Niwot boys tennis' Luke Weber finishes runner-up in No. 1 singles state tournament

The face of Niwot High School boys tennis picked up his final piece of high school hardware on Oct. 15 in the state individuals tournament.

Senior Luke Weber cruised through the Class 4A No. 1 singles bracket, defeating Cheyenne Mountain’s Andrew Ballenger in the first round (6-1, 6-0), Evergreen’s Sam Billups in the second round (6-0, 6-0) and D’Evelyn’s Aswaanth Karuppasamy (6-4, 6-2) to advance to the finals. Unfortunately for Weber, he was met by defending No. 1 singles state champion Nathan Gold of Kent Denver, who picked up the 6,0, 6-0 finals victory at Pueblo City Park.

Still, Weber took great pride in finishing as the state’s runner-up after overcoming Karuppasamy in the semifinals. Both players have a long history together and Weber was pleased that his offseason work resulted in a big win.

“Going into the tournament, I knew it was going to take almost more than a miracle to pull that last [finals] match off,” Weber said. “I wasn't looking for anything out of that match. I had my eyes set on that semifinal, that was the target going in because I lost to Aswaanth last year and he's a great player.”

Niwot’s lead player ends his high school tennis career with a slew of fond memories and accomplishments, including winning the No. 3 singles state title and a team championship as a sophomore.

“It's been an incredible journey,” Weber said. “It's something I never thought I would go through as a freshman… I have a lot of great memories that I've been thinking about for the past couple of days. I'm not too overly sad that it's over or anything, I'm just happy that I had that experience in the first place.”

With Weber soon graduating, the Cougars’ future remains promising with their two other singles players, junior LiChen Liao and freshman Charlie Kirtland, both of whom also suffered a defeat to Kent Denver in the state individuals tournament. Liao lost in the No. 2 singles quarterfinals but later won the playbacks bracket, while Kirtland lost to eventual No. 3 singles state champ Reed Haymons in the quarterfinals.

“The future is definitely in great hands,” Weber said. “I have a lot of faith in LiChen. I've seen him grow as a player tremendously in just this season alone. There's no one else I would trust more to hand that leadership role off to than LiChen. He's already got a two-singles state title under his belt and multiple podium finishes, so he's definitely ready for that job. And Charlie as well, I've seen him grow just as much in just his freshman year. I'm super proud of both those guys.”

In the doubles brackets, Niwot’s three duos all bowed in the quarterfinals: Freshman Oskar Hansen and sophomore Sebastian Moy (No. 1), sophomores Oliver Jones and Tyler Chivukula (No. 3) and junior Lauritz Stranzenbach and sophomore Rex Wallington (No. 4).