HELOTES – Boerne High twin brothers Sam and Jess Gonzales capped their high school tennis careers as state champions and also cemented their legacies as the two most decorated athletes in Greyhounds history.
The Gonzales brothers claimed this year’s 4A boys doubles state title by defeating Kaufman’s Eli Frosch and Kayden Lengacher in the finals on Wednesday morning at the Northside Tennis Center, 6-3, 6-4.
For Jess, it’s his fifth state medal (2 gold in soccer, 1 gold in spring tennis and 2 silver in fall team tennis), the most of any BHS athlete before him.
Sam will leave Boerne High with four state medals (1 gold in spring tennis, 1 gold in soccer and 2 silver in fall team tennis) for second-most in school history.
The brothers are also the first at BHS to win gold medals in two different sports – soccer and tennis. Both are seniors.
“It feels amazing,” Jess said afterwards.
Sam said he appreciated the good-sized crowd that showed up to watch them compete.
“We love the support, everyone was great,” he said.
Their toughest match of the state tournament actually came in the state semis the day before on Tuesday at the Anne Marie courts in San Antonio.
Soren Peterson and Hayden Harry of Lindale pushed the brothers until the end. Sam and Jess won the first set 6-4, but the Lindale duo took the second set, 4-6, to force a third set and were actually leading in that final set, 4-3, before the brothers rallied to win the final three games to capture the third set, 6-4.
In the state quarterfinals, the Gonzales’ defeated Mason Bagwell and Terry Ketchum of Pampa, 6-3,61, on Tuesday morning.
Jess said they hadn’t really played as doubles partners very long, usually they just played singles.
“Last year in the spring was the first time, we never played in the fall together,” he said. “At times we kind of butt heads, but we put that aside and focus on winning and that’s what we did and we won, it’s amazing.”
Sam said they were fortunate to win state after not playing together very long.
“We’re very lucky,” he noted.
Boerne also had two other entries at state, another boys doubles team advanced and a girls singles player.
Senior Chloe O’Connor played in girls singles and was defeated in the first round by Rylee Michna of Taylor, 6-2,6-2. Michna went on to win state and O’Connor was the only opponent at the tourney to take more than one game off her in any of the sets.
Justin Barraza and Ben Rowe were on the opposite side of the bracket from the Gonzales’ in boys doubles and were knocked out in the first round by Carson Dyess and Aidan Gilbert from Canyon Randall, 6-0, 6-1.
The future looks bright for Barraza and Rowe since both are just freshmen this school year.
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