DENVER | Regis Jesuit readied for a run at the Class 5A boys state tennis championship with a dominating performance at the Region 3 tournament.
Coach Laura Jones’ Raiders got all seven positions into Thursday’s championship matches at the Colorado Athletic Club-Monaco and won six of them as they cruised to a regional championship with a score of 80 points.
Regis Jesuit heads into the Oct. 12-14 5A state tournament at the Gates Tennis Center fully equipped with three singles players — Morgan Schilling (No. 1), Kosta Garger (No. 2) and Phillip Albright (No. 3) — along with doubles teams of Patrick Seby & Will Dennen (No. 1), Emilio Gonzalez-Cruz & Evan Nuss (No. 2), Matthew McCarthy & Gabe Caldwell-Nepveux (No. 3) and Matthew Mahoney & James O’Connor (No. 4).
The Raiders enter the state tournament as top seeds all across the board save for Schilling, who fell to Arapahoe’s Tyler Landen 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 1 singles championship match.
Garger made his third career trip to the state tournament with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Arapahoe’s Jared Green in the No. 2 singles final and Albright advanced in his freshman season with a 6-3, 6-0 triumph against Arapahoe’s Jake Kikkeri.
Regis Jesuit’s doubles contingents — all four of which played for state titles last season — had little difficulty moving through their regional championship matches, with Seby and Dennen having the easiest time with a shutout win over a team from Fort Collins.
Gonzalez-Cruz and Nuss, the Raiders’ only state championship winners last season, remained undefeated with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
McCarthy and Caldwell-Nepveux at No. 3 and Mahoney and O’Connor at No. 4 both posted solid victories.
Runner-up Arapahoe sent five positions to the state tournament, but lost a sixth when its No. 2 doubles team lost to Lakewood in the lone playback match of the regional.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
CLASS 5A REGION 3 BOYS TENNIS
Team scores: 1. REGIS JESUIT 80 points; 2. Arapahoe 59; 3. Fort Collins 31; 4. Lakewood 22; 5. Chaparral 7; 6. Rampart 2; Dakota Ridge no score
Championship matches (winner automatically advances to state tournament)
No. 1 singles — Tyler Landen (Arapahoe) def. MORGAN SCHILLING (REGIS JESUIT) 6-2, 6-4; No. 2 singles — KOSTA GARGER (REGIS JESUIT) def. Jared Green (Arapahoe), 6-2, 6-4; No. 3 singles — PHILLIP ALBRIGHT (REGIS JESUIT) def. Jake Kikkeri (Arapahoe), 6-3, 6-0; No. 1 doubles — PATRICK SEBY/WILL DENNEN (REGIS JESUIT) def. Fort Collins, 6-0, 6-0; No. 2 doubles — EVAN NUSS/EMILIO GONZALEZ-CRUZ (REGIS JESUIT) def. AJ Nelson/Chase Wern (Arapahoe), 6-4, 6-0; No. 3 doubles — MATTHEW MCCARTHY/GABE CALDWELL-NEPVEUX (REGIS JESUIT) def. Arapahoe, 6-3, 6-1; No. 4 doubles — MATTHEW MAHONEY/JAMES O’CONNOR (REGIS JESUIT) def. Ian Giegener/Jake Wilcox (Arapahoe), 6-3, 6-2
Third-place matches
No. 1 singles — James Hunsinger (Fort Collins) def. Alex Nguyen (Rampart), 6-1, 6-1; No. 2 singles — Danny Kingman (Lakewood) def. Elliott Chen (Fort Collins) 6-3, 6-3; No. 3 singles — David Augustine (Fort Collins) def. Eric Dean (Rampart), 6-0, 6-0; No. 1 doubles — Nick Stephenson/Kirk Zieser (Arapahoe) def. Joseph Dalton/Nolan Mayoss (Chaparral), 6-2, 6-4; No. 2 doubles — Henry McKinney/Clayton Guevara (Lakewood) def. Eric Kearns/Ian Hay-Arthur (Fort Collins), 6-3, 7-6 (2); No. 3 doubles — Connor Hyvonen/Trevor Nolan (Chaparral) def. Michael Tate/Josh Moore (Lakewood), 7-6, 6-3; No. 4 doubles — Sheldon Borakove/Tommy Landmark (Lakewood) def. Josh Magyar/Wesley Merrill (Chaparral), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Playback (winner goes to state)
No. 2 doubles — Henry McKinney/Clayton Guevara (Lakewood) def. AJ Nelson/Chase Wern (Arapahoe), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4