Sorry it's taken me a couple days to catch up. Didn't want anyone to think I had forgotten how our Division 2 and 3 teams did this past weekend.
Country Day took care of business in Holland, tallying 39 team points to finish what it started at the beginning of the season. They Yellowjackets beat everyone this past year.
They beat four of the top five teams in Division 1 (Huron, Brother Rice, Novi and Troy - didn't play Northville). They beat three of the top four teams in Division 2 (Midland Dow, Forest Hills Central and Northern). They topped the top two teams in Division 4 (Greenhills and Liggett) and crushed everyone in Division 3.
On Saturday, Country Day had everyone reach the finals, with seven of eight flights capturing state titles. Max Fliegner capped off a brilliant first season on the courts with a state title at No. 1 singles. He beat Plainwell's Jan Krakora 7-5, 6-4 in the championship match. His teammates, Sven Kranz (No. 2) and Rishi Patel (No. 3) lost a combined eight games in eight matches to dominate their flights.
The doubles were equally impressive, winning everything in straight sets the entire weekend. Alex Gruskin and Patrick Adams dropped just three games before beating 2-seeded Mike Kincaid and Matt VanWinkle of St. Joseph, 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the final. Max Lee and Lorenz Gahn (at No. 2) lost no more than five games in a match all day, beating St. Joe's Ryan Teich and Jared Kuntz in their final. Blake Burstein and Rishab Nayak mirrored Lee and Gahn's feat, dropping no more than five games in any one match before beating St. Joe's Sam Singler and Ed Nieh in the finals at No. 3.
It was a remarkable run for the Yellowjackets, which graduate six players from this lineup.
Cranbrook put forth a great tournament as well, finishing a spot ahead of their state ranking - third overall. Matthew McCormick, Mark Sable, Will Dube' and Nithin Davuluri all reached at least the semifinals in singles, while the doubles teams of Alex David-Taylor Ghesquiere, Wyatt Kayne-Stephane Teste, Joe Cavataio-Russell Lee and Chase Ghesquiere-Nolan Trepeck all made the final four as well.
My predictions weren't too far off this year. But Division 3 is a little easier to predict.

No. 1 singles
My prediction: Max Fliegner (DCD) over Jake Stants (SJ)
Actual: Max Fliegner (DCD) over Jan Krakora (PL)

No. 2 singles
My prediction: Sven Kranz (DCD) over Thomas Bellio (SJ)
Actual: Sven Kranz (DCD) over Thomas Bellio (SJ)

No. 3 singles
My Prediction: Rishi Patel (DCD) over Jesper Ke (SJ)
Actual: Rishi Patel (DCD) over Will Dube (CK)

No. 4 singles
My Prediction: Nithin Davuluri (CK) over Max Shanbrom (DCD)
Actual: Kenny Garstecki (SJ) over Max Shanbrom (DCD)

No. 1 doubles
My Prediction: Alex Gruskin-Patrick Adams (DCD) over Mike Kincaid-Matt VanWinkle (SJ)
Actual: Alex Gruskin-Patrick Adams (DCD) over Mike Kincaid-Matt VanWinkle (SJ)

No. 2 doubles
My Prediction: Max Lee-Lorenz Gahn (DCD) over Ryan Teich-Jared Kuntz (SJ)
Actual: Max Lee-Lorenz Gahn (DCD) over Ryan Teich-Jared Kuntz (SJ)

No. 3 doubles
My Prediction: Blake Burstein-Rishab Nayak (DCD) over Sam Singler-Ed Nieh (SJ)
Actual: Blake Burstein-Rishab Nayak (DCD) over Sam Singler-Ed Nieh (SJ)

No. 4 doubles
My Prediction: Matt Stebbins-D.J. Bailey (DCD) over Eric Miller-Nick Stants (SJ)
Actual: Matt Stebbins-D.J. Bailey (DCD) over Eric Miller-Nick Stants (SJ)


At the Division 2 finals, Midland Dow once again proved it had no challengers. It won five flight championships. One flight it did not win was No. 2 doubles. Birmingham Seaholm's Zach Tayler-Griffen Neel capped off a spectacular season, winning the flight championship after beating Midland Dow's David Goslin and Colin Angell. Tayler and Neel did not drop a set in the tournament and helped their team to a Top-5 finish.
Also helping the Maples was the No. 4 doubles team of Alex Cross and Will Geller, who knocked off the 3-seed (Portage Central) on its way to the finals, where they lost to an unseeded Forest Hills Central team. Alec Tropea, at No. 4 singles, was a semifinalist for Seaholm.
Though Dow and a couple of the west side teams made most of the headlines at Holly/Fenton, a couple more county teams made some noise, too. Berkley, really the surprise, underdog team in the tournament, finished a surprising 10th place. Coach Lenny Waldman's team, which finished behind Seaholm and Groves at the regional tournament, took advantage of some nice draws and great play to score eight points on Saturday. Sam Subia, unseeded at No. 4 singles, beat a pair of seeded players to reach the semifinals.
Andover's Danny Harwood and Ethan Beattie gave the county another semifinalist, finishing among the top-four at No. 3 doubles.
Division 2 is always the hardest for me to predict because the competition is very balanced and many of the top teams are a bit unfamiliar to me. The only team I nailed was Forest Hills Northern, though I had them finishing third, not fourth. Here's a look at who I had in the finals at each flight, and what actually happened.

No. 1 singles
My prediction: Billy Heckman (PC) over Davis Crocker (KLN)
Actual: Davis Crocker (KLN) over Billy Heckman (PC)

No. 2 singles
My prediction: Austin Woody (MD) over Rob Stevens (PC)
Actual: Austin Woody (MD) over Rob Stevens (PC)

No. 3 singles
My Prediction: Juli Guerra (MD) over Trevor VanderKlok (PC)
Actual: Juli Guerra (MD) over Trevor VanderKlok (PC)

No. 4 singles
My Prediction: Michael Szabo (MD) over Freddy Heegen (UDJ)
Actual: Michael Szabo (MD) over Justin Minzlaff (FHN)

No. 1 doubles
My Prediction: Jason Chang-Vikram Shanker (MD) over Daichi Hirakawa-Abhiram Krishnan (PC)
Actual: Jason Chang-Vikram Shanker (MD) over Mat Denison-Stan Lassen (BCL)

No. 2 doubles
My Prediction: David Goslin-Colin Angell (MD) over Zach Tayler-Griffen Neel (BS)
Actual: Zach Tayler-Griffen Neel (BS) over David Goslin-Colin Angell (MD)

No. 3 doubles
My Prediction: Patrick Eschbach-Mark Gorte (MD) over Amey Vrudhula-Nico Finelli (FHC)
Actual: Patrick Eschbach-Mark Gorte (MD) over Amey Vrudhula-Nico Finelli (FHC)

No. 4 doubles
My Prediction: Andrew Camp-David Read (MD) over Anirudh Ghantasala-Sam Han (PC)
Actual: Joey McClure-Matt Gebhardt (FHC) over Alex Cross-Will Geller (BS)

On my newest post, I predict all the qualifying teams for this week's tennis regionals in Oakland County. But I wanted to take a few minutes to give my thoughts an opinions here, in this blog post.
I cover both boys and girls tennis here at The Oakland Press, as well as high school hockey. As anyone knows, these sports are very prominent at our schools and some of the best teams year in and year out compete for state championships. And boys tennis is no exception. In my blog posting on June 12, I broke down the number of champions and runners-up in all Oakland County sports, and boys tennis was near the top.
The downside of that is that the competition to get to the state finals is fierce. Some of our better teams do not even get a chance to play for a state title. There are a couple instances this fall where that's the case. Here's a little more on each of our regionals:

• It's unfortunate that the Division 1 regional at Rochester is so stacked. Brother Rice is seeded No. 1 at seven of eight flights and will of course make it out. The question is, will the Warriors leave any points on the table for the rest of the field to snatch up? Rochester Adams should have enough to get through as the second automatic qualifier, but the fight for a possible third qualifier (18 or more team points) is a good one. On paper, Stoney Creek - led by senior Nick Fiaschetti - is seeded in the top two at two flights. If the Cougars can avoid any major upsets, they may just earn enough to get through. West Bloomfield might just be on the outside looking in, barring an upset or two on their own part.
• The Novi regional should be an interesting one. Novi - ranked No. 1 in the state, is a shoe-in to get through, as is No. 4 ranked Northville. Catholic Central - led by its No. 1 player, Michael Dube' and No. 2 Michael Trupiano - should score enough points to get through as well. But there's little room for error for the Shamrocks, which are going through a bit of a rebuilding season.
• Over at Grosse Pointe South, there should be enough points available for Troy, Grosse Pointe South and Troy Athens to all get through. Troy is the top seed at every flight. And Athens' singles and GPS's doubles should be strong enough to get them 20-plus points. The only thing here is which team will finish runner-up to the Colts. I think the Blue Devils will prevail by the narrowest of margins.
• In Division 2, Andover will be the favorite at the North Farmington regional. Lahser and North Farmington will battle it out for second. The Knights beat the Raiders 5-4 in the regular season, but the teams were 4-4 through four-doubles. The match was pretty balanced. The difference could be whether North Farmington can get some big points in singles (Griffin Mertz at No. 1 for example) as opposed to Lahser scoring bigger in doubles (Nos. 2-3 for example). I picked Lahser to narrowly edge out the Raiders. But both qualify.
• No drama at all at Groves on Thursday. Both Groves and Seaholm will dominate the field. But for those interested, Groves beat Seaholm 5-4 in the regular season. But the eight-flight score was 5-3 in favor of the Falcons. Groves has a distinct advantage in singles, while Seaholm is slightly better in doubles. All but one match during the teams' first match were won in straight sets. Brandon Hermann and Austin Lessnau needed three sets to beat Seaholm's Alex Cross and Will Geller. Expect it to be a dual in the final. And I'm predicting a 4-4 tie this time around.
• A really competitive regional will take place in Fenton, where a few Flint Metro League teams will battle it out, along with Flushing. Holly, which won its 20th-straight league title two weeks ago, shoudl get through, along with Flushing. From there it's a crap-shoot. Brandon, Fenton and Swartz Creek finished 2-3-4 at the league meet, separated by four points total. Fenton was 5-1 in league play (behind Holly). It'll all come down to matchups, really. I think Fenton and Brandon have enough talent to earn an at-large spot, but will there be enough points? Brandon has Spencer Navarre. His regional championship should give the Blackhawks a leg up at that flight, but they'll have to avoid any early (first or second round) upsets if they want to get through.
• And just like the D-2 regional at Groves, the D-3 regional at Cranbrook will be a two-team dual. Country Day beat Cranbrook 7-1 in the regular season and the No. 1-ranked Yellowjackets are a lock to get back to defend their state championship from a year ago. The only question will be whether or not Country Day's Max Shanbrom can avenge his earlier loss to Cranbrook's Nithin Davuluri at No. 4 singles. If he can, the Yellowjackets might be seeded No. 1 at every flight at states.

SIDE NOTES

• In case you missed it, Ann Arbor Huron beat Brother Rice 5-3 Tuesday. The Warriors had just jumped ahead of Huron in the state rankings this week. The Hurons won three of the singles matchups, which surprised me a bit. They lost all but four players from last year's state championship team, but must be peaking at the right time. The two teams split in doubles, with Huron getting wins a 1-2 and Brother Rice at 3-4.
• In a match that I've been anticipating all year long, Troy's Brett Forman beat Country Day's Max Fliegner 6-3, 6-4. Troy coach Brian Miska said "This is the Brett Forman I've been waiting to see all year long." Forman and Fliegner were 1-2 in my preseason rankings.
• Country Day capped off a perfect regular season this past weekend with an impressive showing at the Midland Dow Quad. The Yellowjackets beat the host Chargers 6-2, Ann Arbor Huron 5-3 and Port Huron 8-0. And they did it without No. 2 Sven Kranz and half of No. 3 doubles, Blake Burstein. Coach Josh Molino's team has now beaten Nos. 1-2-3-5 in Division 1; No. 1 in Division 2; No. 2-3-4 in Division 3; and No. 1-2 in Division 1. That's pretty much everyone. No doubt who the best team in the state is.

It really is too bad that tennis doesn't follow the same state tournament format as high school wrestling. There's something about the excitement of a dual match that you just can't get in a tournament format. So we're left to enjoy great matchups during the regular season, just like the one I got to see Wednesday at Country Day.

(The Oakland Press/VAUGHN GURGANIAN)

Country Day junior Max Fliegner beat Brother Rice's
Gunnar Peery 7-6 (7), 6-3 Wednesday
as his Yellowjackets beat the Warriors, 6-2.

The host Yellowjackets welcomed in Brother Rice in what I consider a matchup of the two best tennis teams in the entire state - regardless of divisions. Country Day is the best team - bar none - as was evidenced in its 6-2 win over the Warriors. Its strength at the top (Max Fliegner, Sven Kranz and Rishi Patel) is unmatched. And its depth is just as impressive. Seniors Alex Gruskin and Patrick Adams anchor what could be a doubles lineup that does some big damage at the Division 3 state tournament.
But I was just as impressed with Brother Rice. When you're playing a team that's as talented, and deep, as Country Day is, it would be easy to just roll over and look ahead to the next match. But Rice didn't do that Tuesday. Gunnar Peery really impressed me with his play against Fliegner - who is one of the best players in the state in all divisions. It was a really entertaining first set - which Fliegner took in a tiebreaker. Peery is going to be lumped into what I would venture to say will be the most talented No. 1 singles draw at the Division 1 state tournament in many, many years. If he continues to play the way he did Wednesday, he could be a darkhorse to score a few points for the Warriors.
And though Country Day did win three of four singles matches Wednesday, I think the quartet of Peery, Jack Hamaty, Chase Peery and Michael Ciraci is going to give most Division 1 teams a fit this season. Same thing goes for Warriors' doubles teams. Juniors Blake and Joey Hildebrand played Gruskin and Adams tough and are easily a top-four seed at the state tournament, with a chance to go all the way. George Hamaty and Johnny Cameron, Brendan Dillon and Connor Parks and David Weatherford and Dan Lunhamer proved Rice will have the depth in doubles to beat anyone - other than Country Day - this season.

That brings me back to the Yellowjackets, who I ranked No. 1 just ahead of Brother Rice in my preseason rankings.  Fliegner, Kranz, Patel and Max Shanbrom - who was committed to another event and did not play Wednesday - are uber talented. I see a possible sweep at the Division 3 finals.
And the doubles are extremely deep as well. Gruskin and Adams looked really good Wednesday. They were my No. 1-ranked doubles team, just ahead of the Hildebrands. And they didn't disappoint. Max Lee and Lorenz Gahn beat a Rice tandem (Hamaty-Cameron) that I think will win a state title in Division 1. Blake Burstein and Rishab Nayak dropped their match to Brendan Dillon and Connor Parks. But I think that's another pair that may win a state title. And Matt Stebbins and D.J. Bailey rolled in their No. 4 doubles match.
It was great to see the best play each other. Country Day - if it stays health - will win a state championship. This was a chance to see how it stacked up against what I consider the favorite in Division 1. As fun as it is to watch a team compete for a state title, I found yesterday's match to be just as exciting.
The complete results of the match are below. And they also ran in today's Oakland Press and on MIPrepZone - with a couple photos and some video highlights of the No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles matches at the bottom.

BIRMINGHAM DETROIT COUNTRY DAY 6, BIRMINGHAM BROTHER RICE 2
SINGLES: Max Fliegner (CD) d. Gunnar Peery 7-6 (7), 6-3; Sven Kranz (CD) d. Jack Hamaty 6-0, 6-2; Rishi Patel (CD) d. Chase Peery 6-1, 6-4; Michael Ciraci (BR) d. Noah Karoub 6-3, 7-6 (4)
DOUBLES: Alex Gruskin-Patrick Adams (CD) d. Blake Hildebrand-Joey Hildebrand 7-6 (6), 6-2; Max Lee-Lorenz Gahn (CD) d. George Hamaty-Johnny Cameron 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5); Brendan Dillon-Connor Parks (BR) d. Blake Burstein-Rishab Nayak 7-5, 6-3; Matt Stebbins-D.J. Bailey (CD) d. David Weatherford-Dan Lunghamer 6-2, 6-3
RECORDS: Country Day 2-0, Brother Rice 7-1