NIWOT — Over the past couple of seasons, Frederick’s Josiah Brittenham has been a surefire bet to qualify for the Class 4A state tournament at No.1 singles. This year, however, he met a tough challenge in the 4A Region 5 tournament finals from Dawson’s Cole Cohen.
He won out anyway with a 6-4, 6-3 performance.
“He came out really fast, very consistent, really made me work for every point,” Brittenham said. “Once I got the hang of him being consistent, he started coming in net more and challenging me there. I tried to keep him deep and really go for those winning shots when he was up at the net, down the line or cross court, or just high and heavy to his backhand.”
Brittenham has been nearly unbeatable in his final campaign with the Golden Eagles, winning all but one of his matches heading into Thursday’s regional tournament held at Niwot High School. He credited his consistency and stellar serve for his victory over Cohen, and believes his mental game helped him survive the match.
“It really dictates who wins 100% for sure,” Brittenham said. “If I would have gotten in my head, I would have lost that match for sure.”
Cohen, likewise, has been a force on the court for the Mustangs as a young sophomore, coming into Thursday’s competition with a 17-4 record. He said that Brittenham’s rallies at the baseline complemented his own style of play well, and looks forward to his second experience at the 4A state tournament at Pueblo City Park next week.
“He played my game really well,” Cohen said. “He does everything that I do well, just better. The shots that I like to hit, he also likes to hit, so it’s really hard. I had to kind of change up my game a lot, and it was really hard to adapt to him. He’s a really good player and he’s really smart.
“I was really uncertain going into this tournament of where I would be and kind of ending up this way after last year. I was 2 singles last year, so I wasn’t really sure how it would go at 1 singles. Having the same level of success, a line up, it’s really nice.”
In the 2 singles finals, Niwot senior Oskar Hansen made quick work of Palmer Ridge’s Victor Struski with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Hansen, who missed out on 3 singles regionals last year due to an illness, said that it felt like “a comeback” to be able to secure his spot back at state.
He’s taken reps at 1 singles, 2 singles and 1 doubles this season.
“I wanted to just play consistent, play solid, no ups and downs,” Hansen said. “I’ve played tennis for a long time. I like to say I’m pretty decent at hitting the ball back and forth, and that’s all I really did. At some point, some people are more consistent than others, and I just thankfully was more consistent today than he was. He played really well.”
Full list of local state qualifiers:
1 singles: Josiah Brittenham, Frederick; Cole Cohen, Dawson
2 singles: Oskar Hansen, Niwot; Miles Lacis, Silver Creek (alternate)
3 singles: Nick Steinkamp, Dawson; Mataeus Duart, Niwot (alternate)
1 doubles: Cooper Herchert/Rex Baxter, Silver Creek; Colin McLeod/Bassam ElHoury, Dawson
2 doubles: Claude Leonard/Zuming Haratsaris, Niwot; Leo Barrett/Mason Otten, Silver Creek; Kareem ElHoury/Reid Eisenhard, Dawson (alternate)
3 doubles: Chayse Rawsky/Samuel Price, Dawson; Gryffin Lawrence/Rylan Hayes, Niwot; Tate Kostelecky/Elijah Tulich, Silver Creek (alternate)
4 doubles: Lex Lomanov/Rahul Agarwal, Niwot; Walker Karp/Ashwin Kothari, Dawson; Ethan Worrell/Aiden Sarris, Longmont