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ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" The second annual Joe Hunt Invitational men's tennis tournament came to a close Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy. Players from 11 teams competed in five singles flights and three doubles draws over the course of the three-day event that utilized all 24 of Navy's available courts.

"It was a great weekend," said Navy head coach Chris Garner, "as we had a number of teams that were very evenly matched. Hopefully all of the participants left satisfied with the amount of tennis and competition they played.

"Overall, it (Navy's play) was definitely an eye opening experience for me. Although the team has a ways to go in order to be ready for the competitive matches that lay ahead, opportunity awaits them to grow as players and a team."

The Mids advanced five singles players and two doubles teams into the championship portion of their respective brackets during the invite.

Highlighting Navy's efforts were Gabriel Pilones (Fr., Bradenton, Fla.) in singles and the doubles tandem of Greg Durham (Fr., Melbourne Beach, Fla.) and Thomas Pecor (Sr., Houston, Texas). Pilones won the D flight title while the Durham / Pecor duo advanced to the finals in the A flight. Pilones dropped the first set in both his semifinal (Alberto Guiffrida, Monmouth, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3) and final matches (Lukas Krusinski, Morgan State, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3), but went on to win each in three sets to earn the title.

"Greg and Thomas played some really good doubles in the first two rounds with some precise return of serves and crisp volley winners, but in the finals they were ousted by a very strong George Washington team," said Garner.

Andrey Majkic (Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.) also played well in singles as he lost in the third-place match in the D flight. Majkic dropped a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 decision to Krusinski in the semifinal round. Krishna Jana (Sr., Seabrook, Texas) would fall in three sets to George Mason's Daniel Gutierrez (6-7, 6-3, 1-0 [10-7]) in the C flight's fifth-place match, Matthew Lee (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) reached the seventh-place match in the B flight (match not played) and Cameron Kirkpatrick (So., Menlo Park, Calif.) advanced to the 11th-place match in the E flight (match not played). In doubles, Seth McNair (So., McLean, Va.) and Joshua Martin (Jr., Mobile, Ala.) lost in the seventh-place match in the C flight, with McNair winning the consolation half of the E singles flight.

"Seth spent most of last year injured so it was great to see him healthy and getting a chance to play," said Garner. "Seeing Seth go 3-1 this weekend was awesome. In the first round he lost a close three setter versus Luis Marcano of Delaware, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, but came right back the following day to win a very impressive three setter against Delaware's Sam Oberholtzer, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Seth came up with some great volleys while serving the match out at 5-4 in the third. Today, he finished with his best match winning 6-2, 6-0, against Delaware's Roy Cheng.

"Ian Landwehr (Fr., Daleville, Ind.) and Zach Jennings (Fr., Snellville, Ga.) had good runs, too, in the C flight. After losing their first round matches, they were both able to win three-straight matches. Ian lost a close three setter in the first round to Ondrej Labik from Morgan State that really could have gone either way (6-7, 7-6, 6-2). As the tournament progressed he definitely became more comfortable on the big points. Zach was able to recover from a first round defeat (7-6, 6-3) by playing some solid tennis in his next three matches."

Julius Tverijonas of George Washington defeated Temple's Artem Kapshuk, 6-4, 7-5, to win the A flight singles title. Tverijonas also teamed with Chris Fletcher to defeat Durham and Pecor in the finals of the A flight doubles bracket.

Navy will next be in competition in few weeks when it takes part in the ITA Atlantic Region Championship Oct. 13-17 in Blacksburg, Va.