NIWOT — A small crowd of teammates and players from other schools gathered in awe to watch Fairview’s Luke Treleaven work his magic with the racket.
“It’s just not fair, bro,” one onlooker said.
“There’s no chance,” another admitted through a chuckle. “I don’t think I’d hit a return.”
Making it look easy with his natural instincts and flair for dropping jaws, Treleaven rolled through the No. 1 singles field at the Granite Peaks League boys tennis championships Thursday. The junior won all three of his matches at host Niwot High School, including a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Monarch’s Isaac Anderson in the championship round.
“I felt good today,” the humble Treleaven said. “I felt like I was hitting the ball in the middle of my racket throughout the whole day.”
After moving from South Africa to the United States only six months ago, Treleaven is navigating his first full year at Fairview.
“It was a big change,” said Treleaven, who has lost only one match on the season. “Here, there’s so many more tennis players compared to South Africa, where you kind of played the same people over and over again. Here, I’ve just met so many people. It’s very nice.”
With six combined singles and doubles champions, Treleaven’s Knights secured the Granite Peaks League team title, followed by second-place Monarch and third-place Broomfield.
Fellow Knight Adhrit Sundaresan beat Monarch’s Ajay Chandran (6-3, 6-4) in the No. 2 singles finals. At No. 3 singles, Monarch flipped the script as Troy Games beat Fairview’s Itay Kazatcker, 6-2, 7-6.
“When I play, I don’t think about anything else,” said Games, the lone individual or doubles champion not from Fairview. “Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. I tend to let that happen to me a lot. In a situation like that, I wasn’t in physical form to play a full third set, so that’s all I was thinking: finish it right now.”
Games added that Monarch is trending well as regionals near, particularly its doubles lines.
“We all showed in this tournament how good we are by getting second place,” Games said. “A lot of our doubles lines have gotten better throughout the season, and they showed in this tournament.”
In both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches, a Fairview duo got the best of Broomfield. Still, the third-place Eagles enjoyed a strong overall performance.
“It’s certainly something to be proud of,” said Broomfield No. 1 doubles player Oliver Ball. “Our guys, we’ve been working hard this season. We’ve been having a very successful season. Being able to come out and snag third in this tournament of 14 teams is something that we can all go home at the end of the day being super proud of.”
Centaurus’ Sam Vigmostad and Neal Blackwelder (No. 3 doubles) represented the only duo not from Fairview, Broomfield or Monarch to reach a finals match. The two Warriors fell to Fairview’s Grant Garabed and Quinn Ruder, 6-3, 6-2.
Granite Peaks League champions:
1 singles: Luke Treleaven (Fairview) def. Isaac Anderson (Monarch) 6-3, 6-3
2 singles: Adhrit Sundaresan (Fairview) def. Ajay Chandran (Monarch) 6-3 6-4
3 singles: Troy Games (Monarch) def. Itay Kazatcker (Fairview) 6-2, 7-6
1 doubles: Gavin Torgusen/Chase Harrah (Fairview) def. Oliver Ball/Kellan Rosenfels (Broomfield) 6-2, 6-2
2 doubles: Rafa Cortes/Colin Ryan (Fairview) def. Dallin Shelley/Tanner Keegan (Broomfield) 6-3, 6-4
3 doubles: Grant Garabed/Quinn Ruder (Fairview) def. Sam Vigmostad/Neal Blackwelder (Centaurus) 6-3, 6-2
4 doubles: Om Vegesna/Srikar Kurakula (Fairview) def. Logan Zawistowski/Ethan Jeffries (Monarch) 6-2, 7-5