kangas, a returning No. 1 doubles champion from last year.
Anderson said he knew his doubles team could hang with the Mountaineers physically.
“We’ve got some really good athletes at one doubles,” the third-year varsity coach said. “Elijah was an amazing basketball player for West Iron County, and Jackson is a complete athlete who can do it all.
“So, they are able to handle other athletes across the net without any issues.”
Oberlin and Strom didn’t fare well in the U.P. Finals at No. 2 doubles last season but roared back with a memorable finish this time.
“Last year our team ended up winning, but we came up short,” Strom said. “But this year we were able to contribute to the team win, and it’s a great feeling.”
West Iron claimed another doubles title at the No. 4 flight where Cayden Holm and Carson Aldegarie upended Ishpeming’s Ethan DeMarios and David Hyatt 6-3, 6-2.
West Iron also posted wins at No. 3 and No. 4 singles. In the three singles match, No. 2 seed James White outlasted top-seed Seth Greenleaf of Iron Mountain 3-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-5). At No. 4 singles, freshman Casey Clisch knocked off Ishpeming’s Gideon Krook 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.
Individually, the star of the show was Munising senior Carson Kienitz, who won his fourth U.P. Finals championship with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Iron Mountain’s Malakai Broersma.
Broersma came into the championship match with a blister on his foot after defeating last year’s No. 2 singles champion Zander Birmingham of West Iron 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). Nevertheless, Kienitz showcased his all-around game which took him to a No. 2 doubles title his freshman season, a No. 1 doubles championship his sophomore year and now two No. 1 singles titles.
“I’ve put in a lot of time ever since my freshman year coming up to this moment,” Kienitz said. “So obviously (winning four titles) is really awesome.”
The 6-foot-5 Kienitz, who was an all-U.P. first-team basketball selection this season, said he enjoys the more laid-back atmosphere of tennis as opposed to basketball and football.
“You’ve got a lot less people watching you, and it’s just you versus the other kid,” said Kienitz, who is off to Michigan State University in the fall to study electrical engineering. “And I’ve always tried to be nice to my opponents, and I love when they’re nice to me, so it’s a really friendly gentleman’s sport.”
Munising also won the No. 2 singles flight, as Danny Goss recorded a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over West Iron’s Dominick Brunswick, and the No. 3 doubles championship where Nolan Dolaskie and Blake Tyner fought through a second-set hiccup to defeat Ishpeming’s Luke Laitinen and Dax Kakkuri 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
The Hematites took home the other flight championship as No. 2 doubles team Ethan Corp and Levi Nicholls upended Iron Mountain’s Ben Truong and Dylan Lindgren 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
PHOTOS (Top) West Iron County's Elijah Oberlin returns a volley during a No. 1 doubles match Wednesday. (Middle) Munising's Carson Kienitz comes to the net to return a shot at No. 1 singles. (Photos by Terry Raiche.)