PUEBLO — It takes all of one second to scroll through the boys’ tennis champions from Steamboat Springs.
The Routt County haven is a skiers’ paradise, but Ramsey Bernard, the only state champ in school history, gave the Sailors faithful reason to celebrate before snow blankets the town.
Bernard, a senior, defeated Cheyenne Mountain’s Justin Hermes 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 singles to claim his second state title at Pueblo’s City Park.
“This feels really good,” said Bernard, who, after winning his sophomore year at No. 2 singles, finished second in 2006. “If somebody would have told me that he was only going to win two games, I wouldn’t have believed them. I was expecting it to be a lot closer.”
All was not lost for Hermes and his Cheyenne teammates. The Indians (79 points) won their 14th state title and sixth in seven years, besting Kent Denver (69 points) on the final day in three of the five matchups between the teams.
“We had seven in the finals and everybody thought we had it wrapped up, but Kent had five, and I knew how tight our matches were with them,” said Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams, whose team won the dual match earlier this season 5-2 against the Sun Devils. “I thought that was a real team win for us.”
Bernard set the tone for the match from the opening point of the first game. His only ace of the match planted the seed of doubt in Hermes and allowed Bernard to dictate play from the baseline. Content to rally, Bernard wore out Hermes’ backhand and forced the senior to make the mistakes.
“I just tried to play my game and work his backhand,” Bernard said. “The goal was to stay steady the whole match, and I was able to do that and break him down mentally.”
Said Hermes, who beat Bernard in their other meeting last spring: “He was playing well today, and it was just tough to get momentum. He wasn’t missing and I wasn’t taking advantage of my chances.”
One court over, the Indians’ Brad Young, who beat Bernard for the No. 2 singles title in 2006, repeated against Mul- len’s Stan Vaughan 6-1, 6-4.
Cheyenne’s Jay Patel, who had nary a challenger during the season, was pushed for more than two hours before closing out Kent’s Frazier Cavness 7-6 (1), 7-5.
“I wasn’t amazed at how long it took. Kent brings it every year at state,” said Patel, a champion at No. 3 doubles in 2005. “I was expecting a tough match.”
Kent Denver’s Moses Taylor and Matt Carroll beat the Cheyenne Mountain duo of John Adams and Jonathan Moore for the second time this season to claim the No. 1 doubles title.
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
