Preview: Pair of Reigning Champs, Pair of 2025 Runners-Up Hold Tennis Top Team Seeds
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 15, 2026
This season’s 10-day run of four Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals at Midland Tennis Center will feature two reigning champions expected to lift the winner's trophy once again and two 2025 runners-up expected to take the next step – the Division 4 favorite for the first time.
Division 1 begins the series of Finals with its two-day tournament Oct. 14-15, and Division 2 concludes the season Oct. 23-24.
Below is a preview of anticipated contenders in all four divisions. Click here for full brackets and additional details on all four tournaments.
Division 1 – Oct 14-15
Top-ranked: 1. Troy, 2. Novi, 3. Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice.
Reigning champion Troy has finished among the top two in Division 1 four of the last five seasons and broke Bloomfield Hills’ three-year hold on the championship with last year’s 10-point Finals win. Novi tied for third last season and is seeking its first Finals title since 2015, and edged Brother Rice by two points at their Regional last week. The Warriors are seeking their first Finals championship since 2009.
Troy: Three top-seeded doubles pairs plus another second-seeded duo could provide the power needed to drive Troy’s repeat run. Junior Sourish Daruri was part of last season’s No. 2 champion and is playing with senior Jesse Hao as the top-seeded pair at No. 1 this time. Juniors Jyotiraditya Kashyap and Siddarth Manikandan are second-seeded at No. 2, with sophomore Brad Bagley and freshman Aaditya Manikandan the top seeds at No. 3 and sophomore Vivaan Shan and junior Stas Barodka top-seeded at No. 4. Senior Zain Taqi was part of the No. 4 doubles champion last season and is seeded first at No. 4 singles, and junior Krish Gupta is seeded second at No. 2.
Novi: Sophomore Kris Thomas won No. 2 singles last season and enters this weekend as the fourth seed at No. 1 and as one of six Novi flights total seeded fourth or higher. Juniors Ishan Parikh and Luka Milosevich carry the team’s highest seed, second at No. 4 doubles. Sophomore Ronak Sharma is teaming with junior Daniel Han as the third seed at No. 2 doubles after Sharma was part of the runner-up at No. 4 last year with sophomore Vincent Maisano, who is teaming with sophomore Suveer Singh as the third seed at No. 3 this time.
Bloomfield Hills: Ranked No. 5 heading into the postseason, Bloomfield Hills is hoping to make a run at another title after finishing second at last year’s Final and also second to Troy at their Regional earlier this month. The Black Hawks are seeded at six flights, with Zev Spiegel the sixth seed at No. 2 singles after winning No. 3 a year ago. Seniors Krish Reddy and Maanav Majmuder are seeded fourth at No. 1 doubles after Reddy was part of last year’s champion at that flight.
Grant Miller, Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore: Last season’s No. 1 singles runner-up – after entering as the second seed – is the top seed this time with a 22-1 record and his only loss in three sets in August to Salem’s Aarav Shah, who he then defeated 6-0, 6-1, at last week’s Regional.
Aarav Shah, Salem senior: Shah is back at the Finals after just missing qualifying last season but making the No. 1 singles quarterfinals as a sophomore. His only loss this season was to Miller at the Regional, and all of his wins but the one over Miller went just two sets.
Division 2 – Oct 23-24
Top-ranked: 1. Birmingham Seaholm, 2. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 3. Midland Dow.
One of the three schools mentioned above has finished first the last four seasons and six of the last seven, and last year was the first time since 2020 that one of those three also didn’t finish runner-up. Byron Center – ranked No. 5 heading into this weekend – finished second by five points to champion Seaholm a year ago, with Dow third and Forest Hills Northern fourth. FHN’s most recent title came in 2024, and Dow won back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.
Birmingham Seaholm: The Maples will pursue a repeat championship with all eight flights seeded third or higher and four flights on the top line of their respective brackets. Freshman Luke Janz is seeded first at No. 4 singles, with senior Kalil Wahab and freshman Hunter Helman top-seeded at No. 1 doubles, senior Aaryan Senthilvanan and freshman Mark Latinsky top-seeded at No. 3 and seniors Deven Badhwar and Ryan McArdle on the top line at No. 4. Sophomores Ahren Gupta and Kyle Carr are seeded second at No. 2 doubles, with junior Carter Griffith second at No. 1 singles, sophomore Charlie Griffith second at No. 3 and senior Giorgio Materazzo seeded third at No. 2. Charlie Griffith is the reigning champion at No. 3 singles, Materazzo was the runner-up at No. 2 a year ago, and Senthilvanan was part of the champion at No. 3 doubles in 2024.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern: All eight FHN flights also are seeded, with four third seeds or higher – freshman Andrew Yang seeded second at No. 2 singles, junior Sam Ogilvie third at No. 3, freshman Jayden Qi second at No. 4 singles and junior Daniel Jin and senior Mikey Hernly seeded third at No. 3 doubles. Junior Vikram Krishnan is seeded seventh at No. 1 singles after winning the No. 2 flight a year ago, and junior Drew Decker is teaming with senior Ethan Han as the fifth seed at No. 2 doubles after Decker was part of the champion at No. 3 last fall.
Midland Dow: Three top seeds lead the way for a group with seven seeded flights total. Senior Chase Martin is on the top line at No. 2 singles, and Raymond Chai holds the same at No. 3, with seniors Ethan Clark and Jashwanth Thamminana top-seeded at No. 2 doubles and junior Vetter Xu and senior Zander Salisbury second-seeded at No. 3. Clark and Xu teamed up to win No. 4 doubles a year ago, and senior Nathan Song is playing with junior Sullivan Ladd as the third seed at No. 1 doubles after Song was part of the runner-up at that flight in 2025.
Mason Crosby, South Lyon East senior: After finishing second at No. 1 singles last season and second at No. 2 as a freshman, Crosby is seeking to finish his career with his first title and enters with a 26-0 record including five straight 6-0, 6-0 wins and 17 total this fall.
Evan Weber, Berkley junior: Weber is pursuing the title at No. 1 singles with a 21-2 record entering the weekend and losses to only Carter Griffith and Division 1 Ryan Brockhaus from Brother Rice – and Weber won a rematch with Griffith at their Regional.
Division 3 – Oct. 16-17
Top-ranked: 1. Detroit Country Day, 2. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 3. Holland Christian.
Cranbrook returned to the top of the Division 3 standings last season for the second time in three years and fourth time over the last six, finishing just a point ahead of Country Day. The Yellowjackets fell back to second after sharing the 2024 title with Ann Arbor Greenhills – which is ranked No. 4 this fall. Holland Christian won Division 4 in 2024 and finished third in Division 3 last fall.
Detroit Country Day: The Yellowjackets will attempt to win back the team title with the top or second seeds at all but one flight. Junior Ricky Jeong is seeded first at No. 1 singles and freshman Nicholas Nadjarian is the top seed at No. 4, Jeong pursuing his third Finals singles championship after winning No. 1 last year and No. 3 in 2024. Sophomore Samuel Kole-James at No. 2 singles and senior Victor Marin at No. 3 are joined by senior Preston Blum and freshman Emmanuel Kole-James at No. 2 doubles, freshman Rithik Vakhariya and senior Henry Diemer at No. 3 and sophomore Sasha Kebl and junior Sebastian Shah at No. 4 doubles among second seeds as well. Sophomore Shiv Kumar and junior Adam Mahmoud round out the lineup as the third seed at No. 1 doubles. Samuel Kole-James is the reigning champ at No. 2 singles, Plum was part of last year’s champion at No. 1 doubles and Kumar was part of the winner at No. 2. Marin also made the final matches last season, finishing runner-up at No. 4 singles.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes also are seeded first or second at every flight but one, with top lines going to freshman Trevor Ilitch at No. 2 singles, Eli Rosen at No. 3, seniors Ryan VanDyke and Josh Day at No. 1 doubles, senior Liam Black and junior Luke Stevenson at No. 3 and junior Jaiden Swami and senior Stanley Shen at No. 4 doubles. Freshman Jacob Yang is seeded second at No. 1 singles, sophomore Henry DeMuth is second at No. 4, and junior Dylan Popat and senior Andy Yu are the third seed at No. 2 doubles. Day was the champion at No. 4 singles last season, and Popat and Yu won the title at No. 4 doubles. Rosen was the runner-up at No. 2 singles in 2025, and DeMuth was part of the runner-up pair at No. 3 doubles.
Holland Christian: All eight flights are seeded as Holland Christian attempts to make its move on the annual contenders. Seniors Graham Tannis and Michael Gorno are leading the way as the second seeds at No. 2 doubles, with freshman Asher Grosso is the third seed at No. 2 singles. Senior Eli Whitmore is teaming with junior Brody Bergsma as the fifth seed at No. 2 doubles after Whitmore was part of the champion at No. 3 last season, and seniors Jonathan Haig and Carter Leep are seeded fourth at No. 3 doubles after finishing runner-up at No. 4 last fall. Junior Nico Grosso is the sixth seed at No. 1 singles coming off last year’s runner-up finish at No. 3.
Anish Komirisetty, Haslett junior: The third-seeded player at No. 1 singles is 28-0 and a combined 79-3 for his career while competing in his second season at the top flight after playing No. 2 as a freshman.
Division 4 – Oct. 21-22
Top-ranked: 1. Jackson Lumen Christi, 2. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 3. Ludington.
University Liggett took back the title last season, claiming its first since 2022 by finishing 10 points ahead of Lumen Christi. The Titans are favored this time as they seek their first Finals championship in this sport. Ludington is pursuing the same after tying for ninth in Division 3 a year ago.
Jackson Lumen Christi: Powerful doubles are expected to pace Lumen’s title drive, with senior Maden Brady and sophomore Theo McEldowney seeded first at No. 2 and senior Gurmilan Singh and junior Shayan Challapalli seeded first at No. 4. Senior pairs Chase Schirmacher and Brogan Kelly and Harrison Botke and Vincent Tran are seeded second at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles, respectively. Seniors TJ O’Neill at No. 2 singles and Gabe Cooper at No. 3 are expected to add punch as third seeds. Kelly was part of the runner-up last season at No. 3 doubles.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett: A repeat run could be led by junior Justin Platt at No. 3 singles, junior Fernando Romine at No. 4 and junior Lucas Ferguson and sophomore Ian Moya at No. 2 doubles – all second seeds. Seniors Davis Ford and Charlie Laethem at No. 1 doubles also will be counted on to score big points as a third seed. Platt was the No. 4 singles champion a year ago, while Laethem was part of the champion at No. 2 doubles and Ferguson part of the flight winner at No. 3.
Ludington: A powerful singles lineup could send the Orioles into the title hunt, with seniors Oliver Kolb at No. 2, Tyler Keillor at No. 3 and Ryder Saya at No. 4 all top seeds and senior Ryan Higley at No. 1 unseeded but coming off a Regional championship. Juniors Gavin Cohoon and Ethan Blough at No. 1 doubles also are seeded, in the fifth spot.
Mateus Pimental, Goodrich senior: The second seed at No. 1 singles enters the weekend 21-0 and hasn’t lost a set this season.
Noah West, Lansing Catholic junior: He’s the top seed at No. 1 singles with a 28-2 record but with those defeats in three sets to Haslett’s Komirisetty (see above) and Maple City Glen Lake senior Hawthorn Sutherland, who is seeded fifth in this bracket.
Matthew Brenzing & John Oliver, Grandville Calvin Christian juniors: Brenzing returned to doubles after playing No. 1 singles a year ago and has teamed with Oliver to achieve a 26-0 record and the top seed at No. 1 doubles this weekend.
No Just-Miss This Time: Groves Breaks Through with 1st Finals Win
By
Greg Chrapek
Special for Second Half
October 16, 2021
HOLLAND – This year’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Boys Tennis Finals had a new look.
Along with the return to their traditional format after last year’s COVID-driven changes, the tournament featured a new champion, several new competing schools and some brand new names to the Division 2 tennis scene.
Birmingham Groves, a five-time Finals runner-up, broke through and claimed the first boys tennis team title in school history. Groves finished the two-day tournament Saturday with 27 points to edge a familiar name, two-time reigning Division 2 champion Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, by one point. Last year’s Division 1 champion, Okemos, had moved into Division 2 this season and tied for third place with Midland Dow as both teams totaled 20 points.
For Groves and coach Dave Farmer, the title meant the end of a chase lasting a decade.
“I’ve been coaching here since 2010 and we’ve had several second and third-place finishes,” Farmer said. “This one is very special because it’s the first high school title I’ve ever won. I won three titles at Eastern Michigan University, but this is my first in 12 years of coaching high school tennis.
“We have a veteran team this year, and that is a big reason why we won it. We had great senior leadership and a lot of good juniors as well.”
Groves came into the tournament with nine seniors on the team and seven in the starting lineup. The Falcons were paced by their singles lineup but received big efforts from doubles down the stretch.
“We have a good group of singles players that carried us for the bulk of the year,” Farmer said. “Our doubles teams really picked it up in the tournament and really helped solidify the team.”
The Falcons also had a talented freshman in the singles lineup, and he made his high school Finals debut in a big way. Groves freshman Michael Liss won the No. 3 singles title as he defeated Will Seymour of Detroit U-D Jesuit 6-4, 6-3.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Liss said. “I just tried to stay calm and not get upset at anything at all. I feel that as a team we were a cohesive unit, and we all pushed each other to get better. I’m just a freshman, but I know we’ve been really close to winning it as a team. We’ve finished second and third a lot so we really wanted to win it this year.”
Liss was not the only freshman to win an individual flight championship. Okemos freshman Suchir Nagisetty arrived on the Finals stage in a big way as well as he defeated Andrew Williams of Mattawan 7-5, 6-1, to clinch at No. 4 singles.
The win was especially meaningful for Nagisetty as he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Sid who won an individual flight title during his freshman season at Okemos in 2017. Sid was in attendance cheering and supporting his brother and has played his own role in Suchir’s development as a player.
“My brother coached me and trained me this summer,” Suchir said. “I wanted to follow in his footsteps and win a state title in my freshman year. It is something I’ve thought about for a long time. There is some pressure, but once you start playing the match your love of tennis takes over and you just concentrate on playing the game. Winning the title feels great, and it’s nice to have something in common I can share with my brother.”
A new name to Division 2 tennis but a familiar face on the state scene, Okemos sophomore Ethan Portnoy, came away with the No. 1 singles championship. Portnoy, who played doubles last season, moved up to No. 1 singles and defeated Connor Stafford of Grosse Pointe South 6-3, 6-4.
Like Nagisetty, Portnoy had a good example of what it takes to win an individual championship under his own roof as his older brother Josh Portnoy was a two-time Finals flight champion during his high school career at Okemos.
“It’s really cool to follow in my older brother’s footsteps,” Portnoy said. “I had a lot of confidence that I could do it. I played a lot of USTA (United States Tennis Association) tournaments in the summer and had a lot of tough matches, and I knew I could bring that experience to high school tennis.”
At No. 2 singles, senior Owen Goodrich of Forest Hills Northern wrapped up his career in a memorable way by outlasting Okemos senior George Fan in a grueling, three-set struggle 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
“I just took it one point at a time,” Goodrich said. “I’ve played him before, and I knew it was going to be a tough match. I knew he’s a great player, but he’s not invincible.”
Winning his final match as a senior was a fitting way to go out for Goodrich, who lost in the final at No. 4 singles as a freshman.
“I lost in the state finals to a player from Okemos as a freshman,” Goodrich said. “Now I win my final match in the state finals against a player from Okemos. I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish my senior year. It’s amazing.”
In doubles competition, winners came from four schools.
Grosse Pointe South, in Division 2 for the first time after having played in Division 1 for years, finished in a tie for sixth place and was led by seniors Blake Discher and Alex Prather. Discher and Prather teamed up to stop Thomas Ladwein and Aaron Li of Midland Dow 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1 doubles.
“We played really good,” Prather said. “It was one of our best days ever. This is the second year that we’ve played as partners, and we do a great job of supporting each other.”
The duo was determined to bring home a title for South, and even though they believed they could win, there was an element of awe when it was over.
“I thought we could take it with how much we put into it,” Discher said, “but in the end we were kind of shocked that we actually did it.”
The Jesuit No. 4 doubles team of Sam Owens and Stephen Cibulas won a tough struggle against Andrew Weitzman and Gabe Klein of Groves 7-5, 7-6 (2). The win was made even harder considering the duo had just spent plenty of energy getting past a tough Forest Hills Northern team in the semifinal round.
“We had a real tough match with Forest Hills Northern, and it drained a lot of our energy,” Owens said. “We had to be more mentally tough in this match. They were up 4-1 in the second half so we had to come back to win it.”
“We just played with more energy,” Cibulas added. “It was all about the energy. We also support each other really well.”
At No. 2 doubles, the Forest Hills Northern duo of Aaryan Singh and Anderson Halland were pushed to the limit before claiming a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, victory against Dylan Wolf and Alexandras Abarius of Groves.
Birmingham Seaholm, which tied for sixth with Grosse Pointe South, was paced by its No. 3 doubles team of Alex George and Alex Lewis. The Seaholm duo won the No. 3 doubles title by stopping Kyle Wang and Joey Lamberg of Forest Hills Northern 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTOS (Top) Birmingham Groves' Michael Liss returns a volley Saturday during his run to the No. 3 singles championship. (Middle) Okemos' Ethan Portnoy drives a shot during a No. 1 singles match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)