The team and coaches display the runner-up trophy. Photo by Gowri Srinivasan
By Gowri Srinivasan
Los Alamos
The high school tennis season drew to a close with the state championships being held in Albuquerque May 8-11, 2024. The Los Alamos High School boys Varsity team placed second overall losing to Albuquerque Academy 5-0. The Academy Chargers were unstoppable all season as they won an impressive 21st consecutive title this year, which is a new National record.
The Toppers beat old rivals Española (5-3) in the Quarterfinals and avenged their District finals defeat to Santa Fe Prep by beating them 5-2 in the Semifinals. The line up included Ryan Sood, Aditya Viswanathan, Nicholas Witowski, Micheal Witowski, Andres Iturregui, Cam MacDonald and Axel Niklasson with Spencer Urbatsch listed as the alternate. Earlier in the week Sood won second place in the Boys singles individual championships. This was the debut coaching season for head coach Travis Gibson who was ably assisted by assistant coaches Timur Kazratkulov, Lindsay Gibson, Hari Viswanathan and Nicholas Serafin.
Some notable performances from the State championships are listed here. Four boys (Sood, Viswanathan, N Witkowski and M Witkowski) and one girl (Parra) qualified for the State individual championships in an impressive showing of strength. Sood’s and the team’s second place tie for the best ever finish by the Toppers in the State championships.
The Witkowski brothers won both their doubles matches in the team competitions against Espanola and Santa Fe Prep’s duo of Kauffman and Friedland who were the Boys Doubles runners up earlier in the week. The other two doubles teams, Sood/Viswanathan and Iturregui/Niklasson were undefeated all week in their doubles matches as well. Cam MacDonald clinched the finals spot in a tension filled battle by beating Harvey-Romero of Santa Fe Prep.
The Topper tennis team is incredibly thankful to Athletic Director Guy Meyer for his vocal support at several of the tournaments this season. The Toppers would also like to acknowledge with gratitude the members of the Los Alamos community for their time spent in instruction, friendly competition and moral support this season.
Senior Ryan Sood lost to Connor Dils of Academy in the finals of the Boys individual tournament. Photo by John McHale/ladailpost.com
Senior Sophia Parra lost in the Girls individual competition to Zoey Williams of Goddard. Photo by John McHale/ladailpost.com
Nicholas (Sr.) and Michael Witkowski (So.) lost to the Robertson duo of Williamson and Medina in the Quarterfinals in the Boys Doubles individual tournament. Photo by John McHale/ladailpost.com
Freshman Aditya Viswanathan fell to eventual champion Connor Dils in the Quarterfinals of the Boys Singles Individual tournament. Photo by John McHale/ladailpost.com