Discovery Canyon freshman punches ticket for state tennis

Discovery Canyon freshman Brandon Nachbar knew he had to be perfect Friday if he wanted to make his first trip to the Class 4A state tournament.

Nachbar, who lost his opening match in No. 1 singles on Thursday at the District 6 regional, won the playback bracket and beat Colorado Springs School’s Seth Grotelueschen in three sets Friday to earn the second seed. Cheyenne Mountain’s Jon Moore, who defeated Nachbar during Thursday’s quarterfinals, claimed the top seed at No. 1 singles. Moore, a junior who won a state title last year at No. 2 singles, dropped only three games during the regional.

“I was coming off that loss to Jon, and I had to finish that three-setter this morning,” Nachbar said, referring to his 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win over Widefield’s Michael Aragon. “I had to mentally tell myself I could play with these guys, and I just wanted to go to state so bad.”

Cheyenne Mountain won a championship at every classification to earn the regional title for the 17th straight year, beating runner-up Fountain Valley by nearly 30 points. Colorado Springs School was third, one point behind the Danes.

“I think we have a good level of confidence going into next week,” Cheyenne Mountain junior Matt Bowser said. “We know there will be really tough teams like Kent (Denver), and Niwot has a couple good singles players. But we’re just going to try to keep our consistency going.”

Bowser defeated Fountain Valley’s Andy Chou 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 3 singles final to earn the region’s top seed, while Chou also will make the trip to Pueblo next weekend as the No. 2 seed.

Cheyenne Mountain’s Steven Moore won the No. 2 singles title and will be joined by Colorado Springs School’s Josh Smith at state.