Perfection is almost impossible to attain, but the Regis Jesuit boys tennis team nearly did it in 2025.
The Raiders came one set win from their No. 4 doubles team away from accomplishing the feat, but coach Laura Jones’ team instead settled for a Class 5A team state championship and individual state titles for six of its seven lines.
Regis Jesuit’s triumphant campaign yielded it a sweep of the spots on the 2025 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Tennis Team, which is determined primarily by state results.
A lot of flux took place in the offseason for a team that finished as the 5A team state runner-up to rival Cherry Creek last season, especially in the singles lineup. Twins Blake and Spencer Wright finished as 5A individual runners-up at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, respectively, but chose not to play the high school season in 2025. That left open spots behind junior Alec Rodriguez-Fields — the 2024 5A No. 1 singles state champion — and those were filled by seniors Clay Dickey (No. 2) and Adam Rydel (No. 3), who both had successful seasons in the doubles ranks in 2024.
It turned out to be the best singles group in the state in all metrics. All three players won state championships and they earned three of the four needed victories for Regis Jesuit in its 4-2 5A state championship dual win over Cherry Creek.
The last 5A boys tennis player to repeat as No. 1 singles state champion hailed from Regis Jesuit in Morgan Schilling (2019 and 2020) and that was matched by Rodriguez-Fields, who defeated Valor Christian’s Jace Nakamura (who had beaten him in the No. 2 singles final in 2023) to complete a 31-0 season. The only set Rodriguez-Fields lost in the entire season came to Nakamura at the Cherry Creek Invitational, which he rallied to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. He capped his season with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Cherry Creek’s Aidan Washer in the team championship dual.
Though a varsity player for his entire prep career (starting with two seasons at No. 1 singles and the last one at No. 1 doubles), Dickey had never won a state championship until this season. His only loss of the regular season came to Grandview sophomore Kaahan Wani, who turned out to be his opponent in the 5A individual No. 2 singles final.
Dickey’s resolve to win helped him ultimately prevail with a gritty 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) victory. A few days later, Dickey (28-1) got to deliver his team the coveted state championship when he outlasted Cherry Creek’s Jack Loehr 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 for the clinching victory.
Rydel had been a doubles staple for three seasons and had second, third and fourth-place finishes on his resume going into this season. It turned out that only Grandview sophomore Krish Wani was able to beat him during a 28-1 season and Rydel avenged that loss (which happened in three sets at the Cherry Creek Invitational) with a decisive 6-2, 6-0 victory over Wani in the 5A individual No. 3 final. He turned around with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Cherry Creek’s Devan Shah — who took him to three sets in the individual semifinals — in the team final.
Seven of the eight players in the doubles positions were new to varsity (with a lone holdover at No. 2 doubles in junior Edward Samuelson), yet the only Regis Jesuit doubles team didn’t win a state championship was the No. 4 team of junior Connor and freshman Daniel Hickey, who ironically were the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.
A pivotal win in the 5A team state championship match came from the No. 1 team of junior Koops Lord and sophomore Will Larkin, whose 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Cherry Creek’s Sam Migliaccio and Tyson Hardy capped a 24-4 season for the first-year duo. Lord and Larkin lost two times to the Bruins’ duo during the regular season (at the Cherry Creek and Full Send invitationals), but beat them twice in the final week of the season. A 6-3, 6-2 victory landed the 5A individual No. 1 doubles crown for the Raiders’ duo before the gritty win in the team championship dual.
Samuelson lost in a state championship match last season, but combined with sophomore Reis Cherveny on a No. 2 team that produced a sparkling 28-2 record. The only two losses of the season came against Cherry Creek’s tandem of Adam Eikelberner and Kapil Bhandaram, while Samuelson and Cherveny captured the one meeting with the highest stakes. A rousing 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory landed the 5A No. 2 doubles state championship for the Raiders, who lost to the Bruins 6-2, 6-4 in the team dual that Regis Jesuit still won.
The No. 3 team of junior Beckett Martorella and sophomore Finn Carolan racked up a 26-2 record for the season, with the only in-state loss coming to Cherry Creek’s Liam Raleigh and Spencer Hutchins in the finals of the Cherry Creek Invitational. The Raiders were ready for the rematch, however, as they dealt the Bruins’ duo a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to take the 5A No. 3 doubles individual state title. The rubber match between the two teams came in the team state championship dual and they split sets and were tied 1-1 in third when the match came to an end.
Connor and Daniel Hickey were unable to be beaten by anybody else in Colorado (they lost to a team from Las Vegas at the Western Slop Invitational) save for the Cherry Creek tandem of Sunand Bhandaram and Ryan Raleigh, who proved to be the Raiders’ kryptonite. After a close 7-5, 7-5 loss at the Cherry Creek Invitational, the Hickeys won the first set in the rematch that came in the 5A No. 4 doubles final. But the Bruins surged in a major way and denied the Regis Jesuit duo the individual title with a 6-2, 0-6, 3-6 victory that they followed with a 7-5, 6-3 win in the team championship dual.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports