GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Blake Goldsberry threw all seven innings, allowing just three hits, as Cherry Creek baseball beat Mullen 8-0 to win Class 5A’s District 1.
Goldsberry struck out four and walked just one, and was also 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs.
Parker Jax and Andrew Chavez both had two RBIs for the Bruins, as well.
HIGHLANDS RANCH — Rock Canyon beat Douglas County 10-3 to win Class 5A’s District 5 on Tuesday.
Cole Howard had three RBIs for the Jaguars, while Daryl Myers and Coby Zimmerman each drove in two runs.
The 2015 state tournament bracket for Class 5A baseball.
Sites: All-City Field (Denver) and Metro State (Denver)
Go to: District brackets
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Notes
Bracket notes:
The 2015 state tournament bracket for Class 4A baseball.
Sites: All-Star Park (Lakewood) and Bishop Machebeuf (Denver)
Go to: District brackets
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Notes
Bracket notes:
The 2015 state tournament bracket for Class 3A baseball.
Sites: Butch Butler Field (Greeley) and Niwot High School
Go to: District brackets
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Notes
Bracket notes:
The 2015 regional and state tournament bracket for Class 2A baseball.
2015 CHSAA State Baseball Championships Class 2A regional/state bracket
Bracket notes:
DENVER — The No. 1 singles final match at the girls’ Class 5A state tennis tournament had all the makings of a Hollywood script. There was passion, drama and the underdog came away with the victory.
Fairview’s Amber Shen defeated Cherry Creek’s Kalyssa Hall 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) on Wednesday in the best match of the tournament.
“I felt like she was being tentative; I told her to be aggressive,” Fairview coach Susan Stensrud said. “She’s a great player. She just had to play her game.”
The road to the championship was anything but easy for Shen. She dropped the first set 6-3 to Hall, who won two 4A No. 1 singles titles while playing at Cheyenne Mountain. (Hall transferred to Creek this season.)
Shen then dropped three of the first four games in the second set, only to win four in a row to take a 5-3 lead.
The match soon grew charged with emotion when the chair official overruled several of Hall’s out calls. But Hall was able to overcome it and take a 6-5 lead in the set.
With a chance to serve for the match, the duo were locked at deuce and with advantage out, Hall double-faulted on the serve to send it to a tie-breaker.
Shen cruised through the tie-breaker to win it 7-3. In between sets, Hall was advised by the official that she was being corrected too many times and gave her an official caution.
“I’ve been in matches where similar things have happened,” Shen said. “There have been issues with line calls and stuff so I had some experience with that and it definitely helped me.”
In the third and deciding set, Hall and Shen traded games back and forth with neither one able to break the other’s serve. That changed when Hall was up 4-3. She was able to break Shen and take a 5-3 lead, once again putting her in a position to win the match.
But Shen returned the favor in the next game to once again level the field. With Shen serving and Hall leading the third set 5-4, the official once again corrected a Hall claim that Shen’s shot landed out.
After giving a point to Shen earlier in the match, the official awarded the game to Shen for this latest correction, tying the third set at 5-5.
“I’m not 100 percent sure that was the right call,” Shen said. “The next game, I was tight and shaken by that and Kalyssa was definitely pumped by that.”
Hall came back to win the next the game, getting her third chance to seal the match.
“I think that shows how much she wanted it and how much of a competitor she is,” Cherry Creek coach Chris Jacob said. “I think there were opportunities where she could’ve been (mentally taken out of the match) but she was able to refocus herself.”
Shen came back to win the next game, putting the match into another tie-breaker.
A see-saw affair saw Hall get corrected two more times at that point. Rather than awarding Shen the match — which by rule he could have done — the official allowed top singles players to decide the championship on the court.
Shen won the tie-breaker to 8-6 to give her a No. 1 singles title as a freshman.
“Even now, I don’t believe I won,” Shen said. “Even at match point I wasn’t sure if I was going to win or not.”
All was not lost for the Bruins however as they came away with their 19th consecutive team title.
“Every girl on the team gets to know that they were a part of that,” Jacob said. “There’s pressure going for 19 in row. That’s what our boys’ record is, so there’s pressure we try not to talk about. But it’s there.”
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Rock Canyon has historical
Rock Canyon’s Sydney Boyle and Caroline Skibness had the best showing in Rock Canyon history as they placed fourth overall.
Girls Tennis was just awarded the 2015 5A State Sportsmanship Award and finished 9th overall as a team at State! pic.twitter.com/mOTqk3Lc7z
— Rock Canyon Tennis (@RCHStennis) May 13, 2015
Rock Canyon also came away with the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award.
Ralston Valley duo wins state in final match together
The Ralston Valley duo of Haley Weidemann and Adrien Horowitz have played every match at the state tournament together. Their journey this year ended with a state championship in No. 1 doubles.
State champs at 1D!! Wiedemann and Horowitz take the title!! Congrats!
— Ralston Valley Athletics (@HS_MUSTANGS) May 13, 2015
PUEBLO — Freshman are supposed to bide their time. They need seasoning, both physical and mental, to compete against 18-year-olds.
Tatum Burger of Steamboat Springs has the appearance of a first-year high school student, but the savvy play of a veteran.
And now she has something to show for it with a Class 4A state championship in No. 1 singles in her first taste of prep tennis.
Burger, coming off victories over fellow title favorites Tara Edwards of Colorado Academy in the quarterfinals and Payton Fielding of Cheyenne Mountain in the semis, was cruising through the tournament in impressive fashion Monday and Tuesday at the City Park Complex in Pueblo.
But Alex Weil of St. Mary’s Academy, a senior who finished third in No. 1 singles in 2013 and was the state runner-up in 2014, was waiting in the finals. Weil, who greatly outsized Burger, overpowered the freshman 6-4 in the first set with her big serve and forehand.
Burger adjusted and began using her superior agility to her advantage. She won the second set 6-1.
“Once we started extending the rally and having her make plays, it was in Tatum’s favor,” Steamboat Springs coach John Aragon said.
From then on, it was all Burger as she secured the 4A crown with an easy 6-0 win in the third and final set. The freshman joined Kacey Bernard as the only Steamboat girls to ever win No. 1 singles at the 4A state championships.
Burger capped off her season with an unblemished record at 17-0.
Aragon knew he had something special in Burger, but also respected the caliber of players in the field.
“From the start, when we looked at the draw the big one was the CA girl,” he said. “She is a player. Tatum came up against CA and played tough and took it to her.”
Then came Cheyenne Mountain’s Fielding, a big hitter, and finally Weil, an equally big hitter.
“When she made them play to extend the points, it was in Tatum’s favor,” Aragon said. “She’s like a little pitbull. She’ll fight to the end.”
Burger, a quiet competitor on the court, was never rattled on the state’s biggest stage. But, she was thankful to have the support of her own built-in fan section. Five siblings, four of which were able to make it to Pueblo for finals, were in her corner.
“I’m really lucky to have my whole family here,” she said.
Burger not only won the crown for herself, but also for Steamboat, a program that has long been relevant statewide with a dozen regional titles in a row. The Sailors know success, but Wednesday was something special. Aragon hopes they can feed off the breakthrough.
“I think it’s going to get more kids out there playing,” he said. “We have a good junior program. We have a pro in there now working with them. I think Steamboat is going to come back on top like the old days. We were always a threat. Hopefully that’ll happen again.”
As for the team race, the first two days were dominated by Cheyenne Mountain as the Indians qualified for semifinals in all seven positions, reached five finals, and captured their seventh consecutive girls tennis state title and 20th in school history.
The Indians closed well by winning No. 1 doubles (Casey Ahrendsen and Ally Arenson), No. 2 doubles (Tory Louis and Claire Dibble), and No. 3 doubles (Megan Dibble and Chelsey Geisz). Each pair also won the 2014 state titles in the same positions and went undefeated this year. Coach Dave Adams has 25 total team championships to his name at Cheyenne Mountain, 17 on the boys side and eight on the girls side.
He’s already looking forward to the future.
“We’ve got a nucleus of a pretty good team coming back, but we’ll have to retool some things,” he said. “We’re losing half of two, half of three, and half of four doubles. It’s the same thing everybody goes through.”
“I’m just happy for these girls and I’m trying to stay dry for the moment,” he said with a laugh right before getting the traditional Gatorade bucket dumped on him.
As much as the 4A tennis championships continued to be monopolized by the team in maroon and white, Cheyenne Mountain finished with 73 points to Kent Denver’s 46 and Colorado Academy’s 37, Wednesday was a chance for individuals to fight back.
Kent Denver’s Caroline Kawula defeated the Indians’ Daniela Adamczyk 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 in a near-three-hour match for the No. 2 singles championship.
In No. 3 singles, Maeve Kearny, a Kent sophomore, took down another Cheyenne Mountain girl by beating Jessica Metz 6-3, 6-1.
Trinity Payne and Cammy Lee won No. 4 doubles for D’Evelyn over Holy Family’s Brianna Bartlett and An Tran.
PUEBLO – Winning Class 4A girls state tennis championships is not a goal for the Cheyenne Mountain High School team. It’s an expectation.
The Indians have captured 19 state girls tennis crowns in school history and six in a row.
Cheyenne Mountain took a big step toward claiming title No. 20 on Monday at the City Park Tennis Complex.
The Indians qualified players in all seven brackets – No. 1 singles through No. 4 doubles – and they all advanced into today’s semifinals.
Peyton Fielding (No. 1 singles), Daniel Adamczyk (No. 2 singles), Jessica Metz (No. 3 singles) and Casey Ahrendsen and Ally Arenson (No. 1 doubles), Tory Louis and Claire Dibble (No. 2 doubles), Megan Dibble and Chelsey Geisz (No. 3 doubles) and Tatumn Mika and Rachel Perry ( No. 4 doubles) all won two matches each to move into the semis which get underway at 9 a.m.
“Our approach is just one match at a time,” veteran Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams said. “If you start looking down the road, especially in tennis, that’s when you’re ripe for an upset. We are just focused on the next match and everybody just has to take care of their own business (Tuesday). If we can do that, as a team we will be sitting in a very dominant position.”
Cheyenne Mountain leads the team standings with 21 points followed by Kent Denver at 11 points.
The key victory for the Indians was delivered by Fielding, a senior, in the quarterfinals. Trailing Kent Denver’s Sadie Moseley 5-2 in the first set and 3-0 in the second, the senior rallied for a 7-5, 6-3 win. Moseley, a sophomore, beat Fielding in straight sets in their only meeting at the Cherry Creek tournament earlier this season.
“In the beginning of the match my nerves got a hold of me and my emotions were a little crazy,” the 6-foot-1 Fielding said. “When I was down 5-2 in the first set something finally clicked in my head. I told myself this is my last state tournament and the match isn’t over, I could come back.
“She is really good at the mental part of tennis, but I finally calmed down and I was able to relax and play. The second set I got distracted and was down 3-0 and then I started playing my game and got a lot more consistent.”
Fielding clashes with Steamboat Springs freshman Tatum Burger in the semifinals.
“I just need to go into the match not worried about what happened (Monday) and how I’ve won in the past,” Fielding said. “I just need to get all this pressure out of my mind and treat it one point at a time.”
Fielding is no stranger to the state tourney as she garnered championships at No. 2 singles as a freshman and sophomore. She didn’t play prep tennis a year ago as she was an exchange student in Brittany, France.
When Fielding returned for her senior year, she took the No. 1 singles spot vacated by two-time state champion Kalyssa Hall. Hall, a junior, transferred to Cherry Creek this fall.
“It has been a lot of pressure, coming back and being at No. 1 singles,” Fielding said. “There are a lot of eyes on me and I want to live up to last year because Kalyssa won. I also just want to help the team because we are all in this together and we all are doing well and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”
Adams praised the play of Fielding against Moseley.
“When we saw the draw we knew that was going to be a giant match,” Adams said. “Kent is very strong in all of their singles and for us to (beat them there) is very helpful for us. Payton really stepped up when she was down.”
Adams also pointed out the performance of Adamczyk, who beat Air Academy’s Ashley Burnett for the third time in a row this season.
“Trying to beat a quality opponent three times in one season, especially three times in a row is very difficult to do,” Adams said. “She did a great job and fought through unsteady play and came up with a big win for us.”