For the past few years, Highland tennis coach Jeanine Elsholz has felt that the way to rebuild her school’s boys tennis program was to compare it Region 6 rivals Skyline and Brighton.
Those squads always seemed to be in the race for the region and state titles, but on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Liberty Park, Highland took them down.
“To be fair, we came into this tournament favored,” Elsholz said. “We have some talent and, for the past couple of years, we’ve focused on building depth. We finally reached where we want to be and now we want to stay there.”
While the Highland girls last won state in 2021 under Elsholz, this was the boys’ first crown in 13 years.
The Rams took advantage of individual titles by sophomore Kian Noori Claro at No. 2 singles and got some help by a pair of Olympus doubles teams to earn 44 points and barely edge Brighton (43). Timpview finished in third place with 31, followed by Olympus (27) and Viewmont (25), Woods Cross (20) and Skyline (18).
The outcome of the tournament wasn’t decided until the end, when Olympus was matched up against Brighton in both doubles events. When the Titans’ team of Jakob Fankhouser-Yaroslav Sumtsov won a 6-1, 6-0 decision over James Covey-Henry Owen, it sealed Highland’s team title.
However, because the scores were so close and statistics were not easily accessible on site, Brighton put some doubt in some people’s minds after Maxwell Pohlman-Jacob Ballstaedt rallied and came back to win their match – 0-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Highland celebrated loudly when it accepted the trophy, but the outcome of the lengthy final match also allowed the Bengals, last year’s 5A champs, to finish the day on a high note, even though the five points they earned were not quite enough to catch Highland.
“We had done the math, and knew we already had it won,” said Elsholz. “We all know each other so well. We knew it was going to be close and everything had to go our way.”
Highland barely missed clinching the tournament earlier.
All three Ram entrants made it to the singles championship rounds, but Claro’s 6-2, 6-3 win over Drew Bergeson of Woods Cross was the lone breakthrough. Nate Tullis of Viewmont edged Oliver Mesicek in No. 1 singles and Timpview’s Braden Meier downed Timo Van Beurden 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
Elsholz said she welcomes having a target on her team’s back for next season, and hopes her squad will be prepared.
“I’m used to being the underdog, but our JV team swept region and our varsity had five sophomores,” she said. “I hope this installs in them that this is where we should be.”