DENVER – Waves of red and blue momentum rolled back and forth from one end of the Denver Tennis Park to the other for two hours Tuesday morning until Regis Jesuit rode the final one to the top.

The top-seeded Raiders spotted second-seeded and rival Cherry Creek two points in the race to four during the Class 5A team state championship dual, then surged to four straight victories to secure a 4-2 victory and its first crown in the four seasons of the dual match format instituted by the Colorado High School Activities Association.

Defeated in each of the past two seasons by the Bruins — last season by just one — Regis Jesuit pulled off a singles sweep and claimed No. 1 doubles as well en route to the program’s first state championship since 2019 and sixth all-time.

“What you’ve done throughout the season almost has no bearing on this, other than you have to get here,” Regis Jesuit coach Laura Jones said. “It all starts from scratch when you walk out on the court here today. It was a real battle. It was very fun to watch and very fun to win.”

Two days earlier, six of Regis Jesuit’s seven lines — singles players Alec Rodriguez-Fields (No. 1), Clay Dickey (No. 2) and Adam Rydell (No. 3) and doubles teams of Koops Lord and Will Larkin (No. 1), Reis Cherveny and Edward Samuelson (No. 2) and Beckett Martorella and Finn Carolan (No. 3) — won 5A individual state championships, but the dual format gave Cherry Creek a chance to steal team glory.

Coach Art Quinn’s Bruins — 15-0 over three seasons in the team state dual format and in search of the program’s 48th all-time state title — notched the first two victories to gain momentum.

Sunand Bhandaram and Ryan Raleigh took a 7-5, 6-3 win over Regis Jesuit’s Connor and Daniel Hickey at No. 4 doubles, while Adam Eikelberner and Kapil Bhandaram downed Cherveny and Samuelson 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 2 doubles match.

But Rodriguez-Fields — who encouraged his teammates multiple times during the dual — turned the tide with his 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Cherry Creek’s Aidan Washer.

“I would look over to all my teammates and I would see sometimes they were up, sometimes they were down and they’d get quieter, so that’s when I’d have to get louder,” said Rodriguez-Fields, who finished the season undefeated. “I was pretty much up my entire match, so I was just trying to give them momentum.”

That surge was subsequently sustained by Rydel’s 6-2, 7-5 win over Cherry Creek’s Devan Shah at No. 3 singles, as well as Larkin and Lord’s 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Sam Migliaccio and Tyson Hardy at No. 1 doubles.

With the No. 3 doubles match tied a set apiece, that left it up to Dickey with the ability to end it for the Raiders. The four-year varsity veteran did just that, as he overcame Cherry Creek’s Jack Loehr for a clinching 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 victory.

The match ended with a wide shot from Loehr that was followed by an avalanche of red-shirted Regis Jesuit players swarming Dickey.

“That was really special,” Dickey said. “The past couple of years, I’ve been on the court when the match ended, so I think it was a great way to go out, to be the last one to seal it.”

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Class 4A

Colorado Academy 4, Kent Denver 0

(Courtney Oakes)

The Colorado Academy boys tennis team won its second all-time state championship and first since 2018 in decisive fashion with a 4-0 victory over Kent Denver in the Class 4A team state championship dual match Tuesday afternoon at the Denver Tennis Park.

The top-seeded Sun Devils had won all three of the 4A state titles since the Colorado High School Activities Association moved to the team dual format for the 2022 season, but were finally defeated by coach Noah Tondre’s second-seeded Mustangs, who had fallen short each of the past two seasons in the title match.

Senior No. 3 singles player Craig Stapleton sealed the Colorado Academy victory with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Kent Denver sophomore Vyann Chopra, which followed another singles win in the No. 2 spot from senior Oliver Neely (6-0, 7-5 over senior Liam O’Drobiniak), while the No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Hendrick Jordaan and junior Peter Owen (6-0, 6-4 over senior Reid Calamari and junior Levi Pollyea) and No. 3 tandem of senior Thomas Rollhaus and sophomore CJ Marshall (6-3, 6-2 over juniors Ollie Nelson and Sohan De) also prevailed.

The victory gave Colorado Academy a clean sweep in all four of its matches in the team state tournament following shutout victories over No. 15 Thomas Jefferson, No. 7 George Washington and No. 3 Peak to Peak.

Stapleton’s win avenged a loss to Chopra three days earlier in the No. 3 singles individual state tournament, while saw Neely, plus Jordaan and Owen along with Marshall and Rollhaus bring home individual titles.