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.)
Escanaba Ends Title Wait, Stops Negaunee Title Streak
By
Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
June 2, 2021
NEGAUNEE – Heading into Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Division 1 Finals, the Escanaba boys tennis team hadn’t won a championship in 14 years.
Maybe all it needed was some heavy rain to end that title drought.
The Eskymos battled through two lengthy weather delays to win their first U.P. Finals title since 2007. Escanaba’s win also ended Negaunee’s three-season tenure as champion as the Miners finished with 13 points, six behind the Eskymos.
Escanaba took three of the four doubles finals (Nos. 1, 2 and 3) and Nathan Howes took home the championship at No. 3 singles to lift the team to victory.
“It’s been 2007 since we’ve won this, and that’s a long time,” Escanaba head coach Tom Penegor said. “I’m just proud of these guys. They worked hard. Our two biggest goals throughout the year were to have fun and to get better.
“Normally in past years, Negaunee was always the team to beat. We’d play them early in the year and we’d be somewhat close to them, but by the end of the year, they’d widen the gap. This year, we actually closed the gap. It’s a great accomplishment for these guys because Negaunee, that’s a program that we try to get close to and this year, we did and passed them. So I’m very proud of that. Plus, we only have four seniors, so hopefully we can come back and do some damage again next year. That’s something to shoot for.”
Negaunee got title wins from Will Luke at No. 1 singles and Luke Syrjala at No. 2, while also getting the victory at No. 4 doubles to keep pace with the Eskymos. However, those just weren’t enough to overtake them.
Even though Negaunee’s reign at the top came to an end, Miners head coach Kyle Saari was proud of how his team of newcomers performed.
“If you look at it, we entered this year, we had 10 new kids in the varsity lineup and this is kind of a big unknown,” he said. “When you end up entering the UPs, it’s kind of seeing and kind of trying to predict how they will respond on this day. That includes how do they respond to a 1 or 2 seed, how do they respond if they have a first-round match. And I think kind of as a whole, what it turned into for us today, it was just pretty much a learning experience, how to handle that down time.
“If you kind of look at the day as a whole, Escanaba had a terrific day; hats off to them. They responded and they had a really strong showing at 3 singles today, at 4 singles. With them being able to get through the finals into those flights, that really kind of set the table for them to be successful later in the day.”
Menominee finished third with 10 points and won the last match of the day as Danny Birch defeated Escanaba’s Connor Smale in a three-set thriller (6-4, 2-6, 6-2) at No. 4 singles. Marquette took fourth with five points, followed by Gladstone with two and Kingsford with one.
PHOTOS: Escanaba’s Nathan Howes returns a serve during his No. 3 singles match Wednesday in Negaunee. He went on to win the match and the flight. (Middle) The Miners’ Will Luke serves during a No. 1 singles match. He finished the season undefeated. (Photos by Ryan Stieg.)