A familiar sight: The player winning the large-school boys singles state tennis championship was wearing burnt orange.
Junior Philip Bosin of Eldorado continued the Eagles’ dominance in that bracket on Thursday, taking the Class 5A title at the Jerry Cline Tennis Complex.
Bosin completed an undefeated season in individual singles, as the No. 1 seed beat No. 2 Tanin Ramnath of La Cueva, 6-0, 2-0. Ramnath was forced to retire with an injury.
Eldorado has won each state singles championship dating to 2016, or six in a row. There was no 2020 state tournament due to the pandemic.
Bosin joined Cameron King of La Cueva as 5A champs. Luciano Silveria of Hope Christian and Tatiana Dalton-Spilca of Sandia Prep were 1A-4A winners.
The boys 5A final was anticlimactic, by and large. Ramnath had endured a marathon three-set victory in the semifinals, which were played just several hours before the final.
“You never know, some people out here, they’re iron men,” Bosin said. “So I just tried not to think about it too much, play the same game I would have played if he was fresh. … It’s very unfortunate that he was forced to retire. I was looking forward to a good match and it’s unfortunatel it ended the way it did.”
La Cueva’s King, a sophomore, also finished off a perfect season. Seeded No. 1, she downed second-seeded teammate Stephanie Romero of the Bears, 6-2, 6-3, to go back-to-back at state.
“I’m really proud of myself. This was my goal ever since winning last year,” King said. “So I’m very happy about that.”
An early break of serve gave King a quick edge, although Romero took the long opening game of the second set before King steadied herself.
“I was very frustrated,” King said. “(And) I was a little bit worried. But I was able to keep pushing it out and keep fighting for it.”
The only non-No. 1 seed to win a singles crown Thursday was Silveria, a Hope junior. He had lost twice already this season to the No. 1 seed, Joseph Braun of Albuquerque Academy, including last week at district. But the second-seeded Silveria won the biggest match, 6-2, 7-6 (5), even admitting he was shaking at the end.
“Last week I was trying to outhit him and he’s got a lot of rhythm and he was on it,” Silveria said. “So today I tried mixing up the pace, and kept going to his backhand a lot because his forehand is much better. Once he gets into a rhythm with his forehand, it’s over for me.”
Sandia Prep’s Dalton-Spilca, a junior and the No. 1 seed, downed No. 2 Avery Williams of Goddard, 6-1, 6-2 in the girls 1A-4A final.
This was Dalton-Spilca’s first appearance at state.
“I haven’t been able to do this the last two years because of COVID and tournaments and stuff,” she said. “I’m happy to finally get it and to win it is really awesome.”
The 5A state doubles champions were Alex Lumanog and Calvin Van Dyke of La Cueva (the Bears’ sixth straight state title in boys doubles), and Kate Segal and Samantha Baltz of Rio Rancho, both seeded No. 1. Segal and Baltz became their school’s first state tennis champs.
In 1A-4A, winning state were a pair of top seeds, Mikaella Sena and Stella Garcia of Robertson, and Tanner and Connor Dils from Academy. The brothers dropped only three games in four matches.
