UPDATE: West Bloomfield Boys Qualify For State Tennis Finals

It was an incredibly busy day of tennis action in Michigan on Thursday.

The varsity boys tennis regionals were held at 20 different sites across the state. Results are coming in and it looks like Oakland County will be well represented next weekend at the state finals by a lot of familiar faces.

UPDATE

Division 1: West Bloomfield, Stoney Creek, Adams

Three Oakland County teams qualified for the state finals at Rochester High School on Thursday.

West Bloomfield finished in first place followed by Adams in second and Stoney Creek in third. All three teams earned enough points to move on to Midland this weekend.

The Lakers reached the finals in seven out of the eight flights and won three of those.

Andrew Cahn won No. 1 singles and teammate Jordan Asker won No. 3 singles. The only doubles pair from the school to take home a title was Gabe Vila and Daniel Eilender. The freshman won No. 3 doubles over a pair of seniors from Stoney Creek.

Students from Adams and West Bloomfield played in three of the four singles finals. Cahn was the only Lakers tennis player to not face an Adams opponent in the finals.

The Highlanders won two of the three championship matches. Justin Hyman won No. 2 singles and Rahul Jain won No. 4 singles. Adams also won two doubles flights. Juhun Lee and Stephen Wang won No. 1 doubles and Tim Wu and Zhibin Deng won No. 2 doubles.

Stoney Creek didn’t have nearly as good of a day, but three runner-up finishes and one championship were good enough to extend the Cougars season.

The lone championship of the tournament for Stoney Creek was a No. 4 doubles win by Andrew Bismack and Erik Figura.

West Bloomfield was the only school from the Rochester regional to qualify that was in the state finals last season. It finished in 11th place in Division 1 last year.

Division 3: Detroit Country Day, Cranbrook Kingswood

The top two teams from Division 3 last season were at it again on Thursday.

Country Day finished in second place at the state finals behind last year. The Yellowjackets took its first step towards revenge last week with a near sweep of Cranbrook in this year's regionals.

Players from Country Day won seven of the eight flight championships and finished in second place in the other flight. Cranbrook Kingswood won the only flight that its rival didn’t and was the runner-up in the other seven flights.

Sven Kranz won the No. 1 singles for Country Day while Alex Gruskin and Abhay Hukku won No. 1 doubles. The only win for Cranbrook was a victory in No. 2 singles for Michael Kaye.

Division 1: Brother Rice, Troy

In the Division 1 regional at , and  both are headed back to the state finals.

The Brother Rice Warriors dominated their regional with wins in all four singles flights and two of the four doubles flights. In the two doubles flights Brother Rice didn’t win, it still made it to the finals.

Senior Charlie Dillon won No. 1 singles, Gunnar Peery won No. 2, Chase Peery won No. 3 and Johnny Cameron won No. 4. Cameron and Gunnar Peery both won their flights last season in the regionals.

Troy picked up the two flight championships that Brother Rice didn’t win. Matt Kuntzman and Kento Mizusaki won No. 1 doubles over Blake Hildebran and Jack Hamarty. Shallin Shah and Pramod Mulabagula won No. 4 doubles.

Both schools made it out of regionals last season and finished in the top five at the state finals.

Brother Rice finished third last season and Troy finished tied for fifth with Novi. The Warriors should be the favorite next weekend at Midland and have a good chance of winning the state championship for the second time in three years.

Division 2: North Farmington, Andover, Lahser 

Over in the Division 2 regional at , the host team qualified along with  and . Both North Farmington and Lahser qualified out of the regionals last season.

Andover had two flight champions in singles action and one doubles champion. Sanjay Reddy won No. 2 singles and Jonah Yousif won No. 4 singles while Dylan Deitch and Cuthbert Sun won No. 3 doubles.

Lahser senior Max Hemmrich won No. 1 singles and teammates David Gwizdala and Michael Daniels won No. 1 doubles to help the Knights advance to Kalamazoo next weekend.

Hemmrich was at the state finals last year and lost in the first round of the No. 1 singles flight. He’ll be looking for a better finish this year at the event.

Division 2: Birmingham Groves, Seaholm, U-D Jesuit

 hosted and qualified in its regional on Thursday.  and University of Detroit Jesuit also qualified out of the Falcons regional. All three teams were represented at the Division 2 state finals last season.

The Falcons' Blaine Stannard won the No. 1 singles flight and the team of Calvin Greer and Alex Allen won No. 1 doubles. Groves accounted for half of the first place finishes in the regional.

Ben McDermott was the only flight champion for Seaholm, but his win in No. 3 singles and the runner-up finish by Jason Mondry and Alec Tropea in No. 3 doubles were enough to help the Maples qualify.

One team left on the outside looking in was . The Bears finished two points short of making its first state finals appearance in nearly 20 years. 

“Strong play was exhibited by all as they truly showed the best tennis of their season,” head coach Lenny Waldman said.

Waldman called Simone Merendi’s No. 2 singles match against University of Detroit Jesuit’s Thomas Sheeren the highlight of the tournament for Berkley. Merendi lost to the eventual flight champion 6-2, 0-6, 4-6. 

“It was truly a match to remember,” he said.