With head coach Chris Jackson at top left, the Westwood High School boys tennis team poses with the Upper Peninsula Division 2 trophy Wednesday in Kingsford. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Adam Niemi)

KINGSFORD — Coach Chris Jackson knew Westwood had to keep it simple if his Patriots wanted to win the Upper Peninsula Division 2 boys tennis finals on Wednesday.

The Patriots came out and did exactly that, winning six of the eight flights for its fourth straight U.P. title.

“It feels awesome. Coming in, we knew it was going to be a real tight battle between us and West Iron,” Jackson said. “At the end, it turned into a virtual dual meet. We both had seven or eight finals. The difference was we won six of them.

“We were trying to find four wins in the finals. We felt like if we had four wins, we had two that we felt pretty good about, and then there were a whole bunch of close ones. I think that’s exactly how it played out.”

Westwood’s 21 points was enough to clear the 16 points posted by West Iron County, which also put six flights in the finals. Iron Mountain placed third with 7 points, followed by Ishpeming with 5, Munising 4 and Gwinn 2.

Jacob Kerkela’s win in the No. 2 singles final against WIC’s James Swanson, 6-4, 6-4, sealed the team victory for the Patriots.

IM’s Tysen Wadge beat WIC’s Neil Tomasoski in No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-2, for his third U.P. title.

West Iron County’s lone finals win came at No. 1 doubles when Brandon Henschel and Kevin Ballinger beat Westwood’s Austin Pierpont and Dylan Willey, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

The Patriots swept the rest of the finals, including championships by No. 3 singles player Adam Hyttinen, No. 4 singles player Anthony Couveau, the No. 2 doubles pair of Jared Anttila and Bryce Traver, the No. 3 doubles tandem of Jacob Adriano and Zach Niemi and the No. 4 doubles duo of Matt LaFountain and Seth Smith.

Every one of Westwood’s finals victories came in two sets, the toughest being Couveau’s 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6) win over the Wykons’ A.J. Weisnicht.

Jackson said there was no secret weapon in terms of performance. The players just had to stay in the moment.

“It’s hard in these situations. Everybody thinks you have to play your best tennis, you have to do all this, but the question is ‘How do you get there?’ We keep things simple, there’s not a lot of pressure on these kids,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants to do well on a day like this. I think it’s doing the simple things, taking care of things that you have control over.

“A day like this can really get away from you when you start worrying about things that are going on on a different court, or a different sight than just focusing on what you need to do.”

Iron Mountain coach Sharon Ducat said she expected West Iron County and Westwood to square off for the U.P. title. Her team, meanwhile, was steady but not as solid.

“We had a win at No. 1 singles, which was great,” Ducat said. “I’m really happy for Tysen for that.”