The Gloucester County College men's tennis team wrapped up the NJCAA Division III Tennis Championship this morning at Collin College in Plano, Texas. The team earned 29.5 team points over the course of the four day tournament to outlast regional foe Brookdale CC (NJ) and Oxford College of Emory (Ga.). This is the first tennis national championship for the college and the 15th national championship overall. Head coach Brian Rowan was named National Coach of the Year for the first time. Rowan is in his sixth season at GCC.



The Roadrunners entered the day with a one point lead in the team standings and had a chance to add as many as five more points in their final round matches. The team dropped their first match of the day as Josh Stepkin was defeated 6-3, 6-2 by Travis Platek from Oxford in the 3 singles flight championship. However, Aaron Hartman then gutted out a tremendous 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win in the 4 singles flight championship over Billy Boykin also from Oxford which assured the Roadrunners a share of the team championship. One court over Jared Randazzo then clinched the team title with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Brian Dickinson from Rock Valley (IL). Ed Thompson reached the final at the 6 singles flight but fell 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to Dillon Bunt from Brookdale. The Roadrunners team of Randazzo and Thompson also advanced to the final of the 2 doubles flight but fell 6-3, 6-3 to the team from Oxford. All of the individuals/teams that reached the finals in their flights today were named 2nd Team All-Americans and Hartman and Randazzo will be named 1st Team All-Americans for winning their flights today.



The big jump for the Roadrunners came in Wednesday's semifinal matches where they were a perfect five for five which helped them move into the top spot in team points heading into the final matches today. Each member of the team participating in the championship earned points for the team including Steve Suboleski who competed at #1 singles and #1 doubles Ryan Airo who competed at #2 singles and #3 doubles in the championship tournament. Sam Murphy accompanied the team as an alternate. Assistant coach Scott Henderson also contributed greatly to the team success. He is in his third season with the team.