State tennis roundup: Broomfield's Trujillo secures spot in 1 singles finals

Oct. 13—DENVER — After falling just short in the first set of his No. 1 singles state semifinal at Denver City Park on Friday, Broomfield senior Kai Trujillo sharpened his focus.

He wasn't going to let Denver East's Trevor Hajek end his shot at a state title prematurely.

From the second set on, the Eagles' top man attacked the net more and maintained his composure when his opponent started losing his. That effort resulted in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 dominant comeback to secure a spot in the state finals, which Trujillo will play at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The moment had been a long time coming for him, and he had quite the cheering section to pump him up throughout the entire match.

"I'm ecstatic, especially for my senior year," Trujillo said. "This is what I've been wanting to do since my freshman year. At the end of that first set, I didn't think it was possible, but something happened. I was just down on myself too much, then luckily, my coaches and everybody here picked me up. After that first set, it was just very negative. I had to reset and just make it go to a third no matter what."

On his way to the scoring table and back, Trujillo was met with a parade of hugs from coaches, parents and friends all sharing in his celebration. He spent countless hours throughout the offseason to prepare himself for what the finals may bring, playing as many different opponents as he possibly could to expose him to a variety of playing styles.

That, and learning to cast aside the negative thoughts that used to invade his mid-match mentality, proved pivotal when he thought his back was up against the wall. Instead, it was just the fuel he needed.

He'll play the final match of his high school career against Grandview's Justin Son.

"First set, I didn't come to the net that much. I was too scared, and then I was at the point where I was just like, 'Let's just do it. Let's just come in.' So I started creeping in a little bit," Trujillo said. "Getting to semis, that's good. I'm proud that I got into the semis, but I want to get to the whole thing and I want to win the whole thing. I just told myself it's too soon to get knocked out now."

So close they could taste it

Noah Bodner and Cecil Carroll couldn't have asked for a better showing in their two-set, semifinal defeat against Regis Jesuit's No. 1 doubles team. In fact, Fairview's senior pair was just a few shots away from victory in both frames. It wasn't meant to be in the end of a 6-4, 7-5 decision, but that didn't mean the Knights couldn't make the Raiders sweat.

"We went in knowing that they were the 1 seed and we weren't supposed to beat them, but we played like we had nothing to lose," Caroll said. "We just went and played free and we tried to smile the whole time. The first set was really close.

"We ended up having a very close service game at the end, and they won it, but we bounced back in the second really well. We were able to keep it really tight until five all and we ended up having two set points, which we lost both. I'm proud of how we battled and how we fought. It was a great match."

Win or lose, the two couldn't help but take pride in their accomplishment. They paired up halfway through the season and let their pre-existing friendship carry the court chemistry naturally.

Bodner, who competed mostly at singles before this year, admitted he needed a transition period to acclimate to the style of doubles play. He and Carroll molded a partnership that utilized Carroll's height at the net while Bodner contributed most on groundstrokes and serves.

"I'm a singles player and I got thrown into doubles this year, so he's allowed me the breathing room to make mistakes and hold me together," Bodner said. "It was a good demonstration of what we've been working towards the last four years. I'm really proud of our fight. We could have come away with that second set, but we can't hang your heads on it. Now, it's just time to fight for third."

The duo won its semifinal playback against Castle View later in the day to set up for a showing in the third-place match on Saturday afternoon.

Three's company

Ben Mei Dan found himself in a tight spot against Valor Christian's Nathaniel Trevey in their No. 3 singles semifinal contest, but the Fairview senior still played tough in a 6-2, 6-2 defeat.

He spent much of the offseason building his strength and mental fitness on the court, and earlier used that to take down Fossil Ridge's Alex Van Thuyne in a thrilling 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 quarterfinal showing.

"I knew it would be big since I lost to that same Fossil kid at conferences in three sets," Mei Dan said. "That was one of the best matches I've had. I was down 5-1 in the third, and then I came back and won six games to win the match."

Trevey, however, proved too much to handle, and that loss sent Mei Dan into the playbacks semis against Legacy's Rufus Thompson. Thompson pulled out a victory to secure a spot in Saturday's third-place match with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 decision.

"(Trevey) is an excellent player," Mei Dan said. "I think he's the best 3 singles in the state. I think I played, overall, pretty well. There were a few mistakes and a lot of the games were tight, so I think 6-2, 6-2 doesn't fully represent what it was. Overall, I'm relatively happy with the match. I have some things to learn from it."

Gunning for bronze

Much farther south, in the 4A state championships at Pueblo City Park, Niwot saw two lines play their way into third-place contention.

Sophomore 3 singles man Charlie Kirtland worked his way into the semifinals before falling to Colorado Academy's Jackson Gilliland, then breezed through his playback against Evergreen's Shepherd Maren. He'll face off with Kent Denver's Sebastian Boada for a shot at third on Saturday morning.

"My first round of the main draw was pretty easy, so was my second," Kirtland said. "Then today, I lost to Colorado Academy, but I mean, he played amazing. I want to redeem myself a bit from my round today. Getting third is still really cool and a great accomplishment."

The Cougars' 1 doubles pair of senior Kyle Davidson and junior Sebastian Moy, likewise, earned a bid to the semis before hitting a brick wall against Kent Denver. They redeemed themselves just enough to buy a chance at bronze, and will complete their season with one last match against Denver South's Udo Zeile/Kelly Goodwillie.

"In our match against Evergreen, we just performed really well under pressure and with a lot of cheering from the Evergreen parents," Davidson said. "I hope we can just continue that in the third place match. I think it was definitely good because just seeing that level of play earlier in the season was definitely important even though we lost some tough matches."

The two relied on their experience that came through Niwot's typically tough regular-season schedule. Their 9-4 record through dual play leading up to the tournament demonstrated just how gritty they had to be to stay on top of the competition.

"He has solid volleys, and I think I play pretty well at the baseline," Moy said. "It kind of just works out where he can poach at the net while I stay back. I think that's actually been a pretty big factor going into a lot of these matches."

Other results from 5A and 4A

5A 1 singles: Fairview's Caden Bell and Legacy's David Tran lost in the first round.

5A 2 singles: Boulder's Jackson Lewis lost in the playback semis; Fairview's Adhrit Sundaresan defeated Broomfield's Ryder Pierce in the first round, then lost in the quarterfinals; Legacy's Noah Klein lost in the first round.

5A 3 singles: Legacy's Rufus Thompson will play for third place.

5A 1 doubles: Bodner/Carroll defeated Boulder's Blake Curl/Patrick Harvey in the first round; Legacy's Khai Nguyen/Logan Livermore lost in the first round.

5A 2 doubles: Fairview's Charlie Gomulka/Jake Boston beat Monarch's Ben Wilcutt/Aiden Swett in the first round, then lost in the second; Centaurus' Julian Piccolini/Cai Jaffe lost in the first playback; Boulder's Leo Damrauer/Henry Radoff lost in the first round.

5A 3 doubles: Fairview's Ian Schwartz/Sam Rich beat Legacy's Gregory Waggoner/Karsen Barnes in the first round, then lost in the second.

5A 4 doubles: Fairview's Christopher Fitzgerald/Kai Rajpal won in the first round, lost in the second; Boulder's Bruno Damrauer/Nick Watson lost in playback semis; Legacy's Daniel Kral/Gavin Gehring lost in the first round.

4A 1 singles: Peak to Peak's Dhruv Shajikumar, Niwot's LiChen Liao and Frederick's Josiah Brittenham all lost in the first round.

4A 2 singles: Niwot's Oskar Hanson won in the first round and lost in the second; Peak to Peak's Vivaan Bhardwaj and Dawson's Trey Larsen lost in the first round.

4A 3 singles: Niwot's Charlie Kirtland will play for third place; Longmont's Jesse Arnt and Peak to Peak's Copland Laberge lost in the first round.

4A 1 doubles: Niwot's Sebastian Moy/Kyle Davidson will play for third after beating Longmont's Owen Jones/Jack Kujawa in the playback semis and Peak to Peak's David Pyun/Atticus Phillips in the first round.

4A 2 doubles: Dawson's Kiernan Donohue/Dawson Kusel lost in their first playback; Niwot's Ollie Jones/Rex Wallington and Peak to Peak's Shreyas Sundaresan/Owen Kolachov lost in the first round.

4A 3 doubles: Niwot's Lauritz Stranzenbach/Manan Gangwar won in the first round and lost in the second; Longmont's Adam Mckell/Ben Champe and Peak to Peak's Kabir Patadia/Dmitri Zaronias lost in the first round.

4A 4 doubles: Niwot's Tyler Chivukula/Gabriel Bandera won in the first round and lost in the second; Dawson's Colin McLeod/Graham Bernstein and Peak to Peak's Sid Nareddy/Sanjay Sudhakar lost in the first round.