Today at Veterans Park will be a big day for the Barton men’s tennis team. Each match will determine the fate of the Cougars moving on to the NJCAA Championships next month or having their season come to an end.
The top three from each singles and doubles draw move on the Plano, Texas the NJCAA Championships.
With No. 4 ranked Seward County and No. 9 ranked Cowley in the field, the No. 16 ranked Cougars and Hesston College were going to have their hands full.
As expected, Seward and Cowley won all their matches and will play each other in the championship draws Sunday.
The Cougars will battle with Hesston in each draw to determine that third and final NJCAA qualifier.
Juan Navarro nearly pulled off the upset for Barton in the opening round at No. 2 singles, losing in three sets to Lucas Frietas of Cowley. Freitas won the first set 6-2 but Navarro rallied for a 6-3 win in the second set. In third and determining set, Freitas prevailed, 7-5.
Navarro proved to be the only Cougar to win a set during the day.
The No. 2 doubles team of Marcel Miasato and Navarro put a small scare in Cowley’s Guilhermo dos Santos and Lukas Michenka before losing 6-3, 6-3.
Ray Strunk battled with Jose Castro of Cowley before losing at No. 6 singles, 6-2, 6-2.
The third place matches will get underway at 11 am at Vets in singles with doubles third place matches set to start at approximately 3 p.m.
The NJCAA Championships will take place May 15-19 at the Collin County Tennis Faciliies in Plano, Texas.

Region VI Championships
First Round
Singles
1 – Carlos Anez, Seward, def Nadeem Jaber, Hesston, 6-1, 6-0
Guilhermo Dos Santos, Cowley, def Marcel Miasato, Barton, 6-0, 6-3
2 – Duro Opacic, Seward, def Riley Kingsley, 6-1, 6-1
Lucas Freitas, Cowley, def Juan Navarro, Barton, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
3 – Ondrej Nice, Seward, def Josiah Borst, Hesston, 6-0, 6-2
Lukas Michenka, Cowley, def Giovanni Fragalle, Barton, 6-0, 6-2
4 – Przemek Zielinski, Seward, def Garrett Roth, Hesston, 6-1, 6-0
Julien Aubry-Damon, Cowley, def Kaio Sato, Barton, 6-0, 6-1
5 – Ronald Rufyikiri, Cowley, def Tre Kremeier, Hesston, 6-0, 6-0
Claudio Quinones, Seward, def Juan Jaimes, Barton, 6-0, 6-1
6 – Ngoni Makambwa, Seward, def Jeff Kauffman, Hesston, 6-0, 6-0
Jose Castro, Cowley, def Ray Strunk, Barton, 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
1 – Anez/NIce, Seward, def Kingsley/Roth, Hesston, 6-1, 6-3
Dos Santos/Michenka, Cowley, def Miasato/Navarro, Barton, 6-3, 6-3
2 – Mosehle/Nery, Seward, def Jaber/Borst, Hesston, 6-2, 6-0
Damon/Castro, Cowley, def Sato/Fragalle, Barton,
3 – Opacic/Zielinksi, Seward, deef Kremeier/Kauffman, Hesston, 6-1, 6-3
Borrero/Freitas, Cowley, def Jaimes/Herbst, Barton, 6-2, 6-1