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. 

Always Contender, Allegan Now Champion

November 19, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Allegan’s championship story began nearly a half-century ago.

A longtime coach retires after 45 years building one of the state’s strongest tennis programs, even receiving national recognition for his work spreading love for the game – but he never won a championship at the highest level. His program is taken over by a pair of former players, one the longtime girls coach whose son fills the No. 1 singles flight and is among a number of second-generation players on the team.

At the beginning of the season, they write three goals on the dry-erase board in their team room – to win league, Regional and MHSAA Finals championships. They’re finally able to check off every single one, returning home from the season’s final tournament to a police escort after achieving that previously unattainable ultimate goal for the first time.

The Allegan boys tennis team is still celebrating its Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship won Oct. 18-19, a crowning achievement following the 45-year coaching career of Gary Ellis which concluded after the 2018 season. Former players Jen Aldrich and Seth Arthur took over as co-coaches this fall and – with a lineup of players brought up through the community’s tennis program – added the highest prize to Ellis’ legacy while creating their own.

“We had three goals … so every time we (accomplished one), we would bring them in the check it off the board – ‘Ok, step one is done. Now to step two,’” Allegan co-coach Jen Aldrich said. “I think everyone bought into ‘team’ this year. In previous years, we had a lot of individual successes. This year was different; we were going to win as a team. Nobody talked about individual flight championships. That was a huge key – everybody knew they were important, and everybody knew they had to get points at states.”

The MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” actually tied for the LPD4 championship with Kalamazoo Hackett, after defeating Hackett 6-2 in match play earlier this season and winning the Regional title ahead of the second-place Irish on Oct. 10. (And of course, this is not to take anything away from Hackett’s fine Finals performance. The Irish earned the shared title – their first Finals championship in the sport since 2005 – by tying Allegan with 21 points at the Finals.)

The Tigers’ quest reached back generations. As reported by the Allegan News when Ellis retired, he had led the program to 30 league and 12 Regional titles, 32 MHSAA Finals appearances and 23 top-10 finishes at the year-end event.

But taking those final championship steps last month at Hope College truly took a team effort.

Freshman Eli Festerling gave Allegan a boost at No. 4 singles with the program’s first Finals flight championship since 1990. Noah Festerling and Ben Groth also made the championship round, taking runner-up honors at No. 3 doubles.

The Tigers also got at least one win at six flights and made semifinals at five – although the team entered with only four flights seeded (among the top four) to advance to the second-to-last round. Total, Allegan flights finished 16-7 at the Finals.

One of those semifinalists was No. 1 doubles pair Jack Nahikian and Korbin Sisson – after Nahikian had played No. 4 singles the year before. Vance Muenzer was a Regional runner-up at No. 3 singles this fall after making the jump from playing No. 4 doubles in 2018.

Tyler Aldrich – Jen’s son – was a Regional champ at No. 1 and won two Finals matches while entering unseeded. No. 2 singles Tim Lyon also won a match at the Finals, while Owen Clearwater and Walker Michaels at No. 2 doubles and Chase Williams and David Roark at No. 4 also made semifinals. Aldrich, Eli Festerling, Clearwater/Michaels, Noah Festerling/Groth and Williams/Roark were Regional champs to pace that team title victory.

“I think our strength is our depth. We were strong all the way through,” Jen Aldrich said.

“It’s extra special too for such a small town,” she added, “because Gary and I, we run the summer tennis program so most of these kids we’ve had in the program since they were 3 and 4 years old.”  

Aldrich had played for Ellis’ girls program from 1988-91 before going on to play at Western Michigan University, and since coming home has led the girls tennis program for 16 years – her brother Tony Fales actually was Ellis’ assistant for the latter’s final 15 years. Arthur played for Ellis before graduating in 2010 and went on to play at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana.

Arthur kept players loose, especially during big events, providing a boost of fun when the team needed to keep things light. Aldrich was more the disciplinarian, stepping in to crack down when required. They were assisted by Jesse DeBoer, another former Allegan standout who graduated in 2012 and played at Spring Arbor.

“It’s awesome that we took over this year, but deep down we know this is because of Gary Ellis,” Aldrich said. “He built the program. He’s worked with these kids. He got them to this point. So we’ve been celebrating Gary this whole time, because we know it’s because of him and my brother … we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. This really truly was a championship because of Gary Ellis. … This is truly his program.”

And it’s a championship that brought pride to many who have played for Allegan over the years. Ellis’ teams had reached third place at the Finals multiple times, including in 2018.

If this year’s athletes didn’t understand what they accomplished in the moment, they have come to understand over the last month.

“I think probably their families as a whole (know) too,” Aldrich said. “Some of the parents of the players were in the program for Gary – they were players here once – and a lot of alumni (showed support) on our Facebook page and that sort of thing.

“If (our team) didn’t know, they know now.”

Past Teams of the Month, 2019-20

September: Ishpeming Westwood girls tennis - Report

PHOTOS: (Top) Tyler Aldrich returns a volley during a No. 1 singles match at the LP Division 4 Finals. (Middle) Allegan's championship-winning team. (Top photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com; middle photo courtesy of the Allegan boys tennis program.)