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High school boys tennis: Skyline sweeps doubles titles, edges Brighton to claim 5A state title

SHARE High school boys tennis: Skyline sweeps doubles titles, edges Brighton to claim 5A state title
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Hardy Owen of Brighton plays against Jack Hinkle of Woods Cross in the 5A boys first singles tennis championship at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 21, 2022.

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Skyline’s boys tennis team enjoyed a perfect day on Saturday at Liberty Park to 3-peat as 5A state champs.

After pulling off a few upsets in both first and second doubles on Thursday, Skyline knew it needed a near-perfect day on Saturday to hold off Brighton.

That’s exactly what the Eagles did, finishing with 21 team points to edge Brighton, which finished with 20.

Woods Cross finished third with 10 points.

Skyline got the points it needed as both of its higher-seeded doubles teams marched to the championship.

At first doubles, the duo of Michael Cherchio and Gunnar Woller teamed up to win both of its matches in straight sets for the title despite being the No. 9 seed heading into the competition.

At second doubles, the No. 10-seeded team of Kyle Rasmussen and Sam Stewart marched its way to the title with a pair of straight-set wins on Saturday.

Despite Skyline’s doubles success, it still needed both Dean Weber at second singles and Tai Jansen at third singles to win their semifinal matches to score enough points to hold off Brighton.

Even though Weber and Jansen ended up falling to Brighton’s players in the finals, the points they collected prior to the championships were enough.

Despite the runner-up team finish, Brighton also had a perfect day of tennis on Saturday as all three singles players won individual state titles.

Hardy Owen repeated as first singles state champion, winning his semifinal match over Alta’s Griffin Schroeder 6-2, 6-0 and then his championship match over Woods Cross’ Jack Hinkle, 6-1, 6-1.

Brighton’s Parker Hopkin beat Skyline’s Weber in the second singles final 7-6, 6-2, and then teammate Ty Parrish won the third singles title with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Skyline’s Jansen.