Doubles team takes league, but Pack ousted in CIF play

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 claimed four of the eight draws for the final bracket, which certainly helped Claremont reach the finals in both doubles and singles.

Settles and Weisman came out strong, winning the first two games, but stumbled a bit as Folsom and Lay took the next four on their way to winning the set. From there, it was all Claremont as the duo gave up only three games on their way to claiming the title. Settles and Weisman had a robust cheering section as their teammates chanted “send it” every time they scored a point.

The Glendora pair have a local connection since Folsom’s grandparents are longtime Claremont residents Don and Joan Robben.

“That was exciting,” Coach Kathy Settles said after congratulating her players, including her son Christian. “Last year we didn’t even have a doubles team in CIF.”

“We knew we could play at the level where we could win. We played the bigger points better [in the second and third set] and that made the difference,” Christian Settles said.

Weisman had a different take.

“I thought our focus was better,” he said. However, he agreed with Settles that they executed better in the second and third sets.

The victory was particularly sweet for Weisman, because he and Hunter Bojalad lost to Folsom and Lay in the championships last year.

Glendora’s coach, Jeff Barnard, may have been disappointed at the outcome, but was proud of his players’ performance, “We were fourth place in league but ended up making the semis and the finals,” he said.

Junior Leyton Bohren defeated Glendora’s Dillon Barnard in the semifinal match Thursday morning. Initially, Barnard seemed to be poised to upset Bohren, who was the only Claremont singles player to make the cut, winning the first set, 7-5. Barnard was ahead on games midway through the second set when he began to cramp, changing the momentum of the match. At times the pain was so severe that he had to serve underhand for his first serve. As a result Bohren won the last two sets, 6-4 and 6-1.

However, the final match was a different story as Bohren lost (6-3, 6-2) to Diamond Bar’s Neil Tengbumroong. The Diamond Bar senior is the top ranked singles player in the Palomares League and clearly was on top of his game on Thursday.

Season comes to an end

The boys narrowly lost in the first round of the CIF tournament on Wednesday, tying Irvine’s Arnold Beckman High School 9-9 on sets, but losing on games.

The match was organized similarly to the regular season matches, with each player or doubles team playing three sets. Claremont won the first round 4-2, Beckman won the second 4-2 and they split the third. Beckman became the winner because it claimed 11 more games during those sets.

It was a frustrating way for the Pack’s season to end. However, Coach Settles highlighted the positive.

“We came at them with everything we had, and played as hard as we could, I know it hurts to come up 11 games short, but that is how tennis is sometimes,” she told her team immediately after the loss was tabulated. “We had a great season. You have much to be proud of.”

However, Claremont’s season is not entirely over because the Pack will have three boys, Settles and Jason Weisman as a doubles team and Bohren in singles, qualified for the CIF individual tournament May 25 in Redlands.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com

 

Boys Volleyball

Claremont advanced to the second round of the CIF tournament, defeating Yucaipa, 3-0, on Tuesday in Claremont. The match was actually closer than the final score indicates, as the Wolfpack only narrowly defeated the Thunderbirds in the first and third sets.

The win must be particularly sweet for the boys, who staged a come-from-behind campaign to secure the Hacienda League title last month. They played Channel Islands in the second round Thursday after press time.

 

Baseball

Claremont lost Tuesday’s home conference game to Glendora, 6-3, in extra innings. The Tartans took an early lead, scoring two runs in the first inning, but the Wolfpack clawed their way back with a run in both the third and fifth innings. The game remained tied at two all the way to the 11th inning, when Glendora racked up four more runs. But Claremont could only muster one. Jake Holcroft had two hits and an RBI, Luke Santia had two hits and one run and Kyle Scalmanini had one hit and an RBI.

With the loss the Pack is now 6-8 in league and 12-15 overall. They had the last game of the season against Glendora on Thursday after press time.

 

Softball

Claremont lost one game but won another as the season drew to an end Tuesday.

The Pack defeated Diamond Bar, 9-4, last Friday in extra innings. The Brahmas got out to an early 3-0 lead and held on until the sixth when Claremont scored two runs and Diamond Bar added another. Fortunately for the Pack, they were able to score two runs in the seventh,  tying the game. Claremont sealed the deal in the ninth with a whopping five runs.

On Tuesday, Claremont lost its last league game to top-ranked Glendora, 4-2, in Claremont. Both teams scored a run in the third inning but the Tartans added two more in the sixth to Claremont’s one run. Glendora put the icing on the cake with one more run in the seventh.

The Wolfpack ended up with a league record of 5-10.

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