Fossil Ridge regional title leads 23 Fort Collins qualifiers for Colorado state tennis

Colorado high school boys tennis regionals took place around the state this past week to determine qualifiers for upcoming individual state tournaments.

Seven Fort Collins-area schools had players competing across two classifications, with four teams advancing players to state.

Fossil Ridge led the way with a Class 5A Region 4 team championship, advancing all seven lines to state with five regional title winners.

The top two finishers on each singles and doubles line from each regional advanced to state.

Here are the 23 local players across 14 lines who will compete for the Colorado state tennis championships from Oct. 16-18 at Denver Tennis Park:

Fossil Ridge sending all seven lines to state again

Fossil Ridge won titles on five of seven lines, including sweeping the doubles en route to a 5A Region 4 championship at North Lake Park Tennis Park in Loveland.

Here are all the Fossil players and lines who qualified for the 5A state individual tournament with regional wins:

• No. 1 singles: Cadell Webb
• No. 1 doubles: Davis Samuelson/Diego Pardina
• No. 2 doubles: Vedant Manakeshwar/Will Schuster
• No. 3 doubles: Braxton Phillips/Kasey Nelson
• No. 4 doubles: Sully Kane/James Lillis

Ian Miller (No. 2 singles) and Keaton Thomas (No. 3 singles) also advanced to state with runner-up regional finishes.

Seven of the 11 Fossil players who qualified have state-tournament experience, including all three singles players.

This is the fifth straight year that the SaberCats have swept Front Range League plus regional championships and the seventh consecutive time they’ve sent all seven lines to state.

Fossil Ridge also remains in the team playoff bracket.

Fossil is the No. 5 seed, already beating No. 12 Broomfield (7-0) and No. 4 Grandview (4-3). Next up is top overall seed Regis Jesuit in an Oct. 14 semifinal.

Rocky Mountain qualifies 3 lines for state

The Lobos had a strong showing in 5A Region 8 action, taking third in the team standings and qualifying three lines for state:

• No. 1 singles: Blake Livengood (won playback final to qualify)
• No. 2 singles: Drake Solley (won regional title)
• No. 4 doubles: Ari Trevino/Ian Rose (won regional title)

Rocky just missed having an even bigger presence, too. The Lobos’ have alternates for state in No. 3 singles (Alec Glenn), No. 1 doubles (August Burton/Brock Slauson) and No. 3 doubles (Jake Baitinger, Bfo Rahaley).

Fort Collins, Poudre advance two lines each

Fort Collins and Poudre will each be sending a pair of lines to state.

The Lambkins took third in 5A Region 7, winning a line and making another final:

• No. 2 doubles: Jack Gibbs/Miles Kalai (won regional)
• No. 3 doubles: Evan Dirvonas/Henry Melchert (runner-up)

Fort Collins also has four alternates, including No. 1 singles (Keaton Crow), No. 3 singles (Callaway Orr), No. 1 doubles (Casey Stanford/Matthew Tynan) and No. 4 doubles (Andrew Metz/Liam Tremblay).

Poudre was fourth as a team in 5A Region 1, qualifying two lines with regional runner-up finishes:

• No. 1 doubles: Luke Scott/Elliot Santolla
• No. 2 doubles: Theodore Bridgers/Thomas Mack

Elliot Martin and Brevin Beauprez are also alternates in No. 4 doubles. Windsor’s Gabe King is also a No. 2 singles alternate in Class 4A.

Chris Abshire covers high school and community sports for the Coloradoan.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado state tennis championships: Here are Fort Collins qualifiers