Mark Meyer and John Raffel
Sports Scene
Lansing Catholic Central fell one point short in its bid for the Division 4 state tennis championship at Jenison after advancing its top three
singles players to the semifinals. Greenhills School won the title with 23 points; Lansing Catholic Central and Kalamazoo Christian finished with 22 apiece.
At No. 1 singles, second seed Chance Conley of Portland defeated top-seeded Michael Sienko of Williamston 6-4, 6-2 for the state title.
Portland’s Ricky Simon lost the No. 4 singles final to Zach Martell of Greenhills, 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5. Portland placed fourth overall with 17 points, while Williamston was 10th with 11 points.
The Cougars’ No. 1 doubles team of Peter Murray and Jake Johnson defended their top seed by defeating Kalamazoo Christian’s Dan Stevens and Cordell Engbers 6-1, 6-2 in the finals. At No. 3 doubles, the Lansing Catholic pair of Mitch Moore and Ethan Lehman lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Sam Markel and Adhi Rajaprabhakaran of Greenhills.
In the Division 1 finals at Midland, Trevor Stoimenoff of Grand Ledge lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Tyler Gardiner of Northville, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the Division 2 finals at Kalamazoo, Okemos finished fifth with 17 points and East Lansing tied for 10th with seven. The Okemos No. 1
doubles team of Kyle Haak and Elan Dantus won the state title in their flight by defeating the Birmingham Groves tandem of Calvin Greer and Alex Allen, 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in the championship match.
The top two Okemos singles players – Andy Struble (No. 1) and Karun Nair (No. 2) – both reached the semifinals before losing.