The first big championship weekend of the spring season produced hardware for two Aurora teams, while there were a variety of top performances across multiple sports.
— The Class 5A boys state swim meet concluded Friday evening at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center and Regis Jesuit was able to hold off Cherry Creek — which it had lost to twice previously — to win a second straight title and 24th all-time.
Senior Truman Inglis won the championship of the 50 yard freestyle and combined with fellow seniors Carter Anderson, Ronan Krauss and Hawkins Wendt to take the 200 yard freestyle relay crown to boot as the Raiders finished with 399 points to the 388.5 accrued by the Bruins.
Smoky Hill finished fifth — moving up one spot from last season as junior Daniel Yi finished as the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke and third in the 200 yard individual medley — while Grandview finished in ninth place.
The Wolves had Aurora’s other state champion from the meet as sophomore Oliver Schimberg became a rare winner for the program by taking the 100 yard backstroke.
FULL 5A BOYS SWIMMING TEAM SCORES AND PLACING RESULTS, HERE
— The Eaglecrest boys volleyball team came into the state tournament at Overland High School as the seventh overall seed, but made itself all the way to the championship match Saturday afternoon.
Coach Chad Bond’s inspired Raptors — helped by big performances from senior Ayden Shaw and sophomore brother, Jackson — knocked off rival Cherokee Trail in the first round and proceeded to advance all the way to the title match, where they had a rematch with a Discovery Canyon team they played to five sets earlier in the day.
Discovery Canyon repeated as state champion with a 25-21, 16-25, 25-17, 25-18 victory over Eaglecrest, which finished 20-10.
Cherokee Trail finished 1-2.
FULL BOYS VOLLEYBALL STATE TOURNAMENT RESULTS, HERE
— The Class 5A girls tennis individual state tournament got condensed from three days to two due to weather and concluded Saturday afternoon at City Park in Denver.
Regis Jesuit had its entire team (three singles players and four doubles teams) qualify and one of them emerged as a place-winner in the No. 1 doubles team of senior Quinn Binaxas and junior Mary Clare Watts.
Binaxas and Watts won all the way to the championship match and even took a set lead over Fairview’s Virginia Gomulka and Elizabeth Roth before the Knights roared back for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory.
FULL 5A GIRLS STATE TENNIS PLACING MATCH RESULTS HERE
— The sixth-seeded Regis Jesuit girls lacrosse team knocked off No. 3 ThunderRidge 16-11 Saturday morning to advance to the Class 5A state semifinals.
Senior Carly Kennedy racked up five goals and sophomore Maddy Jokerst tallied three goals and four assists as the Raiders snapped the Grizzlies’ seven-game winning streak and earned a spot in the May 16 Final Four against second-seeded Valor Christian.
5A GIRLS LACROSSE STATE SCOREBOARD & SCHEDULE, HERE
— The third-seeded Regis Jesuit boys lacrosse team defeated No. 14 Cherokee Trail 14-2 Saturday morning at Lou Kellogg Stadium in a Class 5A boys lacrosse second round playoff game.
Coach Jim Soran’s Raiders came off a first-round bye — which followed a big 13-12 win over top-ranked Cherry Creek in the regular season finale — and got going after a low-scoring first period to improve to 14-2 on the season.
Regis Jesuit moved into a May 17 quarterfinal contest on its home field against sixth-seeded Kent Denver.
Cherokee Trail, which came in off a dramatic 11-10 overtime win over Chatfield on a Craig Nam goal in the opening round, tallied less than five goals for the first time all season and finished 9-8 in its first season under head coach Matt Cawley.
5A BOYS LACROSSE STATE SCOREBOARD & SCHEDULE, HERE
— The Cherokee Trail boys track team won the Centennial League Championship title at Stutler Bowl and did so with impressive feat in the final event.
The team of Kaelan Kombo, Kahari Wilbon, Beck Gutjahr and Peyton Sommers set the Colorado state record in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 3 minutes, 13.02 seconds, which knocked another Aurora program — a 2012 team from Rangeview that ran 3:14.72 — out of the top all-time spot.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports