The boys tennis players of the Big 9 Conference all gathered in Rochester over the weekend and battled things out at three different locations in the 2024 tournament.
Owatonna’s trip was highlighted by third place finishes from No. 4 singles player Asher Penn and the No. 2 doubles pairing of Leyton Williams and Stephen Sennott.
Asher Penn’s day at No. 4 singles started with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Winona’s Lydia Flesch before beating Rochester John Marshall’s Braden Duchateau 6-2, 6-2. He fell to Mayo’s Blake Thackery in the semifinals and took third with a 7-5, 4-6, (6) victory over Century’s Riwaj Gurung.
Williams and Sennott enjoyed a first round bye, which led into a 6-2, 6-1 quarterfinals victory over Century’s Arihann Ayyanar and Mahadev Kirshnan. They ran into Mayo’s David Teng and Max Rivera for a 6-1, 6-3 loss. The duo won the third place match 6-3, 6-4 over Northfield’s Parker Sneary and Rueben Menk.
No. 3 singles player Canaan Zinter and the No. 3 doubles pairing of August Penn and Landon Rahn both recorded victories in their respective consolation finals.
Zinter lost his first round matchup 6-0, 6-1, (8), but proceeded to make the run through the consolation bracket with three straight victories. He defeated Austin’s Michael Garry and Mankato West’s Colton Westberg before beating Faribault’s Nelson Landrau-Ortiz 8-1 in the consolation finals.
Penn and Rahn had a first round bye and lost 6-3, 4-6, (8) in the quarterfinals. After another bye to open consolations, they defeated Winona’s Matt Bricco and Deacon Kelner 9-8 (3) in the consolation semifinals and Austin’s Marcos Castro and Timothy Perez 8-4 in the consolation finals.
Owatonna’s top doubles pairing of Thomas Herzog and Finn Loveless fell just short of third place and finished fourth overall at No. 1 doubles.
Herzog and Loveless used a first round bye to lead them into a 6-4, 6-2 quarterfinals victory over Mankato East’s Brady Clarke and Siale (Jace) Drescher-Tonga. They lost to Mankato West’s Sam Gersich and Desmond Johnson in the semifinals and were edged out by Century’s Timothy Schroeder and Jason Zheng 6-3, 3-6, (5) for third place.
At No. 1 singles, Thomas Oien recorded a 2-2 record for the Huskies with victories over Winona’s Gavin Clemons and West’s Ian Kim during consolations. He was bested 8-5 by Red Wing’s Noah Montgomery in the consolation finals.
At No. 2 singles, Joe Zeman fell 6-1, 6-4 to Rochester John Marshall’s Arjun Khurana in the first round. He defeated Albert Lea’s Kuol Dual 8-1 to open consolations before falling 8-2 to Faribault’s Carsen Kramer.
Owatonna earned the No. 4 seed and opened the Section 1AA team tournament with a bye. The Huskies are set to host the winner of Albert Lea or Rochester John Marshall at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
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