TRAVERSE CITY -- Best friends. Top seeds. State record-holders.
Traverse City Central seniors Jack Milliken and Ben Watts take some impressive credentials into today's Division 1 tennis regional at Midland.
The 17-year-olds are the No. 1 seed at No. 2 doubles and will look to add to their state record for career wins by a doubles team. The two -- doubles partners all four years in high school -- have teamed for 119 victories. The old mark of 105 was set by Allegan's Matt Nooney and Curt Woodhams from 2001-04.
"We've played together so long, we know each other's strengths and weaknesses," Milliken said.
"We work well together," Watts added. "We make it happen."
The two, who started playing tennis together in junior high, were products of coach Larry Nykerk's summer Junior Excellence program.
They played No. 3 doubles as freshmen, No. 2 as sophomores, No. 1 as juniors and are now back at No. 2.
"It's a partnership," Nykerk said. "The longer you play together, the better you get to know each other. Doubles takes time. You need that experience playing together in order to be good."
Milliken and Watts carry a 31-4 record into the regional.
"They're streaky," Nykerk admitted. "But when they're hot, they're very hard to beat. Both have big serves and both can hit big ground strokes."
Central earned five No. 1 seeds in the regional. In addition to Milliken and Watts, also drawing top seeds were Fisher Sutherland at No. 2 singles, Harry Malone and Spencer Powell at No. 1 doubles, Chris Heimburger and Max Lundmark at No. 3 doubles and Dan Spencer and Glover Kosch at No. 4 doubles.
Malone and Powell are 34-1. In fact, Powell is attempting to tie the state record for most career wins. The senior, who played singles the last two years, has 128 wins, 10 shy of the record set by Traverse City's Central's Andrew Hamilton from 1994-97. After the regional, Central will host its Twin Bay Invitational next week -- a possible prelude to the state finals, if the Trojans qualify.
Sutherland, 28-4, is also in position to set a state record for most wins in a season. Traverse City Central's Brent Bok and Buchanan's Bryce Coward own that mark with 35. Bok won his 35 in 1996.
"We're calling this 'The Assault on the Record Books,' " Nykerk said. "We haven't had anything like this in 10 years."
Central is also seeded in the other three flights today. Doug Burke, who won 34 matches a year ago, is a No. 3 seed at No. 1 singles, Hunter Bergsma is a No. 3 seed at No. 3 singles and Colton Cartwright is a No. 4 seed at No. 4 singles.
Burke faces a difficult challenge with Grand Blanc's Aaron Pfister and Mount Pleasant's Christian Roehmer in the field. Pfister reached the state finals a year ago, beating Roehmer 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals.
The top two teams automatically advance to the state finals. The third-place team, if it scores at least 18 points, will also move on.
Central, Grand Blanc, Traverse City West and Midland are considered the class of the nine-team field.
West has five seeds -- John Cannon is a No. 3 seed at No. 4 singles, while Nick Tooley and Joel Collins are a No. 3 seed at No. 4 doubles. Entering as No. 4 seeds are Dane Deemer at No. 3 singles, Zach Hughey and Andrew Farron at No. 1 doubles and Jacob Nestor and Carter Jones at No. 2 doubles.
West and Central could collide early at Nos. 1-2 singles. At No. 2 singles, Sutherland had to rally to beat West's Andrew Greenman 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the Big North Conference finals Monday.
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