Local Sports Journal

The Spring Lake boys tennis team, and the remainder of the Division 3 field, will be looking to knock off heavy favorite Detroit Country Day in the state finals this weekend.

The two-day event will be played at Holland Christian. Early-round action begins Friday. Detroit Country Day is seeded No. 1 in all eight flights.

Spring Lake qualified as a team based on their regional title last week.

No. 1 singles player Ryan Fedewa received a first-round bye and will take on East Grand Rapids’ Garrett Goldman, who comes in as the No. 3 seed.

At No. 2 singles, Spring Lake’s Stuart Velarde takes on Richmond’s Adam Ozark. The winner gets to face No. 1-seeded Sven Kranz from Detroit Country Day.

Erik Johnson is Spring Lake’s No. 3 singles player. He will battle Otsego’s Riese Bierlein in the opening round.

At No. 4 singles, Craig Pratt will face Trenton’s Parker Ducus in the first round. The winner gets top-seeded Max Shanbron from Country Day.

In doubles action, at No. 1, Lakers Mitch Davis and Kasey Panyard received a first-round bye. They will hit the court against Forest Hills Eastern’s Akash Premkumar and Kenny DeBoer.

Josh Cole and Brenden Peel make up the Lakers’ No. 2 doubles team. Holland Christian’s Blake Blewitt and Josh Scholma will be their first-round opponents.

Spring Lake’s Patrick Wang and Trevor Zanas received a bye into the second round at No. 3 doubles. There, they will face another team that received a bye, Justin Weener and Elijah Nykamp from Holland Christian.

Jonah Yoshonis and Griffin Wagasky from Spring Lake have a first-round match with Otsego’s Eric Stack and Ryan Piersma. The winner gets the top-seeded team from Detroit Country Day, Matt Stebbins and DJ Bailey.