PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s tennis is set to compete for a second straight weekend at Air Force starting Thursday, this time for the ITA Mountain Region Championship Sept. 28-Oct. 2.
Event Information
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Host: Air Force
Venue: USAFA Intercollegiate Outdoor Tennis Courts
Start Times: Thursday Doubles rounds take place at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. MDT, with singles at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Start times for following days will be posted on X. The Cougars will not compete in any advancements to Sunday rounds.
Live Stream: No live stream is available for the event
Schools Competing (14): Air Force, Boise State, BYU, Denver, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, Weber State
Fresh off registering 12 wins as a team last weekend, the Cougars will travel the same six men to compete: Wally Thayne, Jack Barnett, Zach Fuchs, Redd Owen, Brian Chen and TJ Wells. Each will take part in singles and doubles play.
Doubles pairings remain unchanged from last week: Thayne with Fuchs, Barnett with Owen and Chen with Wells.
Thayne, ranked No. 103 in the ITA Singles National Preseason Rankings released Sept. 5, went 2-1 in the top singles flight with wins over Tobias Wallin (New Mexico State) 6-2, 6-4 and Caden Moortgat (Boise State) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 before falling in the semifinal round. In doubles, the Newbury Park, Calif. native teamed up with Fuchs to claim two victories after a first-day setback.
Owen looks to build upon last weekend’s singles success as he advanced to the semifinal round in flight B with two Friday victories. The sophomore teamed up with Barnett to knock off Montana State’s Jacob Huppin and Daniel Adrian 6-1 in doubles play. The duo then proceeded to win two more Saturday, going 3-0 after wins to advance to a final round they didn’t compete in due to Sunday play.
Sophomore Brian Chen and freshman TJ Wells aim to bounce back after a tough, 6-7 (8) doubles loss to Air Force’s Kabir Rajpal and Michael Choi Saturday.
The tournament features a 64-man singles ITA draw and a 32-man Flight B grouping named the Falcon draw. Doubles will include a 32-team main singles ITA draw and a 16-team, Flight-B Falcon draw. The top two out of each main draw in both singles and doubles earn a spot at the ITA National Fall Championships on Nov. 1-5 in San Diego, California.
Among participating teams, three schools have nationally ranked individuals or doubles pairs in addition to BYU’s Thayne: Utah with Geronimo Espin Busleiman (No. 21 singles) and Busleiman/Berk Bugarikj (No. 55 doubles), and Denver with Nicolas Herrero Cuesta (No. 111 singles).