No. 16 Cougar Tennis battles on region's second day to earn berth to nationals
The Barton Community College men’s tennis team knew going into the final day of the Region VI Championships their season was on the line battling for a national tournament berth. Having dropped all its nine matches in the first round on Saturday, the No. 16 ranked Cougars returned to the courts at Veteran’s Memorial Park on Sunday winning eight of their nine matches to finish third overall. The nation’s No. 4 ranked Seward County Community College ran away with the title capturing eight of the championship matches for a total of seventeen points with second place No. 9 ranked Cowley College scoring ten points having pulled the upset in the No. 1 singles match. The Cougars finished a distance third with four points while Hesston College garnered a .5 point with their third place win at the No. 4 singles.
The Barton Community College men's tennis team knew going into the final day of the Region VI Championships their season was on the line battling for a national tournament berth. Having dropped all its nine matches in the first round on Saturday, the No. 16 ranked Cougars returned to the courts at Veteran's Memorial Park on Sunday winning eight of their nine matches to finish third overall. The nation's No. 4 ranked Seward County Community College ran away with the title capturing eight of the championship matches for a total of seventeen points with second place No. 9 ranked Cowley College scoring ten points having pulled the upset in the No. 1 singles match. The Cougars finished a distance third with four points while Hesston College garnered a .5 point with their third place win at the No. 4 singles.
Juan David Navarro had the nation's No 17 ranked Lucas Freitas on the ropes in first round action of the No. 2 singles, bouncing back from a 6-2 first set loss to win the second 6-3 before coming up short in the third 7-5. Navarro would roll to the third place finish with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Hesston's Riley Kingsley.
Navarro would return to the courts Saturday afternoon with teammate Marcel Miasato to take on the Tigers' Guilherme Dos Santos and Lukas Michenka but the nationally regarded duo sent Barton to the third place match with a 6-3, 6-3 win. On Sunday, Navarro and Miasato recovered from a 6-3 first set deficit with 6-3, 6-0 set wins for the third place finish.
Third seeded Giovanni Fragalle and Kaio Massao Sato battled in their No. 2 doubles match with Julien Aubry-Damon and Jose Castro but lost by a hard fought 7-6(4), 6-3 score. The pair locked up in another tough match on Sunday, pulling out a 6-4, 7-5 third place win over Hesston's Nadeem Jaber and Josiah Borst.
Barton is joined by Seward County and Cowley as the three ranked teams will head to Plano, Texas, for the NJCAA Division I Men's Championships May 15-19 at the Collin County Tennis Facilities.
Complete Region VI Men's Tennis Team standings
Complete Region VI Men's Tennis Individual results