Claremont High School boys tennis claimed the Palomares League doubles championship title on Thursday as Christian Settles and Jason Weisman defeated Glendora’s Tommy Folsom and Justin Lay (3-6, 6-1, 6-2) at the Claremont Club.

The Pack made the finals in both doubles and singles however junior Leyton Bohren lost to Diamond Bar’s Neil Tengbumroong, 6-3 6-2.

Claremont’s big week started during the prelims on Tuesday when, out of 32 initial entries, the Pack netted four of the eight draws for the finals.

Temperatures remained in the mid-80s, which was good news for the players. In recent years, the weather has been very hot resulting in some players experiencing cramping.

Bohren, the only Claremont singles player to make the cut, defeated Glendora’s Dillon Barnard in the semifinal match Thursday morning. Initially Barnard seemed to be poised to upset Bohren winning the first set, 7-5, and was ahead on games in the second. However midway through the second set Barnard began to cramp, and the pain was so severe that he had to resort to serving underhand. Bohren eventually won taking the last two sets, 6-4 and 6-1.

All three of Claremont’s doubles teams made the cut for the semifinals, claiming all but one of the draws. This meant that Settles and Jason Weisman faced teammates Hunter Bojalad and Ahkeel Mohideen in the semifinal match. Both Settles and Weisman usually play singles but joined the ranks of doubles players to increase their odds of making it to the CIF tournament.

Coach Kathy Settles explained the decision to move Settles and Jason Weisman out of the singles bracket was made because only the top two finishers will advance to CIF

 “It’s actually pretty common and kind of a fun way to finish off the season,” she said during a break in the action on Tuesday. “My number two and three [players] are not going to get into CIF, because Neil and Leyton are too good.”

Claremont’s other set of doubles, Harrison Bojalad and Andrew Weisman, lost to Tommy Folsom and Justin Lay in the semifinals.

Claremont has two sets of twins on the team, the Bojalads and the Weismans.

Claremont freshman Ben Stapp defeated John Park in the first round, 6-0 6-1, but then lost to Tengbumroong in the second round, 6-1 6-3.

It was a little bad luck that Stapp had to face Tengbumroong, an experienced senior and the league’s best player, in the first round. However, Coach Settles pointed out, “You have to beat everyone to win the tournament, so you may as well start early [playing the best.]”

With Tengbumroong graduating this year and both Stapp and Bohren returning, Claremont singles should be red-hot in 2018, furthering a tradition of strong tennis teams.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com