LAPEL — The Madison County tennis championship was a landmark event for more than a few reasons. Lapel won its eighth consecutive title, Coach Justin Coomer won his 200 match as coach, and the event was played under lights for the first time.
“It’s nice to win. A lot of good kids, good players. The names change, and it keeps going on. That’s pretty cool,” said Coomer.
He said he thought a 3-2 was very possible and was happy the Bulldogs came out on top.
“I’ll put my one and two singles and one doubles against a lot of people around here,” Coomer said. “You can tell they’ve been through the battles, too, even though they’re sophomores and juniors and two seniors.”
The Bulldogs defeated Pendleton Heights 4-1 on Saturday in a final that took nearly three hours. Although the outcome was decided earlier with Bulldog wins from No. 1 singles Jacob Erwin, No. 2 singles Isaac Bair and No. 1 doubles team of Landon Bair and Corbin Renihan, the two remaining matches continued and gave fans of both teams a reason to stay to the end.
Seniors Renihand and Bair completed their match and enjoyed watching the success of their teammates as well as being part of the legacy of Bulldog tennis.
“Winning never gets old,” Renihan said.
Landon Bair was mindful of not wanting to be the group that ended the streak.
“It was in the back of my mind that you don’t want to be the team that loses the streak, but we had confidence in ourselves and confidence in everyone that if we played well we were going to walk away with it,” Bair said.
“We have one more streak to keep going. It’s not over,” Renihan said referring to Lapel’s sectional championships now at eight consecutive wins.
At No. 3 singles, Pendleton Heights’ freshman Austin Perny gave the Arabians their lone win. He faced Bulldog Dakota Kimmerling, taking the first set 6-1, but Kimmerling pushed Perny in the second set before falling 7-5.
“It was good he was able to pull this one out for us,” Arabians Coach Royce Hammel said.
With the two wins to get to the final match, Hammel said he felt good going into the match with the Bulldogs.
“I could see us maybe doing a 3-2 win tonight. It just wasn’t tonight. Lapel is good. They’re loaded.”
Although the match had no bearing on the outcome, the No. 2 doubles contest between Arabians Mark Nielsen and Cole Bubenzer and Bulldogs Grant Humerickhouse and Mason Poynter showed no one was ready to give in. The Arabians took the first set 6-4 before Lapel came back in the second for a 6-4 win to send the match to a third set. The Bulldogs took the match 7-6 after a 7-4 tie breaker round.
The Arabians reached the final round by first defeating Anderson (5-0) and Madison Grant (4-1), while the Bulldogs first took out Frankton (5-0) and Alexandria (5-0).
Originally, the final was scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27, but storms forced the Aug. 26 Pendleton/Madison-Grant match to postpone until Friday, pushing the final back by a day. Also, the championship was set for the Arabians to be host, but the 7:30 p.m. start time forced a move to Lapel because Pendleton Heights does not have lighted courts. “It was fun being out here under the lights,” Coomer said. “We had a lot more fans out here tonight. It was neat to have more people out cheering us on.”
Both teams are back in action with Lapel at Eastern Hancock Sept. 1 and at Crawfordsville Sept. 4. The Arabians travel to Rushville, Sept. 2 and to Richmond on Sept. 4.