Oct. 1—BLOOMFIELD — The all-SWIAC tennis team was filled with Cougars on Monday, as they took the crown with 18.5 points to hold off Bloomfield with 14.5 points, and Linton with one, making the Cougars the 2024 SWIAC Champs.
Cougars Coby Loheider, Blake Huff, Aden Graber, Rex Freed, Nate Raber and Braylen Pridemore were all named first team and Graber and Freed were the doubles champions.
The first two rounds of the singles draw and first round of the doubles draw took place Thursday. The Cougars had little problems taking care of business in the singles side of house with straight set victories. The doubles first round setup with a ND default victory over White River Valley. The match of the tournament might have been with Raber and Pridemore taking down Bloomfield’s No. 1 doubles team in three sets. The second round of the singles, Coby Loheider dominated the WRV1 and ND’s Koen Stoll pushed the Bloomfield No.1 to three sets before dropping a tight one.
Night two had plenty of drama with the semifinals underway Loheider had little problems knocking off Bloomfield’s No. 2 Blake Neill. Huff couldn’t quite get past Will Dowden in the other semi with a long three-set match that momentum shifted multiple times. The finals Dowden was too much for Loheider with a straight-set win.
The doubles semifinals were less dramatic with a solid straight set victories over Linton 2 and Bloomfield No. 2 doubles respectively. This set up an all Cougar final with ND one doubles of Aden Graber and Rex Freed taking the individual doubles championship.
“This was a total team win. I’m very proud of how they stepped up and handled business both nights. This was the best our doubles performance of the season,” said Cougar coach Adam Schulte.
The Cougars next up is a tough (14-4) Paoli Rams team in round one of the Loogootee sectional Wednesday evening at 4:30 p.m.
