DENVER | When the glorious final point had ended up in his ledger Saturday, Vlad Sukhovetskyy dropped his racquet, spread his arms open and smiled.
The phenomenal Regis Jesuit freshman had just finished off a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Valor Christian’s Nathaniel Trevey in the No. 3 singles state championship match at the Class 5A boys tennis individual state tournament when he took a short time to bask.
In a season in which he suffered defeat just one time, Sukhovetskyy had achieved what he set out to do when he joined the Regis Jesuit program and settled into his spot behind fellow freshman Alec Rodriguez-Fields (who played in the No. 2 singles final on the court next to him at City Park) and sophomore Clay Dickey, who made the No. 1 singles third-place match.
Coach Laura Jones’ Raiders made the championship matches in five positions, but the only one to emerge victorious was Sukhovetskyy, whose only loss of the season came to Fossil Ridge’s Alex Van Thuyne — in a third-set tiebreak — during the Full Send Invitational Sept. 22.
Sukhovetskky won a regional championship to put himself in a prime spot in the state tournament bracket, which he took advantage of with wins over Arapahoe’s Brett Sweeney (6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round), Ponderosa’s Peyton Donahue (6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals) and Cherry Creek’s Trevor Robinson (6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals) to reach a matchup with Trevey.
After he got off to a great start in the first set, things tightened up in the second set, but Sukhovetskky kept an even keel as he always seems to do and he came through in the clutch. In a 5-5 set, he won a break from Trevey and then served the match out.
Sukhovetskky will now try to help Regis Jesuit win the 5A team state championship when the Raiders face Cherry Creek on Oct. 17 at the Denver Tennis Park.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports