4A Boys Tennis: Karuppasamy Caps Career as Individual State Champion

PUEBLO – In the culmination of this year’s 4A state individual championships for tennis many familiar faces returned in hopes of finally being crowned victors. Aswaanth Karuppasamy was one of these faces.

After seeing himself finish runner-up in 2021 and falling short with a third-place finish in 2022, Karuppasamy knew that this was the year to finally capture his state title. In knowing this, Karuppasamy left nothing behind on a brisk morning at Pueblo City Park as he breezed through the state championship en route to 6-1, 6-1 victory over Raphael Wieland of Denver South.

The D’Evelyn senior, who had no other expression than a smile after the match calls the moment “bittersweet.”

“It’s definitely a little bittersweet because high school tennis is by far the most fun tennis I have ever played in my life, I’m always looking forward to it, even while playing year-round. I have an awesome team, an awesome coach and awesome parents who help with it. I’m definitely happy to go out on top.”

Karuppasamy was the lone victor in the championships for D’Evelyn.

While the 1 singles saw a new crowned champion on the day, as did the 2 singles as Daniel Blanch of Vail Christian, captured not only his first state championship but also became the first-ever champion in school history. He defeated Jackson Wells of Colorado Academy in a 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
Blanch looks to repeat this glory next year at the 1 singles spot and hopefully bring home some more hardware to Vail.

In what seemed to be a common team always fighting for championships, Jackson Gilliland of Colorado Academy claimed the 3 singles title as he emerged a state champ with his victory over Jake Schultz of Cheyenne Mountain in a 6-3, 7-5 decision.

For the No. 1 doubles, Colorado Academy once again took home honors as their pair of seniors in Clayton Johnson and Michael McKee became state champions in their defeat of Tyler Hamons and Jack Cramer of Kent Denver by a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 decision.

Kent Denver was able to take one back on Colorado Academy as in the No. 2 doubles match twin brothers in Andrew and Zach Morgan of Kent Denver defeated the duo of Luca Siringo and Jackson Turner from Colorado Academy 6-4, 7-6.

The No. 3 doubles match saw a similar ending with Colton Maass and Simon Hirsch of Kent Denver becoming state champions in defeating Oliver Neely and Charlie Rakowski of Colorado Academy by a decision of 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Rounding out the finish of the doubles matches, for the No. 4 doubles State Champions, Kent Denver once again reigned victorious as their pair of Liam O’Drobinak and Cole Fenton defeated the Colorado Academy group of Thomas Rollhaus and Craig Stapleton 6-4, 6-1.

In all four of the doubles matches, Colorado Academy and Kent Denver faced off against each other for the state title. On the day Colorado Academy claimed two separate state championships while Kent Denver claimed three.

For the tournament’s Vicky Mazarrato Sportsmanship Award Evergreen High School was selected from a field that featured over 20 schools.

For the 4A team state championship, the battle-tested schools of Colorado Academy and Kent Denver will once again face-off when they meet in Denver next weekend. Play will begin at Denver Tennis Park at 2 p.m. on October 17th.