The Marquette Senior High School boys tennis team shows off the championship trophy and medals they earned for winning — actually sharing with Kingsford — the Great Northern Conference meet championship on Tuesday in Escanaba. (Tricia Bush photo courtesy Karl Thomsen)

ESCANABA — Escanaba was the gracious host, not only showing one team a championship, but actually two of them at the Great Northern Conference boys tennis meet held Tuesday at the Eskymos courts.

That’s because Marquette and Kingsford tied for the team title with 27 points, Escanaba taking third with 17. West Iron County was fourth with 7 while Gladstone had 2.

“Maybe it is the coach in me wanting to see perfection, but I don’t think our guys played their best tennis today.” MSHS head coach Karl Thomsen said in comments included with details of the meet. “I guess the positive is it’s nice to know despite having a lot more to give, we can still walk away with a share of the title against a powerful Kingsford team.

“All four of our singles players took the runner-up medal and all four of our boys battled their tails off.

“We had some mental lapses in the doubles department, but the positive is that we had three teams (that) dug deep, righted the ship and pulled out GNC championships.

“I have a feeling next Wednesday up in Westwood, the U.P. Championships are going to be an absolute battle.”

He was referring to the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in Division 1 to be hosted at 10 a.m. that day by the Patriots and include not only the Sentinels and Flivvers, but also a powerful Negaunee team, along with Westwood, Escanaba and Gladstone.

At the GNC meet, Marquette pulled out championships at three doubles flights, along with runners-up in each of the other five flights — No. 1 doubles and all four singles.

Kingsford, on the other hand, actually won one more flight than the Sentinels, four, capturing three in singles plus the No. 1 doubles title.

But Marquette made up for it by sweeping second places at every other flight, while the Flivvers finished in third place at No. 4 singles, conceding the extra point they had grabbed with one more title.

MSHS’s toughest championship came at No. 3 doubles, where Elan Chu and Kane Bush prevailed with a 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) victory in the finals over Kingsford’s Jacob Waara and Richard Waara.

The Sentinels also won at No. 2 doubles, with Connor Dunn and Bode Helman taking a 6-1, 7-5 triumph over the Flivvers’ Alex Hemgren and Beau Bracket in their finale.

And Marquette completed its edge in doubles at No. 4, with Billy Krebs and Jack Tiziani taking a 6-1, 6-4 victory over KHS’ Tyler Berglund and Gabe Mancuso in their last match.

The other doubles flight, No. 1, ended with Kingsford’s Andy Yu and Clark Robb winning 6-3, 6-1 over MSHS’ Winston Leonard and Conner Henry.

In singles, Marquette ran up against three Flivvers players and an Escanaba netter in the finals, and while the Sentinels didn’t win any of them, they took one of those matches to three sets.

That was at No. 1 singles, where Kingsford’s Landon Adam held off the MSHS’s Lucas Belkowski 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 for that title.

At No. 2, the Flivvers’ Isaac Lebouef won 6-3, 6-4 over Marquette’s Brady Janofski, while at No. 3, Kingsford’s Evan Grymes held on for a 6-4, 7-5 win over the Sentinels’ Caden Laurn.

Then at No. 4, the Eskymos’ Kyle Smith won 6-4, 7-5 over MSHS’ Dominic Camilli in that finale.

There is one more dual tennis meet involving an area team before next week’s finals — Munising is set to visit Ishpeming at 2 p.m. today.

By the way, the Division 2 U.P. Finals are also scheduled for 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday at Kingsford, though it will be hosted by Iron Mountain.

The Mountaineers will welcome Ishpeming, Gwinn, Munising, Menominee and West Iron County to decide that MHSAA title.

Story contents based on an email received from Marquette tennis coach Karl Thomsen. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.