Boulder, CO, WPH Press, 8/5/23
Aerial view of Pearl Street Mall in Boulder Colorado
Sixty-seven players filled the beautiful East Boulder Rec Center 3-Wall Courts in Boulder, CO for the annual CO 3-Wall State Doubles Championships. Sixteen teams entered the open bracket, with top local teams John Chapman and George Repine and CJ Laffey and Armando Ibarra, Jr. headlining the strong field.
Defending champions Chapman and Repine cruised to the final with a two-game sweep against Team Gutierrez, while third seeded Aaron Therkildsen and Luis Perez upset CO State singles champion CJ Laffey and Armando Ibarra, Jr. in the bottom bracket semifinals to advance to the final.
Team Therkildsen/Perez continued their impressive play in the final, winning a close first game against the Icebreaker’s sixth man award winner John Chapman and Repine and holding off Team Chapine in the second to clinch the title.
“They came to play and we didn’t,” lamented the no-nonsense Chapman. “The story of the match was they made their shots and we skipped ours (mostly me). In game one they were in control pretty much the whole game, up 20-10. We made a great run, scoring five points on my serve then ended with a skipped kill. George ran it up to 18-20 but we got out and they beat us, 21-18. The second game was back and forth a lot and they were up big again, 18-8. It was just skip after skip and hand error for me. We made another little comeback but lost 21-16. They played really well and it was very difficult (for us) to score. Anything up front Aaron killed and Luis tracked every deep ball down with some great gets.”
Semifinals
Chapman/Repine def Team Gutierrez 15-6, 15-10
Therkildsen/Perez def Laffey/Ibarra, Jr. 15-9, 15-9
Final: Therkildsen/Perez def Chapman/Repine 21-18, 21-16
Thank you to tournament director Tom Marzilli for an outstanding event.
Photo courtesy of John Chapman
Follow all of the brackets from the 2023 CO 3-Wall State Doubles HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer